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Wednesday 25 March 2020

Criminal #4 Review (Ed Brubaker, Sean Phillips)


Someone killed Leo’s dad and his pal Ricky Lawless is gonna find the guys what dunit. He’s also been up for days, tweaked out of his mind, and is starting to see ghosts - so he’s definitely not gonna fuck anything up, right?

Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips’ superb new run of Criminal continues with the flawless fourth issue. The writing, the art, the perfectly plotted, well-paced and unpredictable storyline unfolding beautifully - it’s a comics masterclass by two of the best in the business. If you like crime fiction, there’s no better than this series and the story of Ricky Lawless is effortlessly compelling.

The death of Teeg Lawless, Ricky’s equally no-good pops, is tantalisingly hinted at again (the last time was in the first volume of Criminal) and, in his editorial, Brubaker says that Teeg’s fate will form the next story arc beginning in issue #5 - can’t wait!

Also, for anyone wondering when the next collected edition of Criminal will be out, Brubaker’s confirmed that issues #2 and #3 will be the next book - Bad Weekend - with extra pages that got cut from the original issues. So, length-wise, it’ll be like My Heroes Have Always Been Junkies and it’ll be out in July, appropriately in time for con season!

Meanwhile there’s the wonderfully sordid Lawless family saga to enjoy in Criminal #4 - another hit for this creative team. It’s a good time to be a fan of Brubaker/Phillips!

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