Criminal: The Last of the Innocent by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips

(pb; 2015: sixth graphic novel in the Criminal series, collecting Criminal: The Last of the Innocent issues 1-4)

From the back cover

“Riley Richards got it all. . . The hottest girl in school and a ticket to the big time, so why isn’t he happy now? Why his he getting involved in gambling and drugs and shady characters in the city? Why can’t he forget the life he left behind in small town Brookview? And why is he suddenly plotting murder?”

Review

Innocent is a familiar, seemingly-nice-guy-with-nasty-secrets work, made excellent by great artwork and writing, which imbues this pulpy graphic novel with a few fresh twists in a tired genre. Worth owning, this.

Criminal: The Sinners by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips

(pb; 2015: fifth graphic novel in the Criminal series, collecting Criminal: The Sinners issues 1-5)

From the back cover

“Criminal’s most popular character, Tracy Lawless, returns in The Sinners. It’s been a year since Tracy was forced into working for the bad guys, and now made men are turning up dead all over the city, in what appears to be mob-style hits. But since criminals don’t go to the cops for justice, only Tracy can solve this crime.”

Review

Sinners is one of my favorite entries in the Criminal series, along with Bad Night. Sinners picks up shortly after the events of Lawless, with cameos by other previous-story characters─part of Criminal’s creative M.O.─and seamlessly continues Tracy Lawless’s journey through his personal heart of bleak f##ked-upness and sense of honor. The ending is excellent, character- and tone-true, not the usual downward-spiral finish, elevating Sinners to a new creative height, even for the already superb Criminal series.

Followed by the Criminal: The Last of the Innocent.

Criminal: Bad Night by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips

(pb; 2015: fourth graphic novel in the Criminal series, collecting Criminal Volume Two issues 4-7)

From the back cover

“Years ago, Jacob Kurtz was a happy family man, long-retired from the life of crime he was raised in. Then the police made him the prime suspect in a horrible crime and ripped his world apart. Now Jacob is less than a shadow of his former self, an insomniac who roams the city at night. Until one bad night he walks into the wrong place at the right time, and starts tumbling down a twisted path from wild sex to kidnapping, robbery and murder.”

Review

Kurtz, the creator of the Gazette-published comic strip Frank Kafka P.I. (seen in at least one previous Criminal graphic novel), is haunted by the past─which is still patiently stalking him. Bad is another excellent, nails-it deeper-into-the-Criminal-verse work, with its new character slant: it has all the sleaze, violence, f##ked-upness, corruption and sex of earlier Criminal entries, making this a graphic novel worth owning. Followed by Criminal: The Sinners.

Criminal: The Dying and the Dead by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips

(pb; 2015: graphic – collects issues 1-3 of the comic book series Criminal Volume Two)

From the back cover

“Three stories interweave to tell a tragic tale in The Dead and the Dying. A beautiful but damaged woman returns home with nothing but vengeance on her mind, and two best friends, one of the son of the city’s crime kingpin, are caught in the crossfire in this gritty, ‘70s noir from noir masters Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips.”

Review

Brubaker and Phillips shake up the structure of their previous two Criminal volumes by fracturing it into a character-sharing portmanteau work, one that serves as a prequel to Coward and Lawless. Like those books, this is hardboiled, terse, character-deep and violent, with sex and betrayal prominent in the mix.

“Second Chance in Hell” focuses on the relationship between boxer Jake “Gnarly” Brown─who will later become a bartender at the Undertown, a.k.a. the Undertow─and Sebastian Hyde, his rich son-of-a-criminal-kingpin boyhood friend. Set in 1972, Hyde’s betrayal of his girlfriend (and Brown’s crush-object), Danica Briggs, sets off a series of events that form the impetus of Dying.

“A Wolf Among Wolves”: 1972. Teeg Lawless, Vietnam vet and father of Tracy and Ricky (who are key characters in Lawless), tries to do right by his family and adjust to civilian life, but it isn’t in his nature. This tale offers a character-rich wrinkle to the memories that Tracy speaks of in Lawless, deepening the overall works.

“The Female of the Species”: Danica Briggs shows her journey from a naïve girl to a hardened hustler out for revenge and escape. Her fate, prior to “Female,” is already established in the two previous stories, making this all the more heartbreaking.

Followed by Criminal: Bad Night. 

Criminal: Lawless by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips

(pb; 2015: graphic novel, collects issues 6-10 of the comic book series Criminal)

From the back cover

“Twenty years ago, Tracy Lawless escaped the crime-ridden streets of the city for a life in the military, and never look back. But not his past is dragging him home from the deserts of Iraq and Afghanistan, to find out who left his brother lying dead in an alley. As he digs through the wreckage of his family history, infiltrating the underworld life his brother Rick lived, the one thing Tracy has going for him is that no one knows who the hell he is anymore, and what they don’t know just might kill them. . “

Review

Lawless spiral-expands the world introduced in the first Criminal graphic novel, Coward. Like Coward, Lawless is a pulpy, terse, character-interesting and sometimes violent work that uses the Undertown bar, a.k.a. the Undertow, as its central location. Not only that, this second volume has mentions of or cameos by characters seen in the first graphic novel. This is a great expansion of Criminal, one worth reading. Followed by Criminal: The Dying and the Dead.

Criminal: Coward by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips

(2015: graphic novel, collects issues 1-5 of the Image comic book, Criminal)

From the back cover

“The traditional heist story is turned on its head in Coward. Leo can plan the perfect score, but only if he can be convinced the job is safe, because Leo is not a shoot-first think-later type of criminal. Leo is a professional, whose biggest desire in life is not to end up exactly where he belongs: in a prison cell.”

Review

The characters and storyline are familiar, solid and pulp-true, perhaps cliché in spots (e.g., the ending). The chiaroscuro art suits the sharp, epigrammatic writing. It’s a fun, fast neo-noir comic book, one worth reading. Followed by the graphic novel Criminal: Lawless.