Top of the Pile 8/22/2012

Supercrooks #4
Story by Mark Millar and Nacho Vigalondo
Art by Leinil Yu and Gerry Alanguilan
Colors by Sunny Gho
Letters by Clayton Cowles

There are tons of post-modern superhero stories where the heroes are as bad - or worse - than the villains they are supposed to fight. And Mark Millar has built an entire collection of books around this theme. His book Wanted and Kick-Ass have been made into movies. And he pumps out uber-violent, profanity laced tales that always entertain me.

With Supercrooks #4, we are at the end of a mini-series. The tale revolves around a heist. To get money for an old supervillain who gets in trouble over gambling debts, a team is assembled to steal the 800 million dollar nest egg of the greatest villain, with the obvious name The Bastard. So like all the old heist films, (Topkapi, Oceans 11, The Italian Job, A Fish Called Wanda, Reservoir Dogs…) each character has a role in the caper. And there is always a switcheroo to throw off the victim. And Millar hits all the tropes, which is good.

Leinl Yu’s art quite good. Though unique, he uses a rougher style which works well with this type of story.  The viscera are nicely drawn and the narrative isn’t lost in it’s roughness. There is a funny panel where The Bastard has been had. He ends up in front of the “Monkey Go-Round” in the Banana Land amusement park. That made me chuckle.

So for a thin week of few books purchased, what ended up on the top of the pile was a good read. Not great. But fun.