By Greg Rucka & Steve Lieber & various (Oni Press)
ISBN: 978-1-932664-70-6 (TPB vol 1) 978-1-932664-71-3 (TPB vol 2) 978-1-620104-48-4 (TPB compendium)
When done right there’s no artistic medium which can better depict the myriad intricacies of a murder-mystery than the comic strip.
These superb and seminal slices of crime fiction were the 2D debut of novelist Greg Rucka and saw up-&-coming artist Steve Lieber achieve his full illustrative potential in a gripping chiller set in a world where, despite appearances, nothing is simply black and white…
Originally released in 1998 as a 4-part miniseries from Oni Press, Whiteout introduced disgraced Deputy U.S. Marshal Carrie Stetko, suffering banishment to the ends of the Earth – generally known as McMurdo Station, Antarctica – following a tremendous and unforgivable screw-up during her Stateside duties.
Seamlessly filling in crucial background detail as it swiftly progresses, we learn Antarctica is an international “Neutral Zone” co-managed by the USA, Britain, Russia, Argentina, Chile, Australia and other nations. Here, mineral exploitation is forbidden by treaty, military weapons are proscribed and there are 400 men to every woman. Antarctica is a place where all Man’s basest instincts are curtailed by official accord – or at least that’s the global party line…
In the cold and isolated outpost Stetko doesn’t go out of her way to adapt, settle in or make friends. This a place where few people stay for more than a few months, whether they’re involved with the military, explorers, scientists or even dubious business types.
It’s dull drudgery all the way… but that ends when Carrie is called out to examine a body on the ice…
The face has been horrendously removed from the brittle corpse but the remote surroundings are a mess, with multiple deep core-samples removed from the frozen wastes. Stetko wouldn’t even be involved if the body hadn’t been clad in a parka with American flags on it. Even after prying the cadaver loose from the ice, she has to wait days for it to thaw enough before the camp doctor everyone calls Furry can begin an autopsy.
More worryingly, further investigation reveals the international research expedition was supposed to comprise five men: two Americans, a Briton, an Argentinean and an Austrian. Where and who are the other four?
Sole friendly face Furry is having little luck with the body. Somebody has employed an ice hammer to make sure identification is impossible, but the diligent doc gets enough from the remains of the feet to fax off prints to the U.S. Eventually, details come back and Stetko starts searching for the killer of American citizen Alexander Keller… who is NOT one of the research team at all…
Interviewing the pilot who ferried the team out generates no leads, and days are wasted checking other bases by radio. Moreover, time is running out. With True Winter coming, most camps are preparing to shut down: ferrying all but the most essential staff back to civilisation until a slightly more hospitable Spring makes life on the ice survivable again. Once “Winter-over” begins, the killer will be impossible to find…
When she gets a call back from British-administered Victoria Station that two of the missing team are there, Carrie catches her first break by hitching on a flight ferrying Australian pilot John Haden to his next gig. Despite his easy charm and manner, Carrie knows something is not right about him…
Rendezvousing with officious administrator Lily Sharpe, Carrie refuses to wait out another impending storm. Eventually, both women venture out onto the ice to find the outlying cabin of the missing men. As they enter, they’re attacked by an axe-wielding masked man who has just killed both of her suspects in the same way Keller was dispatched…
Giving chase into the storm, Carrie is overpowered and her vital guide-wire cut. Lost in a binding whiteout with the temperature drastically dropping by the second, she is going to die mere feet from safety and will not be found for months… or at all…
As Sharpe recovers and follows, Stetko has, with Herculean determination and a deal of sheer luck, found a temporary sanctuary where she is safe if no longer sound. She never will be again…
Lost in delirium and suppressed memories, Carrie almost fights her way free from her last-minute rescuer but is at last taken to the Station’s infirmary. When fit enough to travel, the Marshal is ferried back to McMurdo by the mysterious Lily who reveals that the two remaining suspects have been spotted on the ice at Amundsen-Scott base.
As much through anger and resentment, at her boss’ insistence Carrie, with Sharpe in tow, heads after them. On reaching the far station she receives an astounding surprise on spotting “dead man” Keller in the canteen…
Sharpe, meanwhile, has the last two suspects. Or at least, their bloody, battered remains…
Keller eludes the Marshal and lies hidden in Sharpe’s plane, where he finds her gun. According to the Antarctica Treaty, all weapons are banned on the jointly-administered continent, but that’s far from being the British woman’s biggest secret sin…
Everything kicks into high gear as Keller and hidden allies mercilessly strike back before the mystery is exposed and murky motives are revealed as the stunning conclusion reveals just how dangerous trust can be in a land which scours the heart and soul every minute of every day…
Smart, cynical and intoxicatingly devious, this superb fair-play murder mystery was one of the best comics crime capers in a generation, and promptly spawned a sequel. In Whiteout Rucka & Lieber created a powerful and determined truth-seeker wedded to a ferociously evocative and utterly distinct milieu in which to prove her worth.
