kajalhalwa's review against another edition
3.0
A surprisingly mature read with fleshed out, complex characters. I appreciated the noir elements too. I found the violence a bit much, though it adds both realism as well as a sense of the kind of despair and desperation that might bring a person to heist jobs. That being said, I don't think this much violence and despair is my jam, despite the wise panel featuring the MC reminding us that violence has a ripple effect.
rltinha's review against another edition
4.0
A dupla Brubaker/Phillips está para a novela gráfica noir como a Vaqueiro líquida para os cremes culinários: eficiente, brilhante, e sem excessos ou desperdícios.
krystofsubr's review against another edition
5.0
Expected a cool noir, got a depressing failed heist story. And wow, it was so good.
sjj169's review against another edition
4.0
Leo grew up being a pickpocket. His old man and "uncle" Ivan taught him well. Now he is a heist planner with rules that he lives by. No guns-No cops- He calls all the shots.
A recipe for disaster when he agrees to pull a big job. Things go south in a hurry.
He ends up on the run with an elderly Ivan. (who has a bad drug habit, Alzheimer's and is pretty much a pervert- My favorite graphic novel character yet) and a woman friend that helped with the heist.
He has the cops and the bad guys chasing him and it's just a matter of time before it all catches up.
Fricking awesome. Why didn't they write comics like this when I was a kid? Oh right, my mom would have burned them. I can eat them up now though. Old age rocks!
A recipe for disaster when he agrees to pull a big job. Things go south in a hurry.
He ends up on the run with an elderly Ivan. (who has a bad drug habit, Alzheimer's and is pretty much a pervert- My favorite graphic novel character yet) and a woman friend that helped with the heist.
He has the cops and the bad guys chasing him and it's just a matter of time before it all catches up.
Fricking awesome. Why didn't they write comics like this when I was a kid? Oh right, my mom would have burned them. I can eat them up now though. Old age rocks!
a_blerdandhisbooks's review against another edition
3.0
The overall story was fine, but the dialogue was silly. Especially the main bad guy. The writer should have gave the dialogue another pass after consulting real Black people.
The art work was really well done and captured the grittiness that writer was trying to convey.
The art work was really well done and captured the grittiness that writer was trying to convey.
thisotherbookaccount's review against another edition
5.0
I usually hate crime noir, but this is Ed Brubaker, so he gets a pass.
It's been some time since I've dabbled in comic books because they are super expensive. This book, however, I purchased at a mega sale and, at that time, I didn't know much about Brubaker's Criminal. I've read many of his other works, but they've all involved fantastic or supernatural elements on way or another, including Fatale (supernatural), Gotham Central (superhero-esque), Incognito (superhero-esque) and Sleeper (superhero-esque). His "thing", if he has a thing, is to combine all these elements with noir, and he likes to lay it on thick. I'm usually not a fan of the genre, but Brubaker does it with such finesse that you cannot help but buy into his story.
And what stories he tells!
Criminal is classic Brubaker, but without all the fantastical elements. This is straight up crime noir, and characters get killed and do not have superhuman powers. They have guns, cigarettes, a thirst for alcohol, and the mean streets are as mean as they get. This is Sin City without machine gun wielding prostitutes, and it is glorious. For some reason, it reminded me of Breaking Bad, but without the humour in between, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. You have a character who straddles between the good and the bad, and having to make his way through the criminal underworld that's filled with people who're out to get you. The strength of this book is the way it tells a focussed story with characters that you give two shits about. Yes, they are flawed, and they are not exactly "the good guys", but you can't help but root for them any way because, at times, when you are living on the mean streets (in this case, the mean streets of Center City), you have to do what needs to be done—and some things are ugly.
And speaking of strengths, Brubaker and Sean Philips should just get married and have beautiful comic book babies. I love Philips' style, the way he saturates every panel with atmosphere and emotions. He does suffer a little from the same-face syndrome, but since every story is a standalone, it shouldn't bother you that some characters look overly similar to others. And emotions jump out from the pages because Philips has a way of capturing just the right intonations. This is dramatically different from, say, the later volumes of Fables, where characters would say something dramatic with a straight face (Buckingham's been getting real lazy in that department). Every frame tells a story for Philips, and it shows.
I haven't read a comic book this engaging in a long time. And it's better, because it has a heist—I can always use a heist. The quality dips just a little in the second volume, since the protagonist is a little less relatable and the story is somewhat of a rehash, but if this carries on to the next few volumes in the Criminals saga, I am confident that it will have a place among some of my favourites in the genre.
