Advance Review: Assassins, Saboteurs, And Agents Of Espionage In ‘Pop Kill’ #1

Welcome to the table,

Did you ever read Spy vs. Spy? It was one of the various regular offerings within the often chaotic pages of Mad Magazine. The whole thing was a dialog-free back-and-forth between a pair of birdlike spies who, in very cartoonish fashion, set about eliminating each other time and time again. The whole thing was a satire of the political ideologies of the Cold War by the comic’s creator, Antonio Prohías.

The reason I bring this up is because I have just finished reading Mad Cave Studios’ Pop Kill and while the art is very elevated, the story has plenty of dialog, and the first issue focuses on one sort of spy-like agent. It feels very much in the same vibe of those classic slapstick espionage comics I read as a little kid.

Co-written by Jimmy Palmiotti and Dave Johnson, with art by Juan Santacruz, colors by Brian Reber, and letters by Sean Konot, Pop Kill is set in a world where two powerful soda companies, owned by bitterly opposed, formerly-conjoined twins who dress in Black and White (very much like Spy vs. Spy) have hired assassins, saboteurs, and agents of espionage to attempt to disrupt or destroy each other on the daily. 

With that description, I am sure you are thinking “This book sounds really unhinged.”

This book is more than unhinged, though. The door is fully off the house. The house itself has been swept up in a tornado of soda. Somewhere in the soaring wreck of a home, there is an orgy happening on a bed of pop culture references while the most spy-guy to ever brandish a silencer tosses out one liners and eliminates targets in a gloriously over-the-top fashion that would put 007 to shame.

What I’m saying is, if you gave James Bond too much sugar and set him loose in a bounce house full of stimulants and silicone inflated body parts, then tossed in an adorable pug, two brothers who loath each other, and random assassinations across the globe you may get something as gloriously wild as Pop Kill.

I can’t stress enough that this book is fun. It’s does not hold anything back. As someone who grew up watching spy films and TV shows when they came on late night cable, I have never felt more nostalgic about espionage as I have reading this absolutely chaotic comic.

It’s easy to draw a parallel to Archer or Austin Powers, and I can see people who may want to do that. But while the former does have great moments of raunchy humor and comedic violence and the latter has a cast of ludicrous villains and secret agents, Pop Kill manages to carve its own space out in the non-traditional and yet somehow super-locked-in-spy space by showcasing a slew of locations and presenting witty one-liners.

I don’t want to spoil too much for you because each page feels like a setup and follow through to some really riotous jokes.

What I can tell you, full stop, is that I’m going to read the next issue. I knew that from page four when the dubious espionage agent Jon Pyle flashed a 1980s toothpaste ad level smile and delivered a quip while a guard was being exploded by a pocket bomb.

Pop Kill is out from Mad Cave Studios on February 26th, 2025 and there are a handful of alt covers, including one that is just being labeled as an “explicit cover by Brian Stelfreeze” that I’m sure is going to go fast. I’m not one to read a ton of Cheesecake, but the nudity and insane hijinks in Pop Kill work so well that it’s hard not to notice it took some skilled creators to make this whole thing actually work.

Until next time, there is a line in this book that reads “I thought Florida had horrible humidity. The Congo is the Devil’s crotch.” Normally I would roll my eyes and move on to something else, but I can’t stress this enough: everything is over-the-top and goofy without being cringy. This book is just fun!