Broken Frontier

When you think of great writer and artist teams in comics, which come to mind? Lee and Kirby? Simon and Kirby? Wolfman and Perez? Claremont and Byrne? Maybe even Bendis and Bagley?

I’m sure many of the teams mentioned above are top of mind. What do all these tandems have in common? They have collaborations which lasted a long time and were known for creating a lot of great stories. If these are the main qualifications, then perhaps you might soon have to add the team of Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips to the list.

I’m sure that not many of you thought of Brubaker and Phillips as one of the best creative teams in comics. After all, up to this point they have only worked together on Wildstorm’s Sleeper and Sleeper: Season Two series, two titles that did not set the sales charts on fire. However, both Sleeper volumes were critically acclaimed and totaled 24 issues. And the collaboration will continue with tomorrow’s Criminal, a new creator-owned series from Marvel’s Icon imprint.

The careers of Brubaker and Phillips have taken similar paths. Both started outside of the majors, Brubaker in Dark Horse Presents and Phillips in the Fleetway/Quality title The New Statemen. Both spent time at DC’s Vertigo imprint, Brubaker on Vertigo Visions: Prez, Scene of the Crime and Deadenders; Phillips on Hellblazer and Kid Eternity.

They also received exposure on big mainstream books, Uncanny X-Men for Phillips and Batman for Brubaker. And both are currently experiencing the height of their popularity, Brubaker for his work on X-Men: Deadly Genesis, Daredevil and Captain America and Phillips for his work on the Marvel Zombies series.

The team first worked together on Batman #602, a little under a year before the first Sleeper series began. Brubaker is right at home in the crime noir writing style and Phillips’ use of blacks and shadows in his artwork complements this genre. You could say this team was a marriage made in heaven.

The Sleeper series was unique in the way that the titles mixed crime noir with superheroes. It told the tale of “sleeper” agent Holden Carver, a super-powered man under deep cover in a criminal organization. This uniqueness might have doomed the book. No matter how often the critics trumpeted the quality of the series, fans seemed adverse to the mix of genres. It was as if they liked superheroes to be super and their espionage story to be mysterious and exotic, but never the two should meet.

The team seems to have corrected this situation with Criminal. The new series seems to be crime drama and nothing but. It will feature a cast of loosely knit criminals whose lives intersect with each other. From a pickpocket to a professional thief, from a hit man to a crooked cop, the diverse cast will allow Brubaker to explore the various facets of the genre from all angles and allow him to put his own spin on them as well.  

So, will the team of Brubaker and Phillips enter the pantheon of great comic book teams? Maybe, maybe not. But the success of Criminal will play a big part in it. The series is coming at a good time, both in terms of the market—which is thirsty for something new, different and done well—and in terms of the creator’s careers—which are definitely at an apex.

If this series succeeds where Sleeper did not—at least in the eyes of the general public—then comic fans of the future might be saying the names of Brubaker and Phillips the way we say the names of Lee and Kirby, Wolfman and Perez, and Claremont and Byrne now. 

Also out this week:

• Y: The Last Man #50: The moment fans of the series have been waiting for. The secret behind the virus which wiped out every male on the planet except Yorick and his pet monkey Ampersand is finally revealed. What was behind it? A mutation of a common everyday virus? An accident in a medical lab somewhere? Or something far more sinister?

I love the fact that Vaughan, Guerra and Vertigo are making the 50th issue a special occasion. In today’s day and age, 50 issues is a milestone most new titles never reach. It should be celebrated and to reveal such a pivotal plot point is a good way to do it. And the timing is right as well. With the series about to end in 10 issues, the title needs to begin wrapping up its story. Finding out the truth behind the virus is a good beginning to the end.

• Fantastic Four #540: If you haven’t read Civil War #4 yet, let me spoil it for you. Go to the next blurb if you wish to protect the mystery. In that issue, Sue Richards leaves her husband Reed over some of the things he’s done in that conflict. This leaves the Fantastic Four as we know them no longer in existence. This subplot by Marvel has garnered some attention from the mainstream press, and that development will get further attention in this issue.

Love it or hate it, Marvel has used the Civil War to seriously shake up the status quo of its characters and universe. Spider-Man revealing his identity to the world has gotten a lot more attention, but what is happening to the FF might be more drastic. The one thing about the Fantastic Four that is unique is that they are a family. Not just teammates, not just allies, but a family. With the Thing moving to Canada and the Human Torch joining his sister in the resistance, that dynamic has been shattered to pieces.  Will the break-up last? Probably not. But if it does, it should be interesting to see where Marvel takes the FF from here.

• Empty Chamber #1: As the solicitation states, a man named Matt is alone in a quiet Boston Univerity in the dead of winter. But his solitude doesn’t last long, as his knowledge brings a diverse array of people to his door. The government, a beautiful female mercenary and a renegade general all have their reasons for seeking what’s inside Matt’s head, but it all revolves around what he knows being able to thwart an American genocide.

Almost sounds like the back of a DVD box for a movie staring Ben Affleck, doesn’t it? It certainly is an interesting concept and if it’s properly executed could result in an exciting story. The espionage genre isn’t seen much in comics these days. But if done well, the story style can be just as valid and intriguing as any other comic on the market.

• Doctor Strange: The Oath #1: Doctor Strange has been an interesting member of the Marvel Universe. Created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko in Strange Tales #110, he has gone on to star in several series, has been worked on by top-name creators, and even has had a TV-movie dedicated to him in the 1970’s. But he also seems to be a character that many creators have a hard time getting a handle on.  It feels as if we have yet to see the definitive version of the Sorcerer Supreme.

Perhaps this mini-series will change all that. It certainly has a top notch creative team in Brian K. Vaughan and Marcos Martin. And there has been buzz about the series since it was first announced. This might be the time when Doctor Strange reaches the upper echelon of Marvel characters and it will be interesting to see if that does in fact happen.

• Nightwing #125: Marv Wolfman might not have created Dick Grayson or even been alive when Robin first donned the tights, but there has been no other writer who has contributed so much to the character as he has. Wolfman helped flesh out the character in the New Teen Titans and was responsible for him taking on the Nightwing identity. It seems fitting that he returns to writing the character with this issue.

Wolfman is a comic veteran with almost 40 years of experience in the field and has worked on almost every character at both DC and Marvel. He is, to my generation, what Brian Michael Bendis, Geoff Johns and Mark Millar are to the current one: a creator who you could rely on to give you quality stories time and again. At a time when most of his contemporaries are mere footnotes in the annals of comic history, it is nice to see Marv getting the opportunity to entertain a new generation of comic readers.  

# # #

William Gatevackes is a professional writer living in Mamaroneck, NY with his wife Jennifer who each week proofreads this column for him. Bill had to break it to her gently that Y:The Last Man was ending with number #60, because she has become quite enamored with the series in trade paperback. He wanted to make sure she was warned before she came across it while proofing. Bill also writes periodic comic reviews for PopMatters and writes title descriptions for Human Computing’s Comicbase collection management software.