The Complete The Killer

The killer #1-13

by Null Matz, Luc Jacamon (Artist)

Artist Luc Jacamon and writer Matz (The Black Dahlia) deliver the definitive collection of the Eisner Award-nominated crime saga, The Killer, a hardboiled, noir series following a hitman lost in a world without a moral compass. Get inside the mind of a professional assassin, a man of few scruples, nerves of steel, and a steady trigger finger. A man whose crimes might be catching up with him. A man on the verge of cracking... After misadventures in Central and South America and having earned enough money to retire comfortably, the Killer retires to Mexico, but his colleagues are still in need of his irreplaceable skills... and before long he's drawn back into the great geopolitical game between Cuba, Venezuela, and the United States.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Fiction, Crime, Graphic Novels Comics, Thriller, Comix

767 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 27, 2018

Reviews

[Daniel Kovacs Rezsuk · Rating 2 out of 5]

Imagine all the nihilistic drivel a stereotypical Gen-X pseudointellectual might spew at you at a bar table. Put all that drivel into a 700+ page comic book, and you get The Killer. The plot and the art are both fairly competent for a crime-thriller, but the narration interjected between almost every panel that lacks dialogue draws the portrait of the most insufferable protagonist ever put on paper. I cannot comprehend how Matz thought it was a good idea to take the nihilistic lecturing this far without any challenging counterarguments, reflexivity or humor.

[Brian · Rating 2 out of 5]

Bog standard French nihilism, with drawings.

[Russell Gray · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a fantastic story and I'm excited to see what David Fincher does with his adaptation. It's strange to see the low reviews that just put a reductionist view of "typical nihilistic drivel" on this story and I can't help but wonder if they didn't read beyond the first volume.

The story felt like more of an immersive character experience rather than a cohesive Point A to Point B plot, but there was a solid character arc, so I was there for it. I look forward to seeing Michael Fassbender's portrayal of this character.

[Dhevaguru S · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well i must be honest about the fact that i had a rather different presupposition and perception of the story which i conceived under the David fincher's live action adaptation photos and plot information, it was only after the awareness of the existence of this graphic novel and it being the source material of the movie that i decided to pursue it. While i was expecting a psychological thriller about a lonely killer devoid of morality that explores his psyche with great details, i got a rather good action drama that deals with a killer and a lot of international politics nevertheless it didn't fail to entertain me. To my surprise, i was blown away by the internal monologues of the killer which were written with such impressive accounts on morality, international politics, history, philosophy and general human experience. There was a lot of internal monologues and it was my favourite part because it actually opened up the killer's psyche to us as he shares his opinion on various aspects of life and life itself. He expresses a certain nihilistic and cynical viewpoint towards life, order of things, world, politics and mankind through his inner monologues which was so pleasing and relatable to me that it was good enough a selling point for me to go through. Also it was pleasing to look at the comic panels which were so visually arresting with the striking and vibrantly colourful artwork. One bummer was its length spanning over 13 issues and 770 pages which might seem a little protracted considering it could've done better without a need for such length, but since it was graphic I could finish it in 3 days. Couldn't wait to see what fincher cooks with this source material.

[Emma]

Gripping story, fantastic artwork, and insightfully interesting reflections.
Honourable mention to Aidan for lending it to me - productive non-work conversations during working hours.

[Vy · Rating 2 out of 5]

did i need to read all of this for the upcoming movie ? no
do i regret reading all of this ? yeah.

[Bill Coffin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sprawling tale of a professional killer that ultimately goes nowhere, relying on regular diatribes from a psychopath on why he is a good person for killing people. Nihilist trash, for the most part, but the art is so incredible, this gets 3 stars for that alone. Astonishing line work and colors. But the writing? Hard pass, unless you like getting at least 150 pages of sophomoric geopolitics lectures.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

Abrupt ending, got a little stale towards the end but overall was a nice read. I feel like one more chapter would have bumped this up to 4 for me.

