- Title: Criminal #1
- Comic Vine: link
- Writer: Ed Brubaker
- Artist: Sean Phillips
Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips have been telling Criminal stories off-and-on for more than a dozen years now. While I may selfishly prefer the pair spend more time on new Velvet or Fatale comics, it’s impossible to not admire their return to the crime comic series.
The latest volume starts out with young teenage punk Ricky Lawless stealing a necklace from an elderly mark in a sequence that ends poorly for the old man in a brutal sequence of events. Recently released from prison, career criminal Teeg Lawless finds himself up shit’s creek dealing with the ramifications of son’s actions that he has no idea of how to put right.
The comic is packed with story, including the old man’s story and Teeg’s flashbacks which help fill in some backstory and context for the events which are currently unfolding. There’s more than a whiff of desperation hovering over Teeg as the comic unfolds, as even the small comfort he takes in the arms of his former friend’s girl fails to satisfy (as eventually he ends up battered, bruised, ticked off, and pissing on his old friend’s grave). Worth a look.
[Image, $3.99]