by Ed Brubaker & Sean Phillips
collects Criminal v. 2 # 4-7
the premise: An acquitted alleged murderer turned cartoonist has a chance encounter with a dangerous woman who spends his life spiraling out of control.
the lowdown: Man, if there was ever a terrific palette cleanser after two weeks of Skrull comics, this one was it. This book absolutely hits the spot.
I've sung the praises of Criminal before, but this is the best volume yet. This time around Brubaker and Phillips spin a classic noir tale, complete with a likeable but flawed protagonist and a femme fatale that makes him nuts. You keep rooting for them to succeed even though you know they can't possibly. You root for the hero to get the girl even though you know she's ridiculously bad for him. It takes skill to suck the reader into this world, to engage them in a way that makes them hope for an outcome even though they know going in it won't happen.
And if that's not enough, Brubaker also plays with the reader's perceptions in a way very similar to what he did in Point Blank, teasing the reader into seeing a straightforward caper plot even though there's something else lurking beneath the surface. Even the end of this little drama isn't what you expect.
Phillips' art is a huge part of this book's success. He can give you hard edges and dark noir one moment, and a sexy femme fatale the next. He can show you the same characters in different ways in different scenes, just by subtly altering his style, the lighting, or what have you. These guys have worked together for so long now that they're a well-oiled machine. Even the book's few flaws (a few too many coincidences in the plot) are easy to overlook, because what the book does well, it does REALLY well.
the verdict: Exceptional work. This is the best volume to date of a series that's always been really good. Highly recommended.
1 comments:
Post a Comment