It is just so good to see Greg Rucka back to working in crime. I lapped up Whiteout, Detective Comics, Gotham Central, Queen and Country et al back in the day, but never derived the same enjoyment from his superhero books. Sure Checkmate was awesome, but his Superman and Wonder Woman runs always fell a bit flat for me, often saddled with lacklustre artists. This was fantastic though, it gripped me from beginning to end.
The plot is rudimentary to an extent, in that it follows certain conventions of private investigator stories, dealing as it does with an errant relative. Don't read that as criticism though, because there's a reason that certain crimes/jobs recur in crime fiction and that's because they have a basis in reality. These are the things that people do and have done to them in society, over and over again. Perhaps more vital to this book is the dialogue, atmosphere and characters. Rucka delivers here on all counts. Dex is clearly from the screwed up school of PIs and yet I'm already head over heels for her. The relationship with her younger brother is both sweet and perfectly natural. The old woman who runs the casino steals her scene brilliantly, and there's promise of more great characters to round out the cast in the future. The dialogue is pitch perfect at every step and you just get a sense of effortlessness from the book, it's the kind of stuff the guy was born to write.
Meanwhile on art chores, Matthew Southworth is excellent. I hadn't heard of him before, but his work fits the tone exactly. His layouts and overall sense of design fitted really well, yet managed to incorporate plenty of imagination too, for example in the double page shooting scene near the start. Breathtaking stuff, covered by some unusual but effective colours.
This book is that perfect marriage of all creators, so much so that it gets tough to keep thinking of new superlatives. I have a new top 5 ongoing book with just one issue, and I want more!
Story: 5 - Excellent
Art: 5 - Excellent
