I love Criminal. Love it. So when I heard that Brubaker, Philips and Staples were leaving the seedy underbelly of Center City for a Superhero/Pulp hybrid, I was really pissed at the larger comic fandom. I was angry, because I hated the fact that a solid piece of crime fiction had to make way for another capes-and-cowl fare. I feared that while the story may be good, it will be totally contrived because the sole purpose was to get the word out on Criminal. Did my fears come true? to be honest, yes. While all the players involved gave their 110%, it still felt mostly like a poor man’s substitue.

*IMPORTANT NOTICE: If you do not want to read a negative nancy whine, start reading from here.*

I say mostly, because this issue was AWESOME. I don’t know, if its Ed Brubaker’s scripts or the artist’s own creative input to the story, but Sean Phillips captures the right moments of the action. He and Val Staples kill on this issue. Everything from the cover to the phenomenally effective grid layout. The end result is a beautiful, compact storytelling package. As a guy who has read almost all of their previous collaborations, this is hands down their best single issue.

Its not quite so on the writing side, but it is rarely possible. The story itself is filled superhero tropes, but done in Brubaker style, giving it some stylistic flare.As with his other books, characters have their own distinct voices, but the writing is clearly over-shadowed by the art.

One thing that remains unchanged from Criminal is the back-matter. The quality of the articles about pulp characters have been top notch throughout the series and this month was no exception. I seriously think that the trade readers are missing out on some of the best stuff both series have to offer. I seriously implore you to buy the new Criminal series in issues. You’ll end up paying more, but added value is totally worth it.