No comic relief
CRIMINAL VOLUME 1: COWARD<br>by Ed Brubaker, illustrated by Sean Phillips<br>Icon Comics, pp32, ISBN: 078512439X
There are moments when you start reading a novel, or in this case a comic, and your expectations are anything but great. Then the first few pages slowly convince you that, now that you think about it, the story is not as bad as you thought it would be. Half-way through the true epiphany occurs: This story is good. Not only; it is gripping. By the time you finish reading you send your prejudice for an early shower and feel guilty that you had somehow picked up the comic and thought that it wouldn't be any good.
Unfortunately, reading Criminal was not one of these moments. I started reading Criminal with the best of intentions. The writer, Ed Brubaker, is best known for his work on the comics Daredevil and Captain America. He has won numerous awards and even been voted, on various websites, as one of the best comic book writers of the moment. He will now be forever remembered as the man who killed off Captain America, sparking off debates and rage across a continent.
He should stick to killing off superheroes because he does a much better job. Criminal is a crime-noir heist tale with all the elements that you would expect from the genre. The main character, Leo, is a genius at pick-pocketing and finding weaknesses in security. Yet he lives his life following a set of rigid rules which protect him from all dangers, and for this, most of his associates consider him to be a coward.
Leo runs into a former associate, Seymour, who is setting up a team for a planned heist which involves robbing a police evidence van full of diamonds while it is en route to the courthouse. Seymour is working with a crooked cop but Leo does not want to work with Seymour since a job they had worked on together in the past went nasty and turned bloody. Leo is haunted by spectres of his past. The cigarette-smoking femme fatale shows up at one point, shrouded in shadows, to convince Leo otherwise. The whole affair is further complicated by other hidden factors which are only hinted at and revealed so slowly that it reads like painful bullet wound in the stomach.
After turning a few pages it is clear that the first volume of Criminal is made up of one cliché after another. The story begins with "the haunting flashback sequence," giving us insight into Leo's character. It then unfolds as any film noir would and, half-way through, you start anticipating what you're going to see on the next page.
To make matters even more ironic, Brubaker is credited as the writer who is single-handedly revitalising the crime genre within comics. If this is an effort at revitalising the genre then I'm sorry to say he should put the horse out of its misery.
The artwork, on the other hand, is Criminal's only saving grace. Sean Phillip's art is cinematic in its quality and perfectly noir in its execution. It is truly unfortunate that the plot could not match the calibre of the art.
The first instalment of a five-part series is a disappointing work in general and one can only hope that as the story progresses so does the quality of the writing.
• Mr Vella is an English Literature graduate with a passion for comics and images. He lives with two cats and the occasional human.
• A review copy of this title was supplied by Malta Comics.
Unfortunately, reading Criminal was not one of these moments. I started reading Criminal with the best of intentions. The writer, Ed Brubaker, is best known for his work on the comics Daredevil and Captain America. He has won numerous awards and even been voted, on various websites, as one of the best comic book writers of the moment. He will now be forever remembered as the man who killed off Captain America, sparking off debates and rage across a continent.
He should stick to killing off superheroes because he does a much better job. Criminal is a crime-noir heist tale with all the elements that you would expect from the genre. The main character, Leo, is a genius at pick-pocketing and finding weaknesses in security. Yet he lives his life following a set of rigid rules which protect him from all dangers, and for this, most of his associates consider him to be a coward.
Leo runs into a former associate, Seymour, who is setting up a team for a planned heist which involves robbing a police evidence van full of diamonds while it is en route to the courthouse. Seymour is working with a crooked cop but Leo does not want to work with Seymour since a job they had worked on together in the past went nasty and turned bloody. Leo is haunted by spectres of his past. The cigarette-smoking femme fatale shows up at one point, shrouded in shadows, to convince Leo otherwise. The whole affair is further complicated by other hidden factors which are only hinted at and revealed so slowly that it reads like painful bullet wound in the stomach.
After turning a few pages it is clear that the first volume of Criminal is made up of one cliché after another. The story begins with "the haunting flashback sequence," giving us insight into Leo's character. It then unfolds as any film noir would and, half-way through, you start anticipating what you're going to see on the next page.
To make matters even more ironic, Brubaker is credited as the writer who is single-handedly revitalising the crime genre within comics. If this is an effort at revitalising the genre then I'm sorry to say he should put the horse out of its misery.
The artwork, on the other hand, is Criminal's only saving grace. Sean Phillip's art is cinematic in its quality and perfectly noir in its execution. It is truly unfortunate that the plot could not match the calibre of the art.
The first instalment of a five-part series is a disappointing work in general and one can only hope that as the story progresses so does the quality of the writing.
• Mr Vella is an English Literature graduate with a passion for comics and images. He lives with two cats and the occasional human.
• A review copy of this title was supplied by Malta Comics.