Cruel Summer, Part Two shows us how Teeg Lawless and his lady Jane wound up in the bar where they crossed paths with skip tracer Dan Farraday from the last ish. And, as always with Teeg, it’s a dark and sleazy tale!
Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips’ Criminal never fails to entertain me. It’s the mark of great art that, even if you think you’re not in the mood to read something like a crime comic, it grabs and completely holds your attention regardless.
Teeg is such an unpredictable lunatic that he’s always fun to read about. Brubaker unexpectedly takes a romance angle this time - given that this is the arc of Teeg’s death, I guess he might’ve felt like he owed him a last hurrah of happiness before offing him! - but it works given that Jane is as crazy as he is so they do some interesting stuff to make cash. Crazy not in an OTT way either, but in a very human way - that scene where she’s sat in the closet at night sobbing semi-consciously was a revealing moment.
It still feels like table-setting and I would’ve liked to see the story advance more rather than go back and take us up to the same point of the last issue. Some of Phillips’ art looks a bit rushed in places and I’m not as much a fan of Jacob Phillips’ colours as I was of the likes of previous Brubaker colourists Elizabeth Breitweiser or Dave Stewart - the colours here look splashed on somewhat carelessly.
Criminal #6 is still a fine comic though and another great addition to this wonderfully bleak series - fans won’t be disappointed.
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