By Ed Brubaker & Sean Phillips (Titan Books)
ISBN13: 978-1-84856-151-9
The third captivating collection of Brubaker and Phillips’s addictive modern Noir thriller (see Criminal: Coward ISBN: 1-84576-610-5 and Criminal: Lawless ISBN13: 978-1-84576-611-5) takes an unexpected turn by travelling back to the 1970s and recounting via three interconnected stories the history of the dark characters who inhabit those first two books.
Collecting volume 2, issues #1-3, of the comic book series, we meet the son of a black gangster who teamed with white Wise Guy Walter Hyde to take over the city’s rackets in 1954. Hyde became the Big Man and Clevon Brown became his invisible second. After all, there’s only so much progress even bad guys will let a black man enjoy in 1950s America.
1972 and Hyde’s kid Sebastian is making his way in his dad’s business but Jake Brown has chosen another route. They grew up friends but Jake chose boxing as a way to out, leaving the rackets to Hyde. Their closeness was soured over a woman but his once-friend still drags him back to the gutters whenever he needs a favour. And then one day he sees her: The girl who got between them.
The return of Danica Briggs turns an uncomfortable détente into a stupid, dangerous war and once the dust starts flying it’s hard to predict who’ll be left standing when it settles…
1972 and the second chapter finds a revenge-hungry Danica involved with returning Vietnam vet Teeg Lawless in a plan to steal from the Hyde’s. But when Lawless discovers just who he’s robbed he knows his method of making amends must be spectacular if he and his two baby boys are to live. His bloody mission to return the money and punish his confederates ensures his fearsome reputation for decades to come…
1972: Danica Briggs is making her way back to the city where her life ended. She wants money. She wants revenge. She wants to see Sebastian and Jake again. She wants it all to end…
‘Second Chance in Hell’, ‘A Wolf Among Wolves’ and ‘Female of the Species’ tell three tragic stories which combine into a brutal, foredoomed spiral of hopelessness which only violence can end. Oddly reminiscent of Christopher Nolan’s film Memento the story unfolds by taking us further back into each character’s past with each beginning but, nihilistically, at no stage does there ever appear to be a instant when a different path taken could have saved anyone. These trapped souls are doomed from the moment they met…
Dark, brutal and fearfully compelling, these tales of the other side of society are an irresistible view of raw humanity. These are stories that can’t be ignored… so don’t.
© 2008 Ed Brubaker & Sean Phillips. All Rights Reserved.