Broken Frontier

Detective Deanna Ransome gets deeper and deeper under cover as she attempts to bring back a former officer gone rogue, and she has to bring him back dead or alive.

After a drug bust went bad, leaving only Detective Ransome alive, her supervisor decided that she was no longer able to handle standard undercover cases. Instead he had a special case for her and her alone. She had to quickly infiltrate the rival gang in town, a gang that now had a former police officer as its leader. It seems that Detective Ransome was not the first officer to be given this assignment. Nick River went undercover so well, he decided he liked it and worked his way up to leader. So now, after a seemingly daring rescue, Deanna comes face to face with Nick as he selects her to be one of his main assassins and pushes an assignment on her immediately.

Most times when I pick up a Warren Ellis penned book, I always assume that every part but the final one will be exposition. Interesting, just a little long. Thankfully, this series does not follow that particular theme. Ellis has not wasted a second with this series. It is all action, all the time. Anything you need to know about these characters you can see during those scenes, and if they don’t make it they weren’t worth knowing anyway. And this isn’t to say that this book lacks the biting dialogue that Ellis is known for. Whenever the characters do get a chance to say something, either they’re smirking or you’re smirking reading it, and in the best instances, everyone is.

When this series was initially to be released, the intended artist was Tony Harris. He had finished the first issue, but by the time it got around to being finished, Harris was already working on other books, so Cully Hamner took over. Harris has still played a part in that he has provided the cover artwork, but in two issues, Hamner has proven that he is very much Harris’ equal. His work maintains the same clean feel that Harris’ has. While none of the panels are overly detailed they all feel full and complete. He deftly handles each action scene and expertly keeps pace with Ellis’ writing. And through it all he maintains the widescreen action movie feel. Also commendable is J.D. Mettler’s colors. Having already worked with Harris, Mettler continues with the same technique here, bringing stability to the book.

Warren Ellis is one of the most gifted writers in comicdom. Of all the styles that he employs, this widescreen action movie format works best in these small stories. Fast paced with a bit of intrigue underneath, this book is a fun ride.