From the cover, you might expect Brit to be a sort of grim and gritty throwback, but it's much more than that. Brit is more like the flipside of the teen heroes that Kirkman has been writing for Image lately, exploring what happens when heroes (or super-soldiers) get old. Though Kirkman and Moore provide plenty of ultraviolence in the way that Brit does his job, and the man owns a strip club, but the book is generally more fun and optimistic than you'd expect from this style of hero. Brit is presented as a reasonably decent guy who does his job and goes home, and the central conflict between powerful hero and his handlers is played out in a pretty interesting way. This is a complete story, but it's also the setup for flashback stories and further adventures, and I'd certainly like to see more.
There's an element of Brit that reminds me of Erik Larsen's Savage Dragon. It's not just Moore's artwork, which has a Larsen flavor I hadn't really noticed before, or Kirkman's very Larsen-esque special effects lettering, but it's a feel to the book. Like Savage Dragon, Brit takes some of the super-hero cliches and puts a new spin on them, whether it's the mind control villain wearing a "people power armor suit" (a great visual) or a real knockdown dragout fight with an alien beastie. There's a sense of balls to the wall lack of restraint, which is appropriate both for Brit's personality and for what I've come to expect of the guys who gave us Battle Pope.
However, while there is some dark humor in Brit, this is not just a funny book. The central relationship between Brit and a much younger stripper who works for him goes beyond the obvious dirty old man fantasy elements and becomes real, thanks in no small part to realistic dialogue between them and a fun scene where Brit goes to dinner with his girlfriend. The same relationships can be found between Brit and his handler Ferguson, especially in the final confrontation between the two. I wasn't quite as sold on the character of Erickson, who goes awfully quickly from defending Brit to turning him over, leading me to suspect the mind controller from the early part of the issue was involved, but in general, the characters are engaging and realistic.
What interests me most about Brit is the notion of an old soldier who has been fighting a long time and who holds to a sort of old bastard's code, but those looking for super-hero action won't be disappointed either. I enjoyed Moore's artwork on Battle Pope, but Brit is a big improvement, very clean with characters who pop nicely off the backgrounds. His work on Brit's confrontation with the mass of people or the nasty alien is particularly effective, and he has no problem showing the bloody carnage or wreckage in the aftermath of a super-powered fight.
Brit is a story held together by three big super-powered punchouts, but the driving force addresses the questions of loyalty, getting older and trust. More than anything, it reminds me of some of the work that Garth Ennis did with Hitman, mixing ultraviolence with characters you could care about to create a surprisingly engaging read, and I think there's a lot of potential for more stories of Brit from this creative team.
