Story: Jay Faerber
Art: Simone Guglielmini
Color: Ron Riley
Letters: Charles Pritchett
Cover: Tomm Coker and Daniel Freedman
Published by: Image Comics
There is little redeeming about dying on the operating table of an animal hospital, but for Markham, a professional killer, that is just the start of the story. If you loved the Criminal, then you are going to totally dig this series. The cool thing about near death experiences is that people often come back changed in not just outlook, but we either see heaven or hell, and if we see hell we often make a commitment to fixing those things we have done that are sending us there. Markham is no different, upon his near death experience in the animal hospital, he realizes that he is going straight to hell. He has committed too much evil, and has an opportunity to fix those thigns that are going to send him to spend eternity with the devil facing torment after torment.
Unfortunately, for Markham, not everyone is going to believe in this change of personality. Moreover, because he has left a lot of really bad karma behind, not everyone is going to be ok with his change in ideas. Nope, his enemies have a much more direct plan about sending him on to the great beyond. That is where this story gets to be interesting. With many people and governments out to kill him, how can Markham save one more person for everyone he kills to balance out the books. Of course it does not help when he is forced to kill people who is trying to kill him while he is busy trying to balance out the books of karmic debt that he has racked up doing his job.
Jay has a winner on this one, not only is it enjoyable, it is almost good crime noir style drawing and feeling. They probably did not mean to have a near comedy undertone to this as Markham is busy trying to do the right thing while people right and left are trying to kill him. But some of the situations in this comic book almost deserve to be part rough comedy wrapped up in crime noir. How bad can it get for Markham, well think about all the people who want to take him out and are willing to take others just to get to their target. Markham is in for a long hard cold day at times, but there are many places to go with this new series from Image, and quite honestly, yeah it is pretty cool.
Rating this one 4 of 5 stars, had some problems with the coloring being a little heavy handed in terms of readability, and I am not sure they really meant to make me snork in giggles at times for the sheer amusement of the whole thing. But then Criminal made me laugh at times because I could see it, this does not necessarily make this a bad thing. Overall, this one is a great crime series, and one that has some awesome moments of plausibility. This comic is worth adding to your digital collection and enjoying.
Related articles
- Near Death #1 (comicsforge.com)