Riding a wave of critical acclaim, writer and artist reunited for searing sequel Melt: another 4-issue miniseries released by Oni Press from September 1999 to February 2000 before being gathered into its own graphic novel compilation.
This dark, bleak tale begins with a quick body-bestrewn history lesson on Antarctica, from the deadly duel between Scott and Amundsen and following frantic scurry – and brief brush wars – by a host of nations hungry to possess the territory. That ceased in 1961, when Cold War caution and the threat of Mutually Assured Destruction resulted in the Antarctic Treaty.
This landmark pact saw the region designated a neutral area reserved for purely scientific research: one where all military activity was strictly prohibited.
Antarctica is still a bizarre Neutral Zone co-managed by many nations, where mineral and commercial exploitation is completely forbidden. At least officially…
In this follow-up fable, US Marshal Stetko is recuperating in New Zealand when the American embassy drags her in just so a CIA spook named James can tell her she’s going back to the ice – voluntarily or not.
The Agency monitors chatter and has discovered that a Russian science station has been destroyed by an explosion, with the loss of all 14 personnel. They believe it was no accident. Overruling Stetko’s arguments about jurisdiction, the Feds tell her she’s going to investigate, or “offer help, in the spirit of the Treaty” because – despite her naive beliefs – every nation represented officially present in Antarctica has weapons stockpiled there – even the “good guy” Americans – and Tayshetskaya Base was just such an armoury/staging ground for potential conflicts…
Weathering a tirade of threats and discounting a wealth of promised bribes, Carrie soon finds herself on a plane heading due south. At the burned-out site of the base she’s greeted – if not welcomed – by her Russian opposite number Pyotr Danilovich and his emergency team. The harassed investigator studiously knows nothing and is severely disquieted when Stetko points out that one of the burned bodies from the “accident” has a bullet hole in it.
Of course, according to the Treaty, all weapons are banned, but this isn’t like anything she’s seen before…
Leaving Pyotr desperately trying to convince himself that it’s all just a mistake and accident, Carrie wanders through burned-out wreckage and plunges through the flooring into a hidden room stuffed with crates of small arms. In a corner are three empty crates marked with the tri-foil – international symbol for radiation. The Russians had stored nukes here – and they’re gone now…
Far away, six killers race away on snowmobiles with their prizes, but have no appreciation or understanding of the ice. After crashing into a hidden crevasse there are only five…
Back at Tayshetskaya, a mysterious Russian arrives. Captain Aleksandr Ivanovich Kuchin claims to be Carrie’s official back-up and liaison: tasked by his government with giving her all the assistance she needs. He disarmingly and disingenuously adds that he’s also there to quash any embarrassing scandal…
He confirms that the killer thieves are former Speznaz: mercenaries who have seized the nukes for a client and will smuggle them out over the ice rather than through more reasonable channels. After checking in with her own bosses, Carrie is told to get them – and proof of the Russian government’s treaty-breaking – if she ever wants to leave Antarctica…
Using satellite tech, Stetko and Kuchin narrow down the mercs’ current location and set off after them on skis, but the mutually suspicious manhunters almost die in a booby trap and are buried alive in a crevasse…
Forced to trust each other for the duration, they brilliantly extricate themselves to resume the chase. They have an unsuspected ally: brutal remorseless Antarctica is gradually eroding the confidence and capability of the fleeing killers: now reduced to four cold, slowly dying men. Sadly, the ice plays no favourites and tries its damnedest to kill Carrie and her stoic companion too…
After surviving a huge storm, Carrie wakes up alone and – suspicions sadly confirmed – sets off after duplicitous Kuchin. She does not know the cagy Russian has been captured by their quarry and faces a most unpleasant end, but neither the mercs nor their intended victim realise the US Marshal has found their lost and flash-frozen comrade and now possesses the very best in freelance weaponry and camouflage…
Escalating into an inevitable, spectacularly bloody climax, this grim, gritty and stunningly gripping thriller confirms Carrie Stetko’s guts, resolve and sheer smarts in a devastating display of swift, effective, problem-solving violence and propensity to do the right thing no matter what the cost…
Sharp, hard-boiled and savagely ultra-cool, this magnificent cold-hearted intercontinental caper was a sublime second outing for one of the best female crimebusters in comics and remains a wonderful experience for mature readers to while away cold, lonely nights.
In 2017, these chilly classics were reissued in a classy compendium edition which sadly did nothing to offset the appalling 2009 movie adaptation that had followed the original comic’s release. Just remember Films are not the intended ended result of comics. Read the stories as intended and have as much fun as you can in your own head.
… And agitate for the returns of Carrie Stetko…
™ & © 1998, 1999 2007 Greg Rucka. All rights reserved.