Country: USA
Genre: Graphic Novel/Noir
Pages: 128
Most times, your life is a constant quest for awesome. But a few times, it's awesome that finds you. I never really wanted to read Criminal. Hell, a month ago, I didn't even know who Ed Brubaker was. Then there I was last week, sitting on the couch and frenetically plowing through the five issues of Lawless, the second storyline of Ed Brubaker's sordid world where bad guys have already triumphed. One of my friends and devoted readers shoved some comics in my hands with this maniacal look of a convinced reader in his face, saying: "DUDE, YOU GOTTA READ THIS". However scary a die hard reader can get, I know from experience that it is almost always a good thing. Unless the reader doesn't have any clue what you like and tries to shove a copy of Eat, Pray, Love down your throat, you know you're in for something so good that you will most likely end up doing the same thing to your nearest friend nearby. And I have to say it. You're missing out on a GREAT noir series/setting if you don't take about an hour of your time to read Criminal Vol. 2 : Lawless.
If you don't know who Ed Brubaker is, just know this. He worked for both DC Comics and Marvel and is considered one of the best at his job. Companies that mass produce creative output like this are very careful about who they hire so that already says a lot. Criminal is more of a personal project of his. The Lawless storyline tells the tales of...the Lawless brothers, Tracy and Broderick ("Rick" for the close friends). They were somewhat estranged, separated by an abusive father that Tracy fled and Rick tried to live up to. By many years that Tracy spent in the army, trying to chase the ghost of his non-existent childhood. All this hard work Tracy did all went to shit in Iraq, when an operation went horribly wrong and the U.S Army found nothing better to do than court martial him. It was bad enough for Tracy, when he received the news that Rick died, back in their hometown. He gets hired by the stick up crew and renews with the thousand ghosts he turned his back on when he left for the army.
Criminal: Lawless taps directly into what I like best about noir fiction. The inescapable fate. The damage done that is so bad, that will dictate the rest of your life. And the rest of that life might really just be a downward spiral. Tracy Lawless is an elite soldier, who spent the major part of his life fighting for his country, but as soon as he steps back in his home town, there is very little left of that. He's sure bearing the physical scars, but the emotional ones all come from his upbringing, which I felt shielded him from the horror of war somewhat. The reason why he joined the army in the first place was to avoid jail, a bad spot he was put in because of his father in the first place. There is nothing better for a noir protagonist than unsolvable daddy issues. Tracy Lawless gets back in "the life" because he wants to amend for the death of Rick, who he feels still feel responsible of. But the stick up crew moved on since then. The only thing they feel responsible about is a wealthy future, hanging in front of their face like the proverbial carrot.
I gotta say Lawless is a little conventional for a story that relies heavily on plot an mystery. It's a bunch of robbers that are looking for a life-changing job all over again. It's been done a thousand times before. The secondary cast is a little weak, Mallory makes for a very average femme fatale and Simon for a cliché boss. But Lawless shines through its tortured approach of family and through its unique perspective of noble feelings in a universe of noir. The returning solider story has been made a thousand times also, but Tracy Lawless is a unique protagonist because he is a caring brother who has nothing left to care about but the shadows of his own failures. Ed Brubaker dances on a fine line in-between the ultra-cliché and the unique and unlikely bad guys. He wins his bet and leaves me wanting for more. He is helped by the amazing drawings of Sean Phillips who is drawing a clear visual line in between the stages of Tracy Lawless' life. Team work makes Criminal Vol. 2: Lawless work very well despite borrowing from the genre's clichés. I still have the Sinners storyline waiting for me and I will dig into it gleefully, hoping it's just a little bolder than Lawless. Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips have a great understanding of noir, but with the story of Tracye Lawless, they just don't know how far they can push the button yet.
Criminal: Lawless taps directly into what I like best about noir fiction. The inescapable fate. The damage done that is so bad, that will dictate the rest of your life. And the rest of that life might really just be a downward spiral. Tracy Lawless is an elite soldier, who spent the major part of his life fighting for his country, but as soon as he steps back in his home town, there is very little left of that. He's sure bearing the physical scars, but the emotional ones all come from his upbringing, which I felt shielded him from the horror of war somewhat. The reason why he joined the army in the first place was to avoid jail, a bad spot he was put in because of his father in the first place. There is nothing better for a noir protagonist than unsolvable daddy issues. Tracy Lawless gets back in "the life" because he wants to amend for the death of Rick, who he feels still feel responsible of. But the stick up crew moved on since then. The only thing they feel responsible about is a wealthy future, hanging in front of their face like the proverbial carrot.
I gotta say Lawless is a little conventional for a story that relies heavily on plot an mystery. It's a bunch of robbers that are looking for a life-changing job all over again. It's been done a thousand times before. The secondary cast is a little weak, Mallory makes for a very average femme fatale and Simon for a cliché boss. But Lawless shines through its tortured approach of family and through its unique perspective of noble feelings in a universe of noir. The returning solider story has been made a thousand times also, but Tracy Lawless is a unique protagonist because he is a caring brother who has nothing left to care about but the shadows of his own failures. Ed Brubaker dances on a fine line in-between the ultra-cliché and the unique and unlikely bad guys. He wins his bet and leaves me wanting for more. He is helped by the amazing drawings of Sean Phillips who is drawing a clear visual line in between the stages of Tracy Lawless' life. Team work makes Criminal Vol. 2: Lawless work very well despite borrowing from the genre's clichés. I still have the Sinners storyline waiting for me and I will dig into it gleefully, hoping it's just a little bolder than Lawless. Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips have a great understanding of noir, but with the story of Tracye Lawless, they just don't know how far they can push the button yet.