[JM · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is entirely too long but still a triumph.
The Killer is at face value a simple story about the detached, cold and calculated hitman and their musings on life in the same vein as La Samurai or Leon but this has a bit of a twist in it by having almost perfect politics. The Killer who's name does get dropped in the text but he brushes it off is far from the handsome and intelligent anti-hero that fiction has grown to love but neither is he a face of unstoppable and unknowable evil, instead the Killer is a dispassionate man that sees his work as a simple task and loves doing it. He has no real qualms about what he does and is open that it is purely transactional and he likes the finer things in life, he is all expense and luxury but throughout a complete professional. He is at the begining a strict capitalist and the story tracks his slight and I mean very slight introspection at the morality of this. What I mean by perfect politics is just that, the Killer is full of facts and statistics of the evil of US imperialism and evil of the CIA, it gives wonderful descriptions of how Cuba is far from a poverty ridden island while not shying away from the dirty work of clandestine operations there, it denounces the modern and historical slave trade and is unashamed of showing how business is every bit as evil if not more so than contract killing, that capital is the great evil of the planet that is dooming everything.
The Killer lets a few things slip through we see him build and protect what he cares about but also see him as a liar and a hypocrite, the reality of his situation is that he is a psychopath that cannot admit his failings and is conflicted at the life he lives without once hoping or wanting to change, he early on compares himself to a crocodile and the musings on global catastrophe and evil is all veneer so he can justify that he is simply a small part of it. And that's why I mean it is too long, the Killer gets its mission statment and point across easily halfway through the book but it continues on without any real payoff and unofrtunately the art is not enough to stick around for, it is brilliant but it is not the very top tier of comic art like Juan Gimenez which can keep you enthralled through slower works but Jacamon does draw bodies wonderully and expressively particular attention and beauty is paid to women of the title showing his wandering eye but his up close faces are full of character Marciano in particular and the Killer is appropriatley forgetful and a cypher as he would prefer. A great book but one that trimming coul dhave made perfect.

[Taylor P · Rating 3 out of 5]

The art here is superb, and I appreciated the layered complexity of the plotting. But my concern almost from jump was that the work's antihero is too run-of-the-mill; there's just nothing new or overly exciting about seeing the world from an assassin's point of view anymore. My concern was only solidified as the story continued because the perspective of the killer becomes increasingly smug and nihilistic and self-satisfied, to a degree that had me rolling my eyes far too often. So, while I truly admired the aesthetics of the text and thought the writing was strong for the most part, I can't say I ultimately enjoyed enough of The Killer to give it more than three stars. Still very curious to see what Fincher does with it, though!

[Evgen Novakovskyi]

окей, французький екзистенціалізм дістався і коміксів теж. похмуро, нігілістично, абсурдистськи, ДУЖЕ ВЕЛЕМОВНО. в першій половині це трохи Вельбек, трохи Шредер, трохи Мельвіль і наче все більш-менш збалансовано. після шостого тому міняється колористика, зменшується деталізація, і що наігірше — на поверхню вилазить дуже багато ультра-лівацького лайна, можна прослідкувати як у автора протікав дах із плином часу (бо перший том вийшов в 1998 році, а останній — в 2013). а ще головний герой дуже часто поводить себе наче кінчений інцел, хоча автор захоплено виписує з нього Бонда. страшний дисонанс.

Девід Фінчер, зроби з цим щось.

[Benjamin · Rating 5 out of 5]

A french graphic novel, with a very nihilistic outlook, based on a Killer and his life. The maneuvers a man must make to find his peace and quiet, or the constant drum beat of a workaholic. It's seeped in intrigue, starting with the Colombian Cartel, the CIA, DCIR, the Cubans, and a whole other lot of bloodthirsty organizations.

As it goes on and on, it gets more and more political, but the bleak undertones never stop, and the "active man" gets to keep being a crocodile in a pond full of fish.

[Milo Crowley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yes, it’s very nihilistic, but be serious, did you really expect the bleak crime epic about a contract killer not to be? Maybe I find interest in a lot of what is stated during the internal monologue of The Killer, or maybe it’s simply a fun action thriller. Probably a mixture of both. I do think that this story has lots to offer, it’s filled with political intrigue and moral convictions, but I’m not complaining. I’m very intrigued to see how Fincher tackles this.