It's been some time since I've dabbled in comic books because they are super expensive. This book, however, I purchased at a mega sale and, at that time, I didn't know much about Brubaker's Criminal. I've read many of his other works, but they've all involved fantastic or supernatural elements on way or another, including Fatale (supernatural), Gotham Central (superhero-esque), Incognito (superhero-esque) and Sleeper (superhero-esque). His "thing", if he has a thing, is to combine all these elements with noir, and he likes to lay it on thick. I'm usually not a fan of the genre, but Brubaker does it with such finesse that you cannot help but buy into his story.
And what stories he tells!
Criminal is classic Brubaker, but without all the fantastical elements. This is straight up crime noir, and characters get killed and do not have superhuman powers. They have guns, cigarettes, a thirst for alcohol, and the mean streets are as mean as they get. This is Sin City without machine gun wielding prostitutes, and it is glorious. For some reason, it reminded me of Breaking Bad, but without the humour in between, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. You have a character who straddles between the good and the bad, and having to make his way through the criminal underworld that's filled with people who're out to get you. The strength of this book is the way it tells a focussed story with characters that you give two shits about. Yes, they are flawed, and they are not exactly "the good guys", but you can't help but root for them any way because, at times, when you are living on the mean streets (in this case, the mean streets of Center City), you have to do what needs to be done—and some things are ugly.
And speaking of strengths, Brubaker and Sean Philips should just get married and have beautiful comic book babies. I love Philips' style, the way he saturates every panel with atmosphere and emotions. He does suffer a little from the same-face syndrome, but since every story is a standalone, it shouldn't bother you that some characters look overly similar to others. And emotions jump out from the pages because Philips has a way of capturing just the right intonations. This is dramatically different from, say, the later volumes of Fables, where characters would say something dramatic with a straight face (Buckingham's been getting real lazy in that department). Every frame tells a story for Philips, and it shows.
I haven't read a comic book this engaging in a long time. And it's better, because it has a heist—I can always use a heist. The quality dips just a little in the second volume, since the protagonist is a little less relatable and the story is somewhat of a rehash, but if this carries on to the next few volumes in the Criminals saga, I am confident that it will have a place among some of my favourites in the genre.
some_okie_dude27's review against another edition
5.0
After Coward, all I can say is 'damn, can that boy Brubaker write!' I would put him in the calibre of noir writers such as Jim Thompson, Dennis Lehane, and Richard Stark. Noir in comics is a rather niche genre, unless you're Frank Miller or Brian Michael Bendis of course. But Brubaker, along with his long time collaborator Sean Phillips have made noir a genre of their own in the comics game, and are now the duel kings of the genre in comic book form.
But with Coward, we see Brubaker riffing from Stark, considering that this is a heist story and our protagonist is a more neurotic version of his famous character Parker. While he is as calculating as Stark's famous creation, he proves to be more human and less cold than the eponymous thief from Stark's work. To keep it short, Coward is the best Parker story that wasn't written by Richard Stark, or Darwyn Cooke for that matter.
Brubaker has such a control over pacing and tone that he makes it look easy, in comparison to many of the comic book writers who either over-explain their concepts or those who often wildly move forward without letting the world of their work speak for itself. Brubaker's pace is tight and controlled. He knows the genre of noir well, and he writes with a confident voice. He has the tough guy voice down, though Leo is a much different character than your usual crime fiction tough guy.
One of Brubaker's favored themes is how crime is often passed down from one generation to the next, and we see this theme come through with the character of Leo. He is someone who had the brains to do whatever he wanted, had he put his mind to it. But sadly, he chose another path to follow down and eventually pays the price for it. But Brubaker has no time for moralizing about how crime doesn't pay, he trusts that the audience come to that conclusion by the end of the story. He deconstructs Leo's supposed cowardice and shows that he's a much more dangerous man than was initially anticipated.
The world of Criminal is also well defined. If I could compare it to anything, it would be the John Wick world, except Criminal's world is much seedier and more grounded. It is not quite as rule based as the world of John Wick, but the pulp factor is certainly there. If there were a more appropriate comparison, it would be to Miller's Sin City series. Though I might dare say that Brubaker's crime saga is superior to Miller's, as the storytelling is more consistent and the artwork outclasses Miller's ugly, blocky style.
Phillips' art is exceptional as usual, creating a gritty and brooding atmosphere that makes the world come to life. Alongside Ennis and Dillion, Brubaker and Phillips are one of the purest collaborations in comics and the two work together to almost supernatural effect. Phillips' art compliments Brubaker's hard boiled style and there's few others who do that with as much skill as Phillips has.
Noir has grown in prestige in the comics medium, but I've yet to see a writer or artist duo who can better Brubaker and Phillips.
storyman's review against another edition
4.0
Criminal is a fairly standard crime caper, but it is beautifully done. I've not read a comic since I was a kid, but I really enjoyed it. Like reading a film.