And as for his creator-owned work with Phillips, there are vigilantes haunted by demons, an immortal femme fatale hunted by Lovecraftian horrors, and a supervillain in witness protection. He’s shown cops in Gotham city having their lives made miserable by some bat-freak who ignores due process.

He’s put Matt Murdock in prison, dealing with genuine moral and legal problems in the process. Brubaker’s worked on Batman, Daredevil, and Captain America, carrying noir sensibilities into the realm of superheroes. The centerpiece of Brubaker and Phillips’ career, Criminal shouldn’t carry any surprises if you’re familiar with their other work. Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips’ Criminal delivers on every one of these points. People who I relate to, or, if I don’t relate to, who I recognize. Who fear, who love, who have secret thoughts and feelings. People who are true to life, who have motivations, and desires, and needs. Sometimes the plot itself is clever, all the different pieces fitting together, feeding into one another.īut most of all, what I’m looking for are characters. Sometimes a character’s clever, in their speech or actions. Comic images, comic panels, they’re little portals, simultaneously drawing you in and showing you the world the characters inhabit. Tropes or characters or techniques that draw me in. What do you look for in a story? There are different aspects that speak to me.

Criminal deluxe edition volume 1