[Λευτέρης Αναγνωστόπουλος · Rating 3 out of 5]

I watched David Fincher's The Killer and when I found out from the credits that it's based on a graphic novel, I was immediately intrigued. I liked the movie but started to lose interest towards the ending, exactly the same thing happened to me while I was reading it. In my opinion, watch the movie and if you like it, even a little, read a few pages from the source material and see how that goes.

[Scott · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book actually improved my mental health. Gave me the resolve to not be as much of a whiny prick as the protagonist.

[Ryan Rosu · Rating 2 out of 5]

Busy season at work has unfortunately made it very hard to find time to read, so this might very well be my last complete book in 2024.

I loved the first few chapters of "The Killer," which depict a sociopathic hitman who defends his work with nihilist philosophy. It's hokey, but as Tarantino realized with "Pulp Fiction," it's fun to imagine mobsters and hitman who talk about fast food like us. The unnamed protagonist is a remorseless killer, sure, but he's also cultured! The "culture" and quality of questions asked in the first chapters are revealed, as the page count rises, to be little more than repetitive (forgive me) pseudointellectual bullshit. It has the feeling of a TV show that went on too long because it never had an overarching structure in the first place. The pilot episode, first season are great, sure, but when you're onto season 13 it's clear that the inspiration had run out.

About three or four chapters in, I looked up the cast of Fincher's adaptation and discovered that nearly everything was different. Based off of the film's synopsis, it seems like it's a different story using the same toy set. I was annoyed when I realized this, but after reading the entirety of the 13 issues, I think this material could do without the endless plotting. Why is there a globe-trotting adventure in my hitman character study?

It would also be easier to excuse the excessive length if so much time wasn't devoted to topless women and other very French indulgences. Obviously the Killer isn't supposed to be entirely sympathetic or someone to emulate, but when he endlessly quotes the writers you like, it's hard not to see this as rather misogynistic. The nihilist viewpoint of the protagonist is not an excuse for having only two female characters in the entire book – his wife and mistress.

I'm also peeved by the ending. This is a spoiler, but I cannot believe they decided to go with the ambiguous ending. For something so plot heavy, the satisfaction in this resolution is next to none. It feels more like the sudden high stakes (plus the shit with the sister? that came out of nowhere!) made it impossible to tie this thing up neatly, and they decided to say "fuck it" and end it there. I am all for ambiguity in an ending, but we're not being left with anything interesting. All of the thematic intrigue ended 500 pages ago, at least wrap things up neatly!

[Hanieh · Rating 5 out of 5]

The complete The Killer is almost 15 years worth of stories and altogether it made a fascinating read. The French graphic novel tells the tale of the killer, a nameless face of death, as he works his way through the broken systems of morality and humanity. The art , the color palette it was all too beautiful. I loved the details in every single scene. The story is honest and has an specific personality to it. You can see and feel the way the main character evolves, the way he influenced people around him and how those people changed him. The way the dynamics of the inside of the killer's mind and his outside world shift is beautifully written. All his challenges are well thought and no character was gone to waste. The ending was satisfying and i am looking forward to the new book that will be released next year.

[Carlos Beltrán · Rating 2 out of 5]

Llegué a dos tercios de la historia y me aburrí. El arte no era mi estilo entonces no pude enfocarme en eso tampoco.

Está interesante al principio pero creo que Fincher hace algo mucho más interesante con la premisa y en mucho menos tiempo.

[nouhaila Elkhat · Rating 5 out of 5]

The ultimate masterpiece. I'm soo lucky that i came across this one, and I'm very excited for the upcoming movie directed by David Fincher it's gonna be neat.⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

[Χρήστος Γιαννάκενας · Rating 4 out of 5]

Εξαιρετικό σχέδιο και γράψιμο, φουλ στα φιλοσοφικά νοήματα κατά καιρούς και με αρκετή δράση. Τράβαγε ώρες ώρες αλλά δεν πειράζει, συνολικά μια απολαυστική εμπειρία.

