Criminal: The Last of the Innocent (Marvel Icon)

Writer: Ed Brubaker

Artist: Sean Philips

Marvel Comics launched their Icon imprint back in 2004. The most famous and successful and famous Icon comic is probably Kick-Ass by Mark Millar and John Romita Jr., which just goes to show that the world loves to have its prejudices about comics being second-rate, immature entertainment for emotionally stunted boys (albeit boys in their thirties and forties) reinforced. However the most consistent in terms of release and quality is Criminal by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips, which is now released in story arcs averaging around four issues before going on hiatus until the next arc is ready, and the two creators have released other projects.

Ed Brubaker had been around for some considerable time as an “alternative” comic creator. I first read him in Dark Horse Presents in the late nineties on a strip called The Fall, which failed to grip me but this was more to do with the fact that I didn't have all of the issues of DHP that contained the strip, and it wasn't until Gotham Central from DC Comics, a police procedural that just happened to be set in the Gotham City of Batman, that I really started to take notice. His run on Captain America for Marvel helped reinvigorate the title, but to my mind Criminal is where he really demonstrates his chops.

As a twenty-something in the early nineties I latched onto Sean Phillips art in the relaunch of the Judge Dredd Megazine in which was the John Smith and Sean Phillips strip, Devlin Waugh. At the time I felt that this art was like nothing else I'd seen in comics, and he certainly stood out as somebody who could clearly tell a story whilst at the same time providing some innovative visuals. On reading Criminal all these years later, it is clear that he is the perfect artist for the title. He and Brubaker seem to have developed a definite chemistry. This is very much a comic by two co-creators rather than one dominating the other.

I was a latecomer to Criminal. Page 45 (the comic shop in Nottingham) featured the collection of the first story arc, Coward, as their Comic Book of the Month, and I've not looked back since. 

The title itself consists of self contained story arcs set at different times in Central City. Each arc can be read on its own with no reference to any of the others and provides a complete and satisfying story. However for regular readers there is also the connections that can be made between the different characters. It is not unusual for the people we have met in a previous story to turn up in a minor role, or mentioned, or in the background of some other story. Sometimes we get to see these people later on from a different point of view, or we have seen them earlier and so the mere mention of them has a ring of frisson about it.

The latest story arc is set in 1982 and concerns a man called Riley Richards going back to his home town of Brookview for a few days to see his terminally ill father. Richards is far from innocent, having a fondness for strippers and gambling, and being in debt to Sebastian Hyde, the kingpin of organised crime in Central City. However his trip back to the small town of his childhood is also a trip back to innocence as he stays in his old bedroom that has not been changed since he left, and meets up with his old childhood sweetheart and his best friend. This glimpse of how simple life used to be gives Riley the wherewithal to get rid of his debt and to be with his childhood sweetheart. All he needs to do is murder his wife, who just happens to be from a wealthy family and whose father made him sign a pre-nuptial agreement. What follows is the very opposite of innocent as he murders his adulterous wife and frames her lover, who happens to be another childhood acquaintance. Oh and he kills his childhood best friend too.

As usual with this title, and noir in general, none of the characters are what you could term wholesome. The title would seem to refer to the one person totally untainted by anything, Riley's childhood girlfriend Lizzie Gordon. You find yourself pulling for Riley and wanting him to win through, but the sucker punch in him killing his best friend is quite a blow. It shows just how far gone Riley is, and brings to mind the quote from Macbeth after he has murdered his friend, the noble Banquo:

“...I am in blood

Stepped in so far, that, should I wade no more,

Returning were as tedious as go o'er.”

• Macbeth, Act 3, Scene 4

Sean Phillips compliments the story perfectly, utilising the dark style consistent with the rest of the series, with a more innocent style reminiscent of Archie for the flashbacks to more innocent times. This is effective as used throughout, but the real payoff comes in the last panel, where we see Riley and Lizzie together, drawn in the innocent style, against a backdrop of a seedy city scene drawn in the more familiar dark, sinister style; an omen of the changes that are about to come crashing into the innocent Lizzie Gorden's life we wonder?

Criminal is a wonderful comic and this latest arc has been it's strongest yet. The plot may not have exactly been original, but it was executed with sufficient panache and style to feel fresh, and Sean Phillips excelled his usual high standards, pulling out all the stops to maximise the emotional resonance of the tale.