Review: Polar: The Kaiser Falls
It’s time for yet another confession from the litany of confessions I have yet to admit to. Despite having Netflix, I have not seen yet seen Polar. This shouldn’t be too much of a surprise; after all, I have only seen one episode of the new Discovery season and 2 episodes of Daredevil and don’t even talk to me about The Punisher. What this does mean is that I get to look into this hardcover book with something like fresh eyes, without the need to compare and contrast to the film.
Black Kaiser is living the life of well, a retired killer hanging out in the sunshine state of Florida, specifically, Miami. Of course when you have a certain set of skills, people management is not a high prerequisite of the job role. Enter a housemaid, who is a single Mom and her precocious son, who both become somewhat important to our anti-hero. Hot on the Black Kaiser’s trail is a younger version out to make a name for himself by taking out the “big dog”. From this you can probably ascertain certain beats to the rest of the story.
The book is written and drawn by Victor Santos. As a single creator it is hard to differentiate the writing from the art. The reason is that Santos uses some strong camera angles and the now super popular 9 panel page in lieu of writing, in the same way some teams pass the ball short in lieu of a running game. It is an excellent variation of show not tell that helps convey the settings and pace of the story. The dialogue is terse, though Black Kaiser is somewhat humanised through his interaction with the maid, and further developed through the little boy in a true curmudgeon manner. The dialogue for the bad guys, and there are quite few, is quite standard, with the interaction between the new gun on the block and his “Felicity Girl Friday” adding some frisson to proceedings. With the huge amount of killing going on, the little, almost familial aspects of the book add a level of sweetness to the majority of sourness that is on show.
Santos ‘ art style is very familiar, with heavy influences on show throughout the book. These range from the obvious Frank Miller at his Sin City best, with elements of Howard Chaykin thrown in for good measure. In large parts, the Black Kaiser character style is also reminiscent of Giovanni Guida, whose work you may have seen in Bastard’s Waltz from Darby Pop. As you would expect, the book is filled with gun and knife ultra violence, blood and sexual scenes; indicative of a world inhabited by a myriad amount of bad guys. The color scheme of the book is based on contrasts, mainly black on white, though splashes of red provides an equally strong look.
For fans of the film and the previous books, this will be no doubt a welcome addition to the ongoing story. There is no getting away from the quality of the book; the writing works; the art works extremely well. As much as this is a Victor Santos tour de force, I can’t help but think, given the obvious influences, that I have seen this sort of book a number of times already.
Writing – 4 Stars
Art – 4 Stars
[yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]
Written by; Victor Santos
Art by; Victor Santos
Published by; Dark Horse Comics
Author Profile
- I am a long time comic book fan, being first introduced to Batman in the mid to late 70's. This led to a appreciation of classic artists like Neal Adams and Jim Aparo. Moving through the decades that followed, I have a working knowledge of a huge raft of characters with a fondness for old school characters like JSA and The Shadow
Currently reading a slew of Bat Books, enjoying a mini Marvel revival, and the host of The Definative Crusade and Outside the Panels whilst also appearing on No-Prize Podcast on the Undercover Capes Podcast Network
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