Review by Win Wiacek

Kill All Monsters! is a vibrant and vivid monochrome monster-fest that began life as an online tribute to Japan’s greatest cultural export – spectacular Kaiju versus Mecha mega-duels. Crafted by writer Michael May and illustrator Jason Copland with early idea contributions by Alex Ness, the 2013 webcomic was picked up by Dark Horse two years later, reprinting the epic.

This hugely hulking omnibus edition arrived in 2017, gathering Kill All Monsters! Volume One: Ruins of Paris and ‘The Ministry of Robots’ previous serialised in an anthology, plus another hundred pages of story, notionally concluding the tale.

The thrills begin as a squad of human warriors explore the devastated city of Paris in their singular giant robot war-suits. Like everywhere else in the world, the City of Lights was razed to rubble by waves of monster attacks which began in Japan in 1954 and which have steadily pushed humanity to the edge of extinction.

We’re introduced to Dressen, Spencer Djamel and Akemi, part of the African Defense Force conceived and commanded by visionary General Abbud Rashad as a last-ditch deterrent to colossal horrors that started harassing humanity in the wake of the atomic bomb’s first detonations. The Mecha-riders are champions of human technology and ingenuity, forever shaking the earth in constant clashes with relentless, merciless killer kaiju.

May’s twisting plot offers surprises and works thrillingly toward logical conclusion, while revealing a tragic and cruel backstory beneath all the brutal Brobdingnagian battles.

Under Dark Horse’s aegis the war of survival resumed with ‘The Ministry of Robots’, beginning with a review of how humanity fell and the course of global military resistance to the massive marauders. A glimpse of the early days of Rashad’s Mecha project sees embittered Captain Vivian Matthews ordered to assess his radical project to fight monsters with giant robots. Her evaluation will determine if Canada joins the scheme, but almost founders at the start.

This classy combat compendium closes with all-new, past-set tale ‘Island of Giants’ with focus shifting to the start of  the fightback – and home of the genre – in the last days of lost Tokyo. Surveillance has determined the origin point of the killer colossi shattering Japan is a solitary isle. When experimental Mecha warriors Shogun and Bushi-1 are directed to reconnoitre, they discover not only the infinitely variable creature legions’ home, but also that these ravagers are being carefully farmed. And that is when the real trouble starts…

This manic, mostly monochrome tome is the acme of artistic thrills and chills, perfectly capturing the addictive wonderment of all Heroes vs. Monster yarns. Shell-pocked, gritty and executed at breakneck pace, with captivating atmosphere and a do-or-die sense of duty, it all starts, unfolds and ends right here. No muss, no fuss, no busload of tie-ins.