I'm very grateful that this book got a second chance at life with a "second season" miniseries, and each issue of the new series makes me more grateful. While the story in this issue flashes back a lot and tells me things I already knew, that makes it accessible for new readers, and more importantly, there are plenty of new developments as well. There's a little bit of hope held out for Holden Carver here, that he might get some semblance of his life back, and that gives the character a much-needed drive beyond revenge or ennui. In addition, I love the mystery of who set him up and who essentially killed Genocide, his best friend and one of the best characters in the series. I miss Genocide's humor, but it just might be worth the sacrifice if Brubaker can tell a twisted enough story of how that death came to be.
Beyond the plot specifics, though, this issue also offers up some terrific espionage storytelling. The opening sequence, featuring Holden making contact with Tao using a weird little gadget in the middle of the desert, is a good example of what Brubaker and Phillips do well here, which is to combine the tropes of the espionage genre with the superscience of the superhero genre. It also demonstrates the continuing chess game between Tao and Lynch, with Holden caught in the middle. Holden's narration throughout the story indicates that he's not as smart as either man and he knows it, but he's smart enough to hold his own and to know that they're planning things he doesn't know or understand yet.
However, while Holden might not be the master manipulator that Tao and Lynch can be, it's shown in this issue that he's more than just a tough guy as well. His stakeout of the hotel of M'Batu and infiltration of it are beautifully done, with Phillips and Brubaker giving a sense of the planning, the waiting and the more cerebral part of the operation as well as the action when Holden actually puts it into play.
As much as this book is about what Holden will do in his morally compromised position, it is also about the atmosphere. That atmosphere plays out nicely in this issue, from Holden's narration to Phillips's visuals of M'Batu's darkened hotel room, the desolate desert or the opulent hotel that Holden has to infiltrate. There's something cool about the revelations in this issue, that they aren't just laid out for the reader but are instead clues that Holden speculates on, so that it takes a little thought and a little guessing, like a good noir mystery, to figure out what's going on. Sleeper is a book about espionage, with plenty of sex and violence, but it's a book that is smart and rewards thought as well.
At this point, Sleeper is a polished book, with everyone on the creative team having settled into a good groove. That comfort amongst the creative team manifests itself in an uneasy discomfort and moral complexity for the characters. Sleeper is a strong mix of action and intelligent characterization, and it remains both one of my favorite comics and one that is criminally underappreciated in the market.
