Fatale #5 – Review

By: Ed Brubaker (writer), Sean Phillips (art), and Dave Stewart (colors)

The Story: Battles rage in secret tunnels under the city with cultists and Cthulian squid-men aplenty.

The Review:  One of the things that has made Fatale such an alluring series is the constant sense of horrible, unknown things lurking just beyond what we know or are aware of in the comic.  This month, in the final issue of the first storyarc, Brubaker lets us peek behind the curtain.  In other words, we actually get to see the cultist society in action, we get to see the secret tunnels that exist beneath the city, and we get to see Bishop’s true face.  Thus far, we’ve only really seen the surface levels with hints of Lovecraftian hoodoo below, but here, Brubaker lets us see what lurks beneath.  There’s a sense in which Brubaker is letting us see what he’s been hiding from us for the past few months, only ever letting us use our imaginations, and the result is immensely satisfying.

Moreover, this issue works so well because of the complete difference in pacing.  When the horrors beneath the surface of the city and the powers of Bishop were only ever hinted at, the series felled taut and controlled.  Now, however, that we’ve stepped behind, or rather below, the curtain, that control is completely lost.  Action and violence abound and what we get is 27-pages of non-stop thrills, twists, and excitement.  It’s an absolutely wild read completely juxtaposed to the past few issues.  The fascade of hints, dread, and control has been lifted and instead, Brubaker and Phillips immerse in a breathless frenzy of mayhem.

Criminal: Last of the Innocent #3 – Review

By: Ed Brubaker (writer), Sean Phillips (art) & Dave Stewart (colors)

The Story: Will Reilly get away with killing his wife in this Archie-inspired Criminal series?

What’s Good: I’ve heard writer Ed Brubaker give interviews saying that once he’s done being a hot-shot “Marvel architect”, he’d like to spend the end of his career writing Archie comics.  Well, I guess we now know the kind of Archie comics he’d write.  He’d tell us a story of Archie (a.k.a. Reilly) killing Veronica (a.k.a. Felix) by stabbing her in the eye with an icepick and tricking Jughead (a.k.a. Freakout) into giving up 4 years of sobriety just so that Archie has a good alibi for his whereabouts at the time of the murder.  Even all the supporting characters in this Criminal story are from Archie:

• Liz, the sweet girl-next-door, is clearly “Betty”
• Phil, Felix’s father and Reilly’s father-in-law, is clearly Mr. Lodge (Veronica’s dad who always hated Archie)
• Teddy, the childhood rival with whom Felix was having an affair and whom Reilly has neatly framed for the murder, is obviously Reggie

It all just lines up perfectly and I’d probably read more Archie comics if they came with these sorts of storylines.  Can you imagine the scandal: Archie kills Veronica and Reggie for the murder.  Ha!

Of course, an Archie gimmick isn’t going to be enough for these creators.  So, we also have customary Brubaker/Phillips noir-ish atmosphere as Reilly tries to keep up the act of a grieving husband who is getting away with murder.  The next phase of the story also starts to come into play as we learn some interesting new information about Teddy and see that at least one of the characters is still pretty suspicious of Reilly.  I do wonder how Brubaker plans to introduce these new elements and wrap this series next issue, but that’s where you just have to trust a dude with three Eisner awards.

Oh, and there’s even a neat Easter Egg in here for long-time Criminal readers that helps to tie this series with the other story arcs and place it in time.  It isn’t anything that will be bothersome if you haven’t read the rest of Criminal though.

Criminal: Last of the Innocent #1 – Review

By: Ed Brubaker (writer), Sean Phillips (art) & Val Staples (colors)

The Story: A man returns his small town home when his father becomes ill and becomes embroiled in some nasty family drama.

What’s Good: What a nice first issue.  We’ve been without Criminal for about a year since The Sinners wrapped up and the creative team cranked out Incognito: Bad Influences.  Incognito is good, but after reading this issue of Criminal I feel like every issue of Incognito is stealing from us.  If all comics were like Criminal, no one would ever had any shame at reading a comic in public.  This is proper fiction for grown-ass-men!

The set-up for this story isn’t anything we haven’t seen before: man returns to hometown after years due to sick parent, sees old friends that have grown, assumes his parents’ obligations, etc.  Toss in some adultery and yearning for old flames and you’ve got a pretty basic noir story.  If you wanted to be cynical about the story, you could almost imagine Brubaker having a felt baggie and just pulling out chits with common noir themes written upon them, almost like a game of Clue.

But, what sets this story apart is the execution.  For one thing, you never read a sentence in Criminal and feel mentally out of breath.  Everything is quick and well paced as the reader is guided through the action on each page.  The story is just effortless.  You read this and you can see why Brubaker has 3 Eisner awards for best writer.

