How do you follow up an unusual and highly interesting tale of intrigue and murder within the Jewish mob? If you're Judd Winick, you jump forward about seventy years to look in on a completely different setting and a completely different cast of characters, albeit with a story that still centers around crime, murder and intrigue. Winick's take on '70s Hollywood is every bit as convincing as his take on '06 San Francisco, and though the crux of the problem that lead character Anastasia Weiss is going to face is easily guessed at, that doesn't make the shock value of it any less. Winick had a talented artist on the first arc in Farel Dalrymple, and some would say he's crazy for not bringing that artist with him on the second arc. Or at least, that's what they'd say until they saw comics legend John Severin's take on '70s Hollywood, which just nails the period and the characters as effectively as Dalrymple did his. I know from looking at the sales charts that a lot of you aren't reading Caper. Trust me when I tell you that is a huge mistake.
Winick has a certain fondness for Hollywood scandal, perhaps most notable by the references to the Fatty Arbuckle case that have popped up here, in Blood and Water and in some of his other stories. Fortunately, audiences have quite the fondness for Hollywood scandal as well, and given the various scandals that develop on a daily basis around the Hollywood community, writing a story that centers on such a thing is pretty much guaranteed to carry with it some verisimilitude. Winick's story doesn't refer heavily to actual movie stars, but rather focuses on fictional analogues to give the sense of the Hollywood elite. Some fans will no doubt have great fun spotting who is actually who, but I didn't even know half the time and I still enjoyed the story.
That's probably because, as he did with Jacob and Isadore Weiss in the first arc, Winick has crafted a fascinating protagonist in Jacob's granddaughter Anastasia. A defense lawyer to the stars on the level of Goldberg or Cochrane, Anastasia would be easy to hate for what she represents to society, but Winick goes to great lengths to show us Anastasia the person instead of just Anastasia the lawyer or Anastasia the celebrity. Her banter with her husband and kids is delightful, and when we see her get in a client's face over his constant refusal to clean up his act (shades of Robert Downey Jr.!) we see that she can be personable and professionally capable at the same time.
In fact, the general feel of "Hollywood Treatment" part one is that of a pretty good life. Happy marriages, even a storybook power marriage, sit at the center of the tale, and everyone seems to be having a grand old time. Severin does a great job of balancing a realistic, '70s-centric look at fashion and architecture with timelessly expressive characters. Winick has crafted a likable cast, but he'd be nowhere without an artist who can make these characters, who are introduced in something of a whirlwind fashion, distinctive and memorable. Winick and Severin draw the reader right into the day-to-day lives of these characters, and within about 15 pages we feel like we've been reading about them for months.
Which, of course, leaves 7 more pages for the other shoe to drop. As I noted early on in the review, it's fairly easy to guess what's going to happen to throw a monkey wrench into all this happiness, especially if you follow Hollywood marriage and murder. Fortunately, the shock of the whole thing, from the violence of the act to the suddenness of it, comes through in story and art, and the strength of the finale isn't in a shock ending, but in wondering what the true story is, what secrets remain behind all this and how it's going to come out in future issues.
