Kirby: Genesis #8 Review


The main Kirby: Genesis series comes to an end with issue 8. Here’s the official description from Dynamite:

The Lightning Lady’s cosmic Hive threatens all of Earth — unless Captain Victory, Silver Star and the other assembled heroes can destroy it. And deep within, Kirby must reawaken the humanity of the Midnight Swan, or Bobbi is lost to him forever. Under the eyes of great cosmic forces, judging us, humanity’s future depends on…both battles? All-out action with a human core, as only Busiek, Ross and Herbert can deliver it!

Let’s cut to the chase: Kirby: Genesis #8 is the first issue of the series I’ve read and, despite having covered both Silver Star and Captain Vicotory, I still have no real idea what is going on. I can definitely say that, while this is not the best jumping on point for new readers (that’s a shocker) there were still some interesting aspects to Kurt Busiek‘s story, most notably the meta-fictional elements. While these were undoubtedly present in earlier issues (the main character’s name is “Kirby”, after all) they come to a head here, specifically the head of Bobbi/Midnight Swan, who not only comes to her senses, but reaches some deep conclusions about Kirby in the process. Busiek also does an admirable job of keeping the tone grounded and realistic, despite the giant people floating in the sky.

Alex Ross and Jack Herbert have created some fascinating art for this issue, and presumably for the series as a whole. While Ross handles all the layouts, he and Herbert collaborate on nearly every page. Herbert draws the humans and handles the more mundane scenes and characters. Ross takes over for the cosmic portions. Sometimes the artists collaborate within a single panel, juxtaposing a human being, drawn in Herbert’s pencils, with Ross’s paintings of “idiot space giants”. Those giants are particularly eye-catching, done in red, green, and yellow. I imagine Ross used either infrared images or inverted color schemes to achieve a similar look with his reference models.

The only problem with the art is that, occasionally, Ross and Herbert seem to forget who is supposed to draw whom. In one scene a character will be done in Ross’s paints, while, in the next, they’re covered by Herbert’s more straightforward pencils.

I can’t make an authoritative judgement on the series as a whole, but I can say Kirby: Genesis #8 felt like it must be a satisfying end to the series. (Then again, I might just be a sucker for meta-fiction. Then again then again, I’m pretty sure everyone loves meta-fiction.)

 

3.5/5

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