Review by Frank Plowright

For most of its run The Killer has dealt with the activities of an individual, starting this volume operating under the alias of Frank Tallec, extrapolating his approach to his assassination trade. Over the course of Modus Vivendi and Unfair Competition the cast gradually broadened, prefacing a significant shift in tone. The previous volume ended with the Killer one of three partners in a new oil business with exclusive rights to drill in Cuban waters.

There’s a four year leap forward to open Fight or Flight. After dealing with freelancers working for the US government, Petrolio Futura Internacional has been successful enough for Mariano to manoeuvre himself into a government position, and to reconstitute the Killer’s role. A significant addition to his effectiveness is now being able to travel under a diplomatic passport, removing a whole array of inconveniences.

When your art’s reached the standards attained by Luc Jacamon there must come a time when it becomes too easy and you’re striving for something different. Each volume of The Killer to date has featured some form of artistic experimentation, but it’s a brief deviation from the storytelling discipline. This volume opens with a few pages of impressive negative imagery, again drawing a parallel between the Killer and the crocodiles inhabiting the jungle areas he’s fond of, and other brief experimentation includes the form of De Luca effect of the killing on the sample art, drawing the reader’s eye across and down the page. On other pages there’s the beautiful serenity of life beneath the ocean and other gorgeous scenery, but always with the necessary scenes moving the story forward, and the storytelling is sublime. During a sequence where the Killer is ostensibly enjoying a family vacation Jacamon ensures we realise he’s on high alert without disrupting the focus.

It may be Jacamon that’s chosen to break the story down in a certain way, or it may be Matz has decided to tell it via brief jumps back and forward in time over the opening episode, even during sequences that would traditionally be a single continued scene. It doesn’t enhance anything, so is a distracting stylistic quirk, but not one that’s too intrusive. There’s also a return to the narrative captions featuring the Killer’s individual worldview rather than global politics, although they still get a look in, with Matz delivering some uncomfortable truths about the slave trade, historical and current. The Killer himself is an introspective and careful guy, and it seems he’s gradually being forced into a corner, and how he emerges will surely satisfy every reader. It may not be a happy ending, but it’s consistent with the entirely bleak tone.

One slight quibble is carelessness on a couple of occasions, Chile lettered as “Chili” being the worst. Such mistakes are made, but it’s a shame.

Fight or Flight returns the Killer to his preferred environment, although not without complications. As with The Debt, Matz and Jacamon provide a great end to a great series, but as before, the temptation to return was an itch that had to be scratched, and several years later the Killer returned in Affairs of the State.