Review: THE KITCHEN #1

Kitchen01-MingCover-5a8aa

THE KITCHEN #1
Written by Ollie Masters
Art by Ming Doyle and Jordie Bellaire
Published by DC Comics/Vertigo
Release Date: November 12, 2014

It’s 1977 New York City, and the city is hopelessly corrupt, overrun by the men of the Mafia. But when three Irish Mob heavyweights go to prison, it’s up to their wives to fend for themselves — and make their names in the city of crime. Is it survival? Or is it their chance to live the life they’ve always dreamed?

With The Kitchen, Vertigo launches a new eight-issue mini-series that takes a well-worn genre and turns it appropriately on its head. This isn’t some Real Housewives of Hells Kitchen, where the women shop and do their nails, gossiping about their dirty husbands. This isn’t the Sopranos, where wives can pretend they aren’t complicit as they drive their SUVs around town. These are working women, taking over the reins of their husband’s jobs as women did when men went to war. And haven’t they?

Ollie Masters starts off the series with a literal bang, introducing the three wife characters that we’ll presumably follow in the coming months: Kath, Raven, and Angie. Masters gives us a good sense of their personalities right off the bat, with none of them falling fully into any particular trope. Sure, Kath is the more outspoken one, with Angie playing the role of the withdrawn, reluctant matron, but once things get violent, all those particulars change. By the end of the issue, all three women are in a precarious situation, and considerably sobered.

The interplay between the women is well-composed, giving us a sense of their relationships and temperaments, with Kath clearly establishing herself as the leader of the three. Masters’ dialogue does a bit of the work, but the heavy lifting here is accomplished by Doyle’s renderings of each character. The artist clearly is determined to provide an authentic 70s flair to each woman’s hairstyle, make-up, and dress, but more than that, there’s an exhaustion underneath all that bluster that comes through beautifully in the pencils.

Backgrounds and scenery are nothing special here, but the faces genuinely are. Doyle’s body language is a bit stiff from a distance, but gestures close-up tell an entirely different story. The way Kath holds a wine glass or touches her sister’s hand tells volumes about the atmosphere of the scene, and it’s moments like these that make this book a fascinating thing to pick apart visually.

A strong start to a series that seems to be trekking over new ground in the mafia-themed literature genre, The Kitchen is a book I’m eager to continue on with. Where Masters and Doyle are taking us, I’m fairly uncertain, but wherever it is, it’s guaranteed to be a bumpy ride getting there.

The Verdict: 8.5/10

 

Authors

Related posts

Top