Spoilers

Kane Is an Interesting series to say the least originally self published 1994 under Paul Grist’s own comic imprint it was later recollected in 2004-2006 under image comics.

The Synopsis is pretty simple an Cop named Kane is stripped of his badge when he is forced to kill his partner. He’s relived of his position but is later reinstated and given a new partner a female by the name of “Kate Felix”

The city of new eden is a crooked one a combination of the major American cities full of greed,vice, and one thing that is depicted a lot in this series are corrupt cops. Which makes the characterization of the protagonist “Kane” all the more endearing since he never breaks his morality, some might call that boring but if you think about it Kane is seen as guilty by his department for killing a “cop” someone who had a lot of friends in the department and was considered a goodman Kane did something considered corrupt but in reality he was serving justice while many other cops in this series use there power for money or to even kill without reason.

You’re introduced to one of central antagonist Oscar Darke of the series very early on with Kane having a bit of a fixation on him, soon after Kate is assigned to be his partner he host a stake out to gather dirt on the man

Of Course the plan doesn’t go as plan when an eccentric criminal calling himself the plundered messes it up. This comic has quite a few eccentric guys like this who give this series a bit of a unique flare compared to other noir series. In an interview Paul Grist stated something along the lines of wanting to keep the fun in the story I suppose in the way to balance out some of the darker themes, along with refences to some UK shows I have no Idea about since I’m not from there.

But As the story continues you learn through a flashback about while Kane took arms against his partner Harvey he was on Darke’s PayRoll

But that building collapsing destroyed all evidential proof in the process.

This series has a lot of odd characters that would make this comic great for an animated series, comics are better adapted as animation then movies I’ve always held that postion.

Like this homeless cart lady Jane who wanders around the city speaking sort cryptic but she ends up saving the town from a bomb accidentally…I think

Probably just the aviation aesthetic but I get pigeoman from Hey Arnold vibes from her. Both are depicted as sort of crazy by the populuse.

You get tid bits of back stories on certain characters like the secondary character Kate Felix and even Oscar Darke giving a perspective that would otherwise make him a generic mob boss if not for his more interesting upbringing and his connections to certain people and why he does things no real mafia boss would likely ever do like work with cops that AREN’T corrupt to save his own ass.

His backstory also explains his connection to the blind man criminal and why he tried to have him killed in the present

Then there’s characters like Frankie the psychotic Hitman rambling about some imaginary or maybe it was a real girl who did exist in his life or maybe a lover but his story is seemingly incomplete due to the nature of the comic being incomplete

The final story wraps up with many loose ends untied but with a promise of grander things to come

I especially like this scene of Kate confronting darke alone this time all to save Kane from being killed and her assessment of who the Blind man is really after. Sleuthing in a Sleuth Comic who would’ve thought?

Near the END of the comic a prototype military grade robot Is introduced into the story that looks like bootleg cyclops maybe it’s a homage. A bigger version of the suit is revealed when a man set on getting revenge on Oscar Darke attacks, The Military guys who let the suit get stolen are there data testing its abilities, but they’re force to shut it down and self destruct.

This whole aspect of the comic at this part definitely felt more sci-fictional then a majority of the rest of the comic but I suppose Paul Grist was heading into another direction of the series. But I guess it isn’t to out of place when there’s a crazy guy in the rabbit costume and the one time he held the mayor hostage. Like I said the series has a lot of eccentric characters give it a different flare from most comics in the same framework or genre.

But the series does return back to its pulpy noir roots with a classic crime chase scene but an older tragic character dressed as costume super hero from a tv show that may or may not be a spoof of adam west batman or some obscure uk show from my american perspective, the character did previously appear in an early issue, where he attempted to commit suicide then a plethora of other mentally ill patients are basically being use a test subjected from the facility that housed them all, they hypnotizing them into pretending to be the this costumed hero from an old tv show.

The best of both worlds from such a visually unique comic.