Country: USA
Genre: Graphic Novel/Noir
Pages: 144
Criminal is a personal project of Marvel veteran writer Ed Brubaker. Its many chapters: Coward, Lawless, The Dead And The Dying, Bad Night and The Sinners are the stories of the thugs and criminals that live in Center City. It's a place where you shouldn't raise kids if you don't want them to hit the street by the time they're twelve. The Sinners is the second part of Tracy Lawless' story. The ex-solider has been working at making peace with his troubled past in Lawless, but now he has to work off his family's debt to local mobster Sebastian Hyde. There was indeed a feeling of unfinished business by the end of Lawless and The Sinners presented an interesting challenge for both Ed Brubaker and his character. Now that Tracy Lawless was back in town for good, could things get even worse?
One of the most original characters in Lawless was the loan sharking priest. Men of God often have otherworldly concern (I don't know like, any priest...ever?) or they enjoy the world they live in too much (think Reverend Childe in The Bastard Hand). It's rare to see a minister of the cult being into something cold and cruel like loan sharking. Well, as The Sinners start, that guy's dead. He got shot in the face point blank in what looks to be a gangland execution. But criminals are falling like flies all over the city and mastermind Sebastian Hyde doesn't know what the hell is going on. No other gang seems to be moving in, so he sends Tracy Lawless (who proved to be an unreliable hitman so far) to sort this thing out. And of course, these ghost executions were more than meets the eye.
I don't know about this. I felt that Lawless was good, but that it played safe a little. Within the noir sandbox. It didn't try to push my buttons. I expected The Sinners to push the envelope a little further, but it didn't. Once again, it went playing in a very crowded sandbox, the divine retribution stories. This happened quite a lot before and reading it over again in Criminal somewhat pulled the plug for me. Once again, it's done very well. The characters are strong, the setting in great (the Chinatown parts are amazing) but it's all been done so many times before. Aspects of noir have often been used for comic books. Batman being the quintessential example. I have a limited knowledge about comic, but Criminal is the first full-fledged classic hardboiled/noir story I have seen in a comic book. Was that meant to be an introduction? Or was it meant for Ed Brubaker to be a first swipe at the genre before moving to more serious things? Not sure.
The Sinners isn't a bad read per se, but it's not challenging or surprising in any way. I find that using God as a justification for that whole justice Vs law duality is a bit of an easy way out. Anything BUT God would make it completely unique. Clint Eastwood's Sudden Impact and Dexter are good examples of this. It's even more disappointing because Ed Brubaker used the Church in a very twisted way in Lawless, but the fact that it's the second adventure of Tracy Lawless and that it's less enticing than the first one kind of left me on my appetite. Criminal Vol. 5 - The Sinners does some things very well and has difficulty not falling in cliché plot twists for some others. You should still read it though. Especially if you've read Lawless first. One good reason? It has the most exhilarating, most satisfying last panel. And that's pretty much the biggest surprise of the whole series and it leaves you yelling a big, fat, dirty :"YEAH". Rare are the stories who have an ending that lives up to it, but The Sinners does. It's your average noir sundae with a succulent cherry on top.
I don't know about this. I felt that Lawless was good, but that it played safe a little. Within the noir sandbox. It didn't try to push my buttons. I expected The Sinners to push the envelope a little further, but it didn't. Once again, it went playing in a very crowded sandbox, the divine retribution stories. This happened quite a lot before and reading it over again in Criminal somewhat pulled the plug for me. Once again, it's done very well. The characters are strong, the setting in great (the Chinatown parts are amazing) but it's all been done so many times before. Aspects of noir have often been used for comic books. Batman being the quintessential example. I have a limited knowledge about comic, but Criminal is the first full-fledged classic hardboiled/noir story I have seen in a comic book. Was that meant to be an introduction? Or was it meant for Ed Brubaker to be a first swipe at the genre before moving to more serious things? Not sure.
The Sinners isn't a bad read per se, but it's not challenging or surprising in any way. I find that using God as a justification for that whole justice Vs law duality is a bit of an easy way out. Anything BUT God would make it completely unique. Clint Eastwood's Sudden Impact and Dexter are good examples of this. It's even more disappointing because Ed Brubaker used the Church in a very twisted way in Lawless, but the fact that it's the second adventure of Tracy Lawless and that it's less enticing than the first one kind of left me on my appetite. Criminal Vol. 5 - The Sinners does some things very well and has difficulty not falling in cliché plot twists for some others. You should still read it though. Especially if you've read Lawless first. One good reason? It has the most exhilarating, most satisfying last panel. And that's pretty much the biggest surprise of the whole series and it leaves you yelling a big, fat, dirty :"YEAH". Rare are the stories who have an ending that lives up to it, but The Sinners does. It's your average noir sundae with a succulent cherry on top.