Brubaker opens the issue with some terrible adjective use, so I started out ready to nitpick. Of course, he didn’t have to prove me right… but he went ahead and did so anyway. I really loathe these types of reviews, because I really do love Brubaker’s work. It’s just… fallen off since he’s gotten to Marvel. Swan dived, actually.

Oh, before I get the complaints–great art from Phillips. It’s always great art from Phillips, but this issue he really gets to do a lot.

All right, the laundry list.

It’s just too contrived. Brubaker expects the reader to make a significant time and money investment and he’s not providing anything in return.

Brubaker further establishes Tracy as a hero (he cares for hookers and the disenfranchised).

Finally, Brubaker makes the killers Tracy’s hunting kids–and the only way to redeem the series is for Tracy to kill them all.

CREDITS

Writer, Ed Brubaker; artist, Sean Phillips; colorist, Val Staples; publisher, Icon.

I guess Brubaker thought Criminal was out of control too, because for the Sinners, he returns to his most solid protagonist–Tracy Lawless (from the second arc of the first series).

For a while it works. We catch up with Tracy. In the year since the last story took place, he’s become a hitman with a conscious. He worries about his boss’s rebelling teenager daughter, cuddles his boss’s distraught trophy wife and seems to be an all-around nice guy.

He’s kind of turned into Burt Lancaster in a film noir. Not mean enough to be Kirk Douglas or Richard Widmark.

(At least he’s not Victor Mature).

The problems come from Brubaker’s lack of imagination. Sure, he’s got to be sleeping with his boss’s wife–it adds drama, but it’s pretty darn contrived, especially in Criminal.

Then there’s the ending–Tracy narrates an event he’s not present to experience. Huh?

CREDITS

Writer, Ed Brubaker; artist, Sean Phillips; colorist, Val Staples; publisher, Icon.

Maybe I just put it out of my mind, like I didn’t want to believe Brubaker was capable of writing such a stupid reveal. I mean, I knew he was capable of stupid endings–Sleeper provided that one beyond a shadow of a doubt, but….

Really, Ed? Fight Club? That’s the best you could come up with? Ripping off Fight Club? It might not have been a big hit, but everyone’s seen the damn thing. Not to mention it being in the novel too, so even if someone hasn’t seen the movie, they might have read the book.

Brubaker’s conclusion is so weak, it would have been a far better book if he’d killed the protagonist in the first issue and filled the subsequent three with nature art from Phillips.

It’s sort of fitting all the letter pages to this arc are Brubaker touting his awful direct-to-video movie.

CREDITS

Bad Night, Part Four; writer, Ed Brubaker; artist, Sean Phillips; colorist, Val Staples; publisher, Icon.

Okay, I’m mildly amused–back when I started reading Criminal again, I misremembered the first arc as this arc.

Brubaker’s really running into some pacing issues here. What’s old hat in a film noir–around an eighty minute narrative–does not work in comic book form. Brubaker also doesn’t have enough exposition to keep the reader’s reading speed in check, so this issue just flies past.

He’s got a protagonist who, on the surface, engenders a lot of sympathy but it’s all false sympathy. Brubaker makes the guy more and more tragic to get the reader interested, to divert attention away from there not being anything to the story.

I said before this arc could be done in an issue… at this point, I think it could be done in half an issue. Almost everything is padding here.

But Phillips is getting to draw daytime scenes here, which are pretty.

CREDITS

Bad Night, Part Three; writer, Ed Brubaker; artist, Sean Phillips; colorist, Val Staples; publisher, Icon.

Ah, the five minute read. Nothing like the five minute read.

For a five minute read, this comic isn’t bad. It’s got beautiful Sean Phillips art and it’s not a terrible all action issue. But it’s really light and really boring. Brubaker’s pacing here is for effect, everything is hurried to get the reader anxious.

It also made me remember I have read this arc; there’s really not much to it. It left me then, like it is in the process of doing now, with very little impression.

The arc either takes place entirely at night or inside the protagonist’s house. And his house is dark. The concept–a guy taken hostage and forced to aid in a criminal’s plot–could have been done in a single issue. It doesn’t need four, especially since it’s clear it’s not going anywhere special.

Maybe I’m wrong and it turns around, but I’m not hopeful.

CREDITS

Bad Night, Part Two; writer, Ed Brubaker; artist, Sean Phillips; colorist, Val Staples; publisher, Icon.

This arc of Criminal–I can’t remember if I’ve read it or not, I think I’ve read this issue because it seems familiar, but I’m not sure about the rest–is Brubaker’s first attempt at using a non-criminal as his protagonist. The guy used to be a criminal, but he’s since reformed. And he was never a tough guy. Of the five protagonists so far, all but one (the girl) was a tough guy. Now it’s two of six.

The issue’s got a nice pace to it, introducing the character, moving him through his routine. It’s the same guy who was in the second arc in the first series as a supporting character. I spent the entire issue trying to remember if that connection was correct–the always interconnected cast is getting distracting.

The pace changes in the last few pages, story veering into traditional noir.

Still, quite good.

CREDITS

Bad Night, Part One; writer, Ed Brubaker; artist, Sean Phillips; colorist, Val Staples; publisher, Icon.