Phillips does a great job of showing us this story.  This comic is a great example of old-fashioned comic storytelling: You could take the words away from most panels and get a pretty good idea of what is going on.  I don’t think there is a single scene in the issue where Phillips doesn’t strongly establish the action:  He shows a picture of a train (they’re on a train), then shows the protagonist walking down the aisle (the train is crowded), they show him sitting (and because of the set-up, you can’t wonder if he is sitting in a diner or living room).  He also uses a neat shift to an Archie-like artistic style for the flashback scenes when Riley was a boy.  Then, on top of that, the art is just beautiful from an aesthetic standpoint: characters are well drawn and shaded, cars look like real cars, buildings look like real buildings….  Just super nice stuff and that’s what you get when artists use proper reference materials.

Incognito #5 – Review

by Ed Brubaker (writer), Sean Phillips (art), and Val Staples (colors)

The Story: Ava Destruction and Zack Overkill go to ground before Zack discovers the awful truth about his origins.

What’s Good: Everything you’ve liked about Incognito returns for another month.  Sean Phillips’ art is a key example of this; completely consistent in its style, tone, and quality without any dips or hurry. It continues to capture Brubaker’s weird mix of dark, hard-boiled noir and bizarre, ray-gun toting 60s sci-fi.  Incognito has been nothing short of excellent every issue, and #5 is no different.

I said it in my review last month and I’ll say it again now: I really, really like Ava Destruction as a character. Once again, despite her clear mental imbalances and homicidal tendencies, she remains impossibly likable. In that sense, the reader’s own relationship to her mirrors Zack’s. She’s dangerous, bloody, and generally awful. Yet relentlessly attractive and compelling.  It’s her very strangeness and ruthless and carefree violence that pull us towards her. And when Brubaker adds a level of vulnerability to her this month, it only makes us embrace her all the harder.

The twist regarding Zack’s origin occupies a central place in this month’s issue, and while it conveys, thanks in no small part to Phillips’ art and Staples’ neon colors and that throwback grindhouse/sci-fi feel, it also truly is a culmination of Zack’s existential struggles. In fact, Zack’s discovery and the subsequent conclusion of this issue are both beautiful in their being a concrete yet almost surreal manifestation of Zack’s loss of identity. Indeed, it fits the title “Incognito” perfectly. Despite its reliance on strong interior monologues, this series once again serves to question the nature of identity and whether the concept carries any validity at all. At the end of this issue, I’m leaning towards “no,” and yet paradoxically, I still see Zack as a distinct person that I’m invested in. This is testament to Brubaker’s skill as a writer that avoids clear answers.

Simply put, this is a highly intelligent issue that takes the book’s themes to an extreme new  level, setting up a bloodbath finale that is sure to define what it is to be “Incognito.”

What’s Not-so-Good: The short pair of scenes with Zoe Zeppelin didn’t feel particularly integral, especially given how awesome the rest of the book was. They’re clearly there as to explain the S.O.S’s presence in next month’s battle royale, but I can’t see why they couldn’t have been shortened, or combined into one scene. Then again, I’m biased as I really just want more Ava.

Conclusion: As I said last month, Incognito is a book that has given one of the best writers in comics today the freedom to do what he does best.  This is a writer in his prime, without constraints, making his ideal comic book.  Bottom-line? Buy the book, buy the trade, just read it!

Grade: A

-Alex Evans

Incognito #4 – Review

by Ed Brubaker (writer), Sean Phillips (art), and Val Staples (colors)

The Story: The S.O.S. has finally caught on to Zack’s night-time activities as our “hero” finds himself trapped in an unenviable situation.

What’s Good: Showing, not telling.  This phrase has haunted more or less every creative writing hopeful at one point or another, but in this issue, Ed Brubaker proves his mastery of the well-worn adage. Rather than have Zack tell us how his psyche is developing through textboxes, Brubaker uses his scenes and images to make these internal shifts all the more significant.

Two notable occurrences in this issue are the surprise office memorial for Farmer and the encounter with Amanda directly afterwards.  The former is a scene that shows Zack on the cusp of acknowledging an inexplicable positive in humanity and the “average Joe” he has so derided, yet due to letting the scene speak for itself, the reader almost seems more aware of this moment than Zack himself.  Meanwhile, the scene with Amanda plays up the feeling of paranoia that pervades this comic, making the reader actually share Zack’s anxiety right alongside him.

This is just a further nuance to the great writing that has continually propped up this series.  Paranoia is the game in this issue, and Brubaker plays it well.  Enhancing this is a further graying of the “good-guy/bad-guy” divide; not only is Zack hazy, but so too are the S.O.S., who turn out to be a far cry from SHIELD.

The character that sees the most development this issue is without a doubt Ava Destruction.  On the few pages that she appears in, she is utterly infectious.  Despite being terrifyingly insane and completely homicidal, she carries an undeniable charm and likeability.  The fact that we will be getting even more of her next issue has me excited.

