HARDCORE KELLI BY WRATH WHITE

As you might expect from White, all the scenes involving fisticuffs, whether in or out of the ring, are superbly authentic, to the point where you can almost hear the blood splatter across the page.

Superheroes have a long history of violence, solving problems with a punch or, as comics “matured”, ever more explicit and extreme forms of justice. And if they were too clean-cut to lobotomise someone with a laser eye-blast or pull someone's spine out, you could be damn sure that someone, somewhere, was drawing them doing what their creators dare not (or were legally bound not to do). Creator-owned comics then let artists and writers run amok, and Wrath James White's Hardcore Kelli feels kind of like a novelisation of something Image or Chaos! Comics might have put out in a limited run back in the heyday of 90's independent comics.


Following soon-to-be-ex boxer Katy through a few troubling events, we gradually learn more about her past as she decides to head back to her family and her home town, where her little sister introduces her to the Hardcore Kelli character & comics. Fiction soon bleeds into reality, with danger stalking Katy's waking life and her nightmares, as she finds herself on a violent path to destiny, not to mention a bloody great big axe.


Going back to that comparison with Chaos! Comics' output, this reminded me a lot of 90's bad girl comics like Chastity (a punk rock vampire turned vampire slayer); stories that revelled in giving their villains as bloody a send-off as they could imagine, while also showing you a lead character broken by their past. Katy is definitely troubled, thanks to a head injury which has her unable to tell the difference between fantasy and reality at times, but when push comes to shove she isn't afraid to use her fists. As you might expect from White, all the scenes involving fisticuffs, whether in or out of the ring, are superbly authentic, to the point where you can almost hear the blood splatter across the page.


When Katy goes too far, it's because she's up against a rogues gallery of shitty men, from strip club patrons who can't keep their hands to themselves, to child kidnappers and worse, who Katy sometimes mistakes for literal comic book characters. You'll never be rooting for the bad guys here, but one of them is given a comic-style rendering which didn't quite click with me. There are two main Big Bads who Katy squares off against, and neither of them feel as big or bad in their comic book styles as their real-life versions, which scuppered my enjoyment a fair bit.


That said, Katy's journey is what keeps you invested until the bittersweet ending, as Kelli almost becomes a mask for her aggressive tendencies. Viewers/readers of Moon Knight will see something of a parallel with that comic's anti-hero, as similar themes of mental instability and regaining control/power are explored. Katy is powerful in some ways and vulnerable in others, wanting to protect her family while also losing control, which gives the story's action a complicated edge, swinging from tragic and satisfying from chapter to chapter, with a killer final showdown that pits Katy against a group who really need to be murdered a lot more often. And it's a fast read too, even though it takes its time building up Katy's origin story before the super-violent superheroing begins.


I can't say it's my favourite WJW story ever – that honour still goes to The Resurrectionist – but it's a fairly solid novella, and one I'd recommend for completionist fans of extreme horror, 90's indie comics, or bloody revenge stories.

Hardcore Kelli 
by Wrath White

Bullets whizzed past Katy as she dashed through the grass and weeds, and the maze of broken recreational vehicles, farm equipment, and other slowly oxidizing junk. She gripped the gleaming battle axe in both hands as she waded through gunfire, determined to reach her archnemesis and end his reign of terror forever.

​Murder Man stood in the doorway of the rundown mobile home, firing at will. She had found his lair. Now it was time to bring him to justice.
Katy hurdled the rusting skeleton of an old '77 Ford Thunderbird like an Olympic gymnast. She had once been a cheerleader, a good one. Once upon a time she could do flips, handsprings, and somersaults with ease. That was so long ago it felt more like an ancient story from some dusty old history book than something that had actually occurred in her lifetime.
Like someone else's life...

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the heart and soul of horror