Notes of a Defeatist

The last few weeks, I’ve been pouring over the work of Ed Brubaker, current writer of Marvel’s Captain America, X-Men, and Daredevil. For at least a year, everyone I know who loves crime comics screams Brubaker’s name whenever they’re stuck listening to me complain about having nothing good to read. Sleeper, Gotham Central, Scenes of a Crime, and a few issues of Catwoman have sat untouched mostly because I had trouble getting into Point Blank, a noir prequel to Sleeper, that requires finishing in one sitting to truly appreciate what Brubaker was attempting to do with the circular plot structure.Fishing around on eBay, enabled me to get copies of Accidental Death and The Fall two stories that hark back to the noir traditions of David Goodis, James M. Cain, and Jim Thompson’s America and well worth the effort to track down.

Brubaker’s two most talked about current books at Marvel Captain America and Daredevil each comes with it’s own unique challenges and baggage. Captain America, an iconic masthead of Marvel’s comics for 60 years has always been a bland one dimensional poster boy. Brubaker breathed some life into Cap. by tearing open old wounds and twisting plot lines enough to give him more dimensions. Having never been a fan of Captain America myself, Brubaker’s injection of more espionage and corruption make Cap interesting enough to forgive the fact that he manages to take down scores of armed terrorists with only a shield with boomerang like qualities and his heightened strength.

Following Brian Bendis’ legendary five year shake-up of Daredevil, Brubaker and penciler Michael Lark’s hit the ground running, never missing a beat with their first arch “The Devil In Cell Block D”. Writers tend to be at their best when they’re putting their characters through hell and so far Brubaker’s take on Daredevil continues to surprise and tantalize with every issue.
Prime example—Daredevil #86, which page for page stands as twenty-two of the best pages I’ve read so far this year because of Brubaker’s obsession with putting Matt Murdock in the worst possible situation.
Later this October, Brubaker returns to more of a traditional crime comic with Criminal.

As Ed told Newsarama.com about Criminal, “So, you say, “Yeah, Daredevil’s okay, and I like Captain America, but I really dug Ed Brubaker’s crime stuff. In fact, the stuff he did when Sean Phillips illustrated, like in Sleeper... man, if only he’d do another book like that.”

That time has come. Brubaker and Phillips sound like they’re going to have a field day crafting a very distinct new entry into the crime genre and I can’t wait.

Download a preview of Criminal here.