Criminal Vol. 3: The Dead and the Dying

Collects Criminal Vol. 2 #1-3 written by Ed Brubaker and drawn by Sean Phillips. This is a review of the edition published in England by Titan Books, which should be completely identical to the American edition published by Marvel.

In this, the latest addition to Brubaker and Phillips' dark crime series, the reader is offered three tales of death, drugs and desperation intertwined to tell a complete story from the perspectives of three of the people involved. We have the criminal turned boxer, the vet returned from the war and the beautiful drug addict. There are no happy beginnings here so don't expect to see any happy endings either.

The story is set in an unnamed American city in the 70's. The free love and rock'n'roll of the 60's have been replaced with war, drug addiction and depression. There are elements of classic noir here, the guys are tough and the dames are dangerous, but the setting is different from that genre. Brubaker and Phillips basically grabs the themes of noir and injects it into a more modern setting, and you could argue that this is the binding concept of the series. It is a concept that has proven to be a great vessel for telling some really good and touching stories so far, and this time is no exception.

The concept of telling the same story from the different perspectives has been seen before, but in this case it is more a case of telling different parts of the story from different perspectives. This means that there is little overlap, and the individual stories complement each other very well. Once again, Brubaker excels at creating interesting characters that feel real and he seems to have no issues hurling them into desperate situations with no chance of salvation. Compared to the two other books in the series (the second reviewed here), the individual characters seem a bit more shallow and clichèd this time around, the focus seems to be more on the story and how it is told, and it may also be a consequence of less pages per character due to there being three main characters. But this is more a testament of how good the previous books are, because Brubaker again manages to bring forth characters that are many times more interesting that what you'll see in most other comic books out there.

Phillips' art is dark and gritty as always. I have always liked his art, and I will restate that I think this kind of book is perfect for him. The art seems a little less tight in this book, but again, even when Phillips is not doing his best work, it's still damn good. Each page is divided into three rows of frames of differing widths, and this gives an almost claustrophobic feeling when reading the story. A feeling that there really is no way out, and this is only strengthened by the story.

People who have not read any of the Criminal books yet should hurry on to their favorite comic book pusher and get them right away. People who have already read the previous books, can rest assured that they won't be disappointed by this one. You don't have to read the previous books to read this one, but they are even better, so you are advised to do so. Of course, the best thing to do would be to read all of them! Although this book contains only three original issues, each issue is pretty long, so the book is a normal size tpb.

7/10

Criminal: Lawless

Collects Criminal #6-10 by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips.

This is the second story in Brubakers and Phillips' hit crime series Criminal, and in tone and style it closely resembles the first story, Coward. This is a very good thing.

The story centers around the veteran Tracy Lawless who joins a gang of robbers to get to the bottom of his brother's death. His brother was in the same gang when he was killed, and Tracy is convinced the murderer is to be found within that tightly knit group of people. Of course, the truth turns out not to be so simple, and before the story is over, Tracy must on several occasions release that dark, violent part of his soul that is constantly lurking under the surface.

This is Brubaker when he is best. This book has a thrilling plot, an evasive atmosphere and excellent characterisation. It would have been easy to write Tracy as just another troubled punk that the world does not understand, but Brubaker does not stop there. At the center of his cynicism lies buried a father/elder brother/smaller brother-relationship, and it this that ultimately makes him a tragic character, and which makes him interesting as a literary character.

Phillips delivers some of the best and moodiest art I have seen from his hand. I remember reading his Hellblazer way back, thinking "This guy would be great on a crime book", and now here we are. Shadows are everywhere in this book, and it is in the shadows that the secrets are hidden. In the cold streets of the city and the dark faces of the people. Phillips' art is perfect for this kind of book, I get the feeling that he is really enjoying himself drawing this, so lets hope he gets to do it for a long while!

I recommend this book to anybody who wants to read a good comic book. There may be no men in tights, but there is everything else, and it's delivered as a powerful, moving comic book experience. Highly recommended!

9/10