"Keep your batwings buttoned, Curly..."

Ace explains teleportationAce and Peter
Peter enjoys his cat powers

...Can't say this one wasn't a disappointment. [] couldn't bring it the energy and imagination of Gerber, and the plot felt rushed and poorly researched. ..too cool or what?
The storyline concerns one Khalis-Wu, an evil sorceror of the (rather ill-designed) Land of Khyscz, who plotted to *yawn* conquer the universe by collecting and harnessing the energy of history's greatest rock concerts. However, no one took any time to work out just what those might have been, so we were left with an anonymous 1950s sock hop, Woodstock, and a disco (disco? weren't these supposed to be the greatest rock concerts...?). Disappopinting mishandling of what could have been a neat idea. The book also suffers from misuse and misunderstanding of KISS' powers, notably the empathic beam of Paul's Black Star, which is depicted as capable of becoming a "stun ray" or "blast beam" at will. It's not a total letdown, however: the artwork is topnotch with excellent detail and character likeness, there's a nice attempt to develop the characters' powers onward from #1, and Ace not only gets all the best lines but looks drop-dead-gorgeous =).


Ace prepares to vibe out
Gene sez 'Big mistake, lowlife'The Black Star

The emotional climax of the issue comes in the final fight scene, when Starchild, who all along has been acting as the voice of reason and the only leash on the Demon's mayhem, sees the Cat slammed into a wall and hurt. Fully realizing for the first time that this is no game and that they're risking their lives here, he turns in fury on the evil wizard and destroys him with a starbeam blast of pure hate...then, as the issue winds down, we see him, badly shaken, trying to come to terms with having done such a thing. Strong, well-observed character writing here, as the Demon growls that he would have enjoyed being the one to make the kill, and Starchild quietly replies, "I'm sure you would have." Speaks volumes.
--Want to read more about KISS's history in comics? Click and read on.

Rather skip the backstory and just read about PSYCHO CIRCUS?
Here's my exploration of the magickal symbolism of the Four-Who-Are-One.

...go back to Area 77.
...go ALL the way back to The Archive.