Sleeper is like a perfect recipe, combining a classic creative team, a great premise, fantastic characters and excellent structure to make one of the most compelling monthly reads on the stands and probably the best of the "Eye of the Storm" titles. This issue is another strong one, a single-issue tale that nonetheless develops the characters and builds on the events in the previous issues, with equal parts action, character and exposition to keep things rolling. We learn some fairly important things about who Holden Carver was this issue, but we also get to see who he is and how that contrasts, and the result, as always, is a fascinating read.
After six issues of Sleeper, I feel like I know Holden Carver, the lead of the series, or at least know his basic personality and the kind of thing he's likely to do. However, this issue has shown that I really don't know that much about him, as we learn a pretty significant factor from his past as it collides with his present. To be specific, an old flame, who reminds him of his new girlfriend, reappears in his life, and she's none to happy to see him, considering that she's on the other side of the law. In addition to complicating Carver's work life pretty seriously, she gets him in a bit of a funk about his dysfunctional personal life as well. Sucks to be Holden, but it's great to be a reader, as it just keeps getting more and more interesting.
One of the slow-building stories in Sleeper has been the friendship between Carver and the likeable, rough-and-tumble Genocide. These two feel like friends, even though Genocide doesn't really know Holden at all, and their interaction is always a lot of fun. I get the sense that Brubaker is setting his character up for a fall here, where he's forced to choose between his true loyalties and his loyalty to a new friend, and either choice will make for interesting drama. In this issue, Holden has to choose between keeping his cover airtight and easing the pain of a loved one, and it's intriguing to see how he handles walking this moral tightrope.
Among the camaraderie of the super-villain, a common theme in the series, there's also a bit of star-crossed romance at work here. Or at least, fondly remembered romance, once again reinforcing that Holden has had to essentially put any sort of real life on hold while he throws himself into a false life and work. Without any guarantee of ever getting out again. Brubaker does not take it easy on his protagonist, and seeing a little more of what Holden lost, and who he used to be, makes his current circumstances more tragic and more fascinating. Then there's the notion that Tao, one of the most intelligent people in the Wildstorm universe, might actually know Holden's true loyalties, which is touched on briefly this issue and also makes for a good reason to keep coming back.
This kind of shadowy, morally ambiguous story wouldn't work with just any artist, but Sean Phillips is pretty much the perfect choice for the book. He can do everyday-type stuff (the opening "origin" sequence, Holden and friends in a bar), he can handle sexy (Holden and Miss Misery) and he can handle action (the train sequence is a fantastic and frenetic action sequence), and he can do all of this with a sort of moody darkness that never becomes overwhelming. Tony Avina's colors are also important in this respect, especially since he covers a variety of mood, from foggy morning to dimly lit train to the bright lights of past romance.