[Books Over People · Rating 4 out of 5]

Comics as Philosophy. Sold

[Scott Frederick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not only one of the best graphic novels I have ever read, it's one of the best crime novels I have read. The main character is outstanding and so deep. The art is amazing. I simply loved this.

[Adam Gerber · Rating 3 out of 5]

What if you took James Bond and gave him a more opinionated internal monologue on everything from man’s true nature to the root of geopolitical conflicts. Incredible art, a truly global and well-defined world, this comic would make for an amazing video game

[Darius Ostrowski · Rating 3 out of 5]

So, after reading the first volume of "The Killer" graphic novel, I decided to get the complete 13 volume series (from the library, of course). And I was disappointed in the direction that the story took.

Initially, the nameless titular killer was very nihilistic, on the edge psychologically with what he did, what his life had become - a very interesting and compelling narrative as we see his world shifting and closing in around him. But as the story moves forward, it veers away from the internal nihilism of the killer into a social commentary on capitalism, global politics, global policies of the superpowers, and other such issues. One has to wade through pages of societal complaints before you get to any dialog or action, which happens quickly and then back to the complaints.

The character still is fascinating, the color and drawing very moody and appropriate, just too much global commentary for my liking.

[Chris Merola · Rating 1 out of 5]

Despite any protest its nihilist ramblings might make, this is a vapid, aimless, horny crop of pages that adds up to very little.

Nice coloring, some cool panels. Kudos to Fincher for mining a much more interesting character + story from this smug pastiche.

[Rumi Bossche · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Complete The Killer, is a french graphic novel by Jacamon & Matz. That was supposed to get a movie with David Fincher directing,  sadly that did not happen, but we still have this awesome Hitman comic. Alex Nolents pen name for comics is Matz, he has writen a couple games like Splinter Cell and Watchdogs, and under his other name Matz he has writen some french comics. I had my eye on this comic for a while and when i saw Archaia was making a sort of compendium, i decided to buy it. This is a comic that reads great collected. The story is  about a freelance hitman, we see him from his bumpy start becoming a very prolific and Professional Killer. The story takes around 15 years and in those years we see him and follow his every move. You see how he lives, works, and leisure. All his hits are in beautifull countries, so their are alot of breathtaking places and woman. First he has a broker,  but after a while he starts working for the nephew of a gangster. We see him climb through the ranks and getting higher and higher targets and becoming even a sort of business man doing his kills almost for the hell of it. The style and art by Jacamon is very cinematic and with alot of digital coloring and art works very well. The action scènes are fantastic and make this book like watching a movie. The paneling in the pages are spectaculair, and the coloring and shades make this a stunning book. The story is fastpaced and never dull, but also has a darker tone to it, The Kiler has alot of inner monologues going on (love that) and is very nihilistic, and philosophical even, but also very bleak. He is living a sort of dream life besides the killing ofcourse, but he is never truly happy and always have the compulsion to look for that thrill. This graphic novel is highly recommended, for noir and gangster fans but in the colory european way. Give this one a try!

🌟🌟🌟🌟

[Oli Turner]

An in-depth analysis of the psychology of an assassin including some real world political issues, corruption, oil, drug cartels and discussions of morality. A good story with great art and beautiful colours. A massive 750 page crime saga. Some of the protagonist’s monologues are really self-aware and accurate regarding the state of the world and politics while others are biased and hypocritical. He is only human afterall. Although it would have been good if he acknowledged his own bias and hypocrisy as he is particularly self aware when it comes to morality and his profession but not so much when it comes to economics and politics. At times he feels a bit preachy even though he is far from perfect and doesn’t seem to grow or change all that much nor is he intending to educate the audience. Seems a bit nihilistic like a clever student with little life experience and no morals trying to be profound. Could possibly have benefited by being a bit shorter.

[Ben · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Complete Killer is a beautifully illustrated, compelling neo-noir about a French hit man drawn into a web of cartels, oil, and politics in Latin America.

[Art · Rating 4 out of 5]

Surprisingly philosophical. Very bleak and nihilistic.

[Parker Brogdon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolute catnip for any of the cynical variety.

So excited to see David Fincher make this into a thoroughly brutal cinematic gem.