Criminal

By: Kurt Amacker
Review Date: Saturday, October 07, 2006

Ed Brubaker uses Marvel's Icon imprint to its full advantage with CRIMINAL -- a no-punches-pulled crime drama set firmly in the corner of the bad guys. Leo Patterson ranks as one of the best thieves in the business. From bank heists to pickpocket schemes, he steals better than anyone. But, he also runs at the drop of a hat and leaves any associates to the cops or the pavement. When Leo's old friend Seymour approaches him with a dirty cop and a scheme to lift $5 million worth of evidence diamonds, he refuses. Only when Greta Watson the wife of a dead associate guilt-trips him does he reconsider.

CRIMINAL offers a humanizing though not forgiving look at, well, career criminals. Though the story allows you to sympathize with Leo's humanity, it never asks you to support his choices. When Greta confronts him with the death of her husband in a botched bank robbery, we see the shred of consciences that lets the reader identify with a lowlife. Similarly, he continues to care for his dead father's partner in crime, Ivan, who succumbed to heroin addiction and Alzheimer's long before the story began. We never lose sight of Leo's self-centeredness and the people he's hurt on his long climb to nowhere. However, Brubaker clearly establishes Leo as the protagonist. As such, we can't help but care about him just a little.

CRIMINAL occurs in its own world, with no Marvel heroes flying through the city skies or patrolling the streets. Heroes would only throw moral clarity in a story that lulls the reader into caring about a repugnant human being. But, the freedom the Icon imprint affords Brubaker means plenty of welcome violence and profanity. Sean Phillips brings the blood well. He renders a seedy, angular world of noir grit and imbues a story devoid of capes and tights with dark flair. CRIMINAL proves, yet again, that great comics can happen without superheroes. For that matter, great Marvel comics can happen without them. CRIMINAL reinforces Brubaker's place as one of the best writer in comics.


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