Brubaker offers up a wonderfully accessible and deliciously dark followup to his much acclaimed Sleeper series with the first "episode" of Season Two. I love how he's turned everything around; Holden's world is completely turned around, yet his life remains very much constant at the same time. The super-hero genre, mob drama and an espionage atmosphere converge in a rich story that ultimately explores how one man, extraordinary powers aside, feels inside. The action is exciting and the plotting clever, but what makes this a compelling read is the emotional factor. Phillips reinforces Brubaker's efforts with artwork that dark, mature and brooding in nature.
Holden Carver was once an undercover International Operations agent, working for director John Lynch. He successfully infiltrated the superhuman underworld, becoming a trusted lieutenant in the criminal organization run by the mysterious and powerful Tao. But Carver was cut off from I.O., with no word coming from Lynch, and instead of pretending to be one of the bad guys, he stopped pretending. But Lynch still wants to contact his one-time agent, and Tao still has his uses for him as well.
There's a looser quality at play in Phillips's work here. He allows darkness to delineate characters and settings at times as opposed to traditional line art. There's a dark but palpable atmosphere and a texture in the art that reminds me of the work of Tom Mandrake's work on such titles as The Spectre and Creeps. The colors here are soft and muted, tending to lurk within the darkness that envelops the characters as opposed to disrupting it. It adds an eerie quality to the art which in turn adds to the tension that's such an integral part of the book.
Brubaker examines the conventions of super-hero storytelling and approaches them from a more realistic perspective. The power and violence that we treat casually in other comics are shown to have real consequences here. People die. Bullets do permanent damage. And since there are no iconic, permanent trademarks being serviced by these stories, anything is possible, every character vulnerable.
The one aspect of the book that didn't quite work for me was Brubaker's description (or the lack thereof) of Holden's powers. The overall plot and characters are quite accessible, but Brubaker doesn't really get into the nature of Holden's powers -- which are an important part of why he does what he does -- and that promises to leave new readers out of the loop somewhat.
Despite the explosive action and underworld betrayal, what this book is really about is a man who's desperate to feel something... to feel anything. Holden's physical curse reflects his emotional one. He feels as though he can't experience love or trust, but he yearns for it. He wants to connect with Gretchen, but they tell themselves it's not possible. All he's left with is the camaraderie he feels with Tao's other superhuman agents, and he's trying to make do with that. Holden's an emotional cripple, and it makes for a fascinating character study.