Art-wise, Sean Phillips fans no what to expect.  The same dark, heavy pulp fare continues in this issue with no sign of slippage.  Phillips is nothing if not consistent.

What’s Not So Good: I didn’t feel that the internal monologue/textboxes were up the standard set by previous issues.  Don’t get me wrong, they’re still fantastic and were this any other comic, I would be enthralled; it’s only due to the unbelievably high bar that the series has set for itself that I find myself writing this.

I think a good part of it comes from what I mentioned about “showing, not telling.”  Due to Brubaker allowing the scenes to tell Zack’s emotions rather than the textboxes, the internal monologue becomes much more event-centered.  You don’t get the sort of overarching ruminating that you got in past issues.  It’s just feels simpler and more down to earth, with Zack more focused on his predicament than on the nature of his existence.

Also, I’ve always had a bit of a pet peeve for misleading covers.  Know that nothing close to a super powered battle between Zack Overkill and Zoe Zeppelin occurs in these pages.

Conclusion: Incognito remains an example of one of the top writers in comics today doing what he does best with complete freedom.

Grade: B+

-Alex Evans

Incognito #1 – Review

By Ed Brubaker (Writer), Sean Phillips (Art), and Val Staples (Colors)

Some Thoughts Before The Review: While I’d really rather not add another series to the old pull list, I couldn’t possibly ignore something new from the Criminal team of Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips. From concept to creative team, Incognito has all the right pieces to be a winner. That said, the series definitely has a bit of baggage to shed considering both the high bar set by Criminal and the hype that surrounds the project in general.

The Story: Serving as both a character introduction and an origin story, Incognito #1 introduces the reader to Zack Andersen, a man that was once known as Zack Overkill, one-half of the super-villain team called the Overkill Brothers. You see, Zack is now taking part in a criminal rehabilitation program set up to help captured super-villains reintegrate into society so that they can function “normally” thanks to a steady job and a side of power muting drugs. Zack doesn’t like his new lot in life all that much and, in the midst of a downward spiral involving drugs and ruminations about the nature of life and society, he decides to do something about it.

What’s Good: I really like the concepts and society on display in Incognito #1 and the overall tone of the book. Villains almost always prove to be compelling when given center stage and Zack Overkill is no exception. And while it’s a bit early to discuss the strength of the story, there are some interesting plot threads developed throughout the book that will definitely keep me around for at least another chapter or two.

On a technical level, the debut of Incognito impresses for the most part. The artwork by Sean Phillips is well-done and complimented almost perfectly by some stylish color work, courtesy of Val Staples. As for the writing, Brubaker effectively captures the personality and mindset of Zack Overkill through just the right mix of dialogue and narration.

What’s Not So Good: For as much as I like Brubaker’s handling of Zack Overkill, the character still comes across as a bit tired and cliché. In all honesty, I found the society being featured far more engaging that any particular aspect of the main character. Also worth noting is that a few scenes seem to lack a final layer of artistic polish, though I’m not entirely sure whether it is a problem with the artwork or the colors.

Conclusion: Incognito #1 is an interesting enough start to what should be a fun, dark series. While not quite as exciting as I had hoped, the issue contains enough hooks to keep me around for the near future. Besides, I expect things to improve quite a bit once Brubaker reveals more of Zack Overkill’s world and the characters that inhabit it.

Grade: C+

-Kyle Posluszny

Criminal Vol.2 #1 – Review

By Ed Brubaker (writer), Sean Phillips (art), Val Staples (color)

This is my favorite Criminal story yet. Ed Brubaker snags you in from page one and doesn’t let go. The beauty of this book is while the story will continue for issues to come, the story presented here is very much self contained. Sean Phillips is in top form on art duty. The facial expressions and body language we renders give so much life to Brubaker’s script while Val Staples does a great coloring job portraying the mood of urban life in the 1970s.

The story follows the lives of two men – one white, one black. Both of their fathers were crime lords, thus in a way, they were raised like brothers. As they’ve grown into men, the white kid (now a man) goes to college and is groomed to take the mantle of his father’s empire. The black kid tries to find his own way, becoming a boxing champ. As the two men go their separate ways, destiny comes in the form of a woman and their lives are once again entangled.

Words can’t begin to describe how enamored I am with this story. It’s honest, hard-hitting, and so well written. Brubaker does such a wonderful job getting you into the heads of both men and their situations. You can’t help but feel sympathy for either of them, despite their faults. When the crap hits the fan (and it does), it’ll leave you gasping for what happens next. Like I said, the story will continue, but with this expanded issue (32 pages), Brubaker is able to keep it all self contained. Don’t wait for the trade to come out. Buy this today. You’ll be happy you did. (Grade: A+)

– J. Montes