I hadn't realized how much I missed this book until I read the preview copy of next week's Sleeper Season Two and then this trade, collecting the unbelievable mind-fuck that was the second half of "season one" of Sleeper. This is a dark, morally complex, action-packed, character-driven, intricately-plotted spectacular fucking comic, and it is absolutely fucking criminal that it didn't sell better in the first place, only slightly redeemed by the fact that the trades have sold well enough to get the series a second lease on life. The series was good from the start, but it's even better here, as Brubaker has set up enough character relationships to really screw with lead character Holden Carver, and we see his conflicted loyalties and understandable paranoia coming to a head in some of the most twisted, fascinating ways possible, as he gets a chance to get out, is forced to lose it through his own choices... and then things get really bad. In addition, while Sean Phillips was good from the start, in this trade his work crosses the line into gorgeous, and his gritty realist art is perfect for the tone of the book.
Sleeper maintains an element of surprise that is rare in comics, and it's clear that Brubaker has plenty to say while playing around in the morally ambiguous sandbox of a federal agent undercover in a powerful villainous conspiracy. We've been told throughout the first volume that there is no "out" for Holden, that he's trapped and needs to pray that Lynch wakes up, and in the first part of the trade we find out that's not entirely true, that Lynch had a backup. It's absolutely in character for Lynch, and an important part of the similarity between Lynch and Tao as sides of the same coin that pays off in the final part of the storyline, and it results in a suspenseful storyline where Holden tries to figure out who he can trust and if there really is a chance to get out. Then there's what happens to Genocide, one of the best characters in the book, which I don't want to spoil other than to say that I never saw it coming the first time around, and even knowing it was coming this time, it's still one hell of a shock.
Of course, one of the really impressive things about Sleeper is that in addition to showing us a truly dark, almost inhuman world of depravity and crime, Brubaker makes these characters human. Genocide is a mass-murderer who will physically abuse someone because they said hello to him, and it's dark humor rather than just a disgusting portrayal of a sociopath. In addition, though Genocide is quite clearly a monster in many ways, the friendship he offers to Holden makes him a sympathetic character, and the revelation of his origin story just tore my guts out in making him more sympathetic. A similar line is crossed with Miss Misery, whose superpower requires her to murder, maim and worse in order to stay healthy, as Brubaker turns her illicit relationship with Carver into something else, and in so doing makes both of those characters a little more human. It's especially fascinating when we find out what she knew and guess that she must have known it all along, and yet didn't tell anyone because of her feelings.
Hell, even Holden Carver himself is no straight-up good guy, as this book takes great pains to establish. He confesses to murder and worse in the noir-ish narration that drives the book, and we see him do things that are cold and inhuman as well. Yet it's not hard to relate to Holden, who started out doing what he thought was right even knowing what it would cost him, and who is trying his best to keep some sort of moral compass in the middle of one of the most immoral jobs on the planet. If there's ever a Grant Morrison-type twist in Sleeper where the protagonist talks to his creator, Ed Brubaker better duck. Because he's put Holden Carver, undercover agent, into so many bad situations and forced him into so many compromises that the guy couldn't help but take a shot at him. Holden's more a do-er than a thinker, but he's just smart enough to have to know the price of every hard choice he makes throughout this book, up until the last one that turns the whole status quo on its ear just in time for season two.
Then there's the artwork by Sean Phillips, which also continues to dazzle. Part of the strength of Sleeper is that you feel like these guys are bad guys, and so there has to be an element of carnage and murder to the work. The weird, semi-emotionless world of these characters has to pose a challenge for an expressive artist, but Phillips makes it look easy, and you can somehow see the tension and worry in Holden's face even as he's keeping it concealed for everyone else. The story takes place in dimly lit backrooms and cluttered and dark junkyards, punctuated by the occasional eruption of gunfire and super-powers, and yet it's never so dark that you can't tell what's going on, that you can't read the action or the characters, even though the mood is impeccably established. The quiet moments and character-based stories give way easily to the fast-paced and exciting action sequences, and vice versa. Misery's sheer glee and glowing countenance as she engages in murder is a chilling display of her nature, and the bloody nature of the injuries shown on the opening page and closing sequence gives you a sense of what has happened to the characters as well.
Sleeper mixes the mad supervillain conspiracy of Wanted with the moral complexity and intelligence of Queen & Country, and fans of either book would be remiss in giving this one a pass. But while I could probably make any number of analogies to other comics and movies and television, Sleeper is more than just a glimpse into the super-villain side of things or "Donnie Brasco meets super-villains," although either of those serves as a good bite-sized description of the book. Sleeper is easily one of the best comics I've read in 20+ years of reading comics, and definitely one of the top five best comics of the last decade.
