Criminal 1: Coward

Coward is the first volume in the Criminal series of semi-standalone neo-noir crime stories by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips. I say semi-standalone because each can be read independently but they’re set in the same fictional “universe” (as we have to call these things nowadays) and they share recurring characters and themes.

The coward of the title is a thief named Leo Patterson, though his reputation as yellow is partly a disguise. It leads people to underestimate him, and the fact is he isn’t so much cowardly as careful, always thinking of the ways a job can go wrong and planning in advance. His caution keeps him out of jail and makes him a survivor.

There is a plot here involving some crooked cops enlisting Leo to help them with a heist, but the way it works out is pretty much just the regular sort of thing, with double-crosses and fallings out. What I thought set Coward apart was the character of Leo, who feels authentic and well-rounded. He grew up in the trade, and now cares for his elderly uncle Ivan, who is both a junky and suffering from Alzheimer’s. Though despite this Ivan is still mostly functional, or functional enough to be a problem.

We’re very much in Sin City-style territory here, and if I had a gripe about Coward it’s that the ending is so clichéd and predictable. But it’s still better than most contemporary crime comics, thanks to Brubaker’s writing and Sean Phillips’s thick lines, shadowed faces, and signature starburst gun flares. I’m sure the rest of the series will be more of the same, but I’m down for it anyway.

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