Criminal #5
© Marvel
Issue: 5
Authors: Ed Brubaker, Sean Phillips, Val Staples
Publisher: Marvel/Icon
Price: $2.99
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"Criminal: 5"
By: Kurt AmackerDate: Friday, March 16, 2007
Ed Brubaker writes Captain America and Daredevil to great critical acclaim. But, he also writes Criminal, a compelling new ongoing series from Marvel’s Icon imprint. This fifth issue concludes the first arc of the series, in which Leo tries to salvage a botched robbery instigated by a group of dirty cops. When Leo agreed to help, he did so to help, Greta, the widow of an old associate – a fellow lowlife that died in a bank robbery from which Leo ran away. Unfortunately, the dirty cops lied and Leo found himself not the recipient of a share of $5 million in conflict in diamonds, but the carrier of 32 kilos of uncut heroin. One of the cops owes the local drug kingpin his product after a botched transfer through airport security. And, when the armored car robbery went to hell, Leo did what he did best – he ran like hell and took Greta with him. By this issue, things have only degenerated further and Leo’s decided to fight back. He’s lost two of the only people in the world that mean a thing to him, and he’ll be damned if he lets a bunch of drug dealers walk away with an innocent child tangled up in the whole mess.
Criminal places the reader squarely in the corner of a scumbag lowlife. Leo can boast very little about his sad career as a thief. As criminals go, he has a shred of decency, but not much more than that. He takes care of his dead father’s junky friend, who suffers from Alzheimer’s and can’t get through the day without shooting up. He feels real guilt about Greta’s situation. Brubaker seductively lures the reader into Leo’s world, making you almost cheer for the guy. Then again, it takes very little to sympathize with a professional thief in a series populated by murderous dirty cops and drug dealers who would kill someone’s grandmother without hesitation. But, as the writer shows us, Leo conceals a dark side – one darker than his public face of a cowardly shyster who cares for an old man that sleeps on his couch. Brubaker feels right at home in the crime and noir genres. But, Criminal allows him to breach territory he simply can’t on Daredevil or The Immortal Iron Fist. The Icon imprint means an unflinching look at the back alleys of this new world Brubaker has created.
Sean Phillips draws like a less-abstract Mike Mignola, and to great effect. He uses black like nobody’s business, which, combined with Val Staples’s flat, moody colors creates a bleak, irresistible atmosphere. Phillips draws Criminal with a bit more realism than he did Marvel Zombies, but given the comparably down-to-earth nature of the series, it works well.
Start reading Criminal now.
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