Turns out, third time is the charm with Gary Phillips. I haven't been crazy about his urban crime thrillers Shot Callerz or Midnight Mover for Oni Press, but the first issue of Angeltown caught my attention. Phillips still doesn't really give the story to the reader in as straightforward a fashion as I'd like, but I really enjoyed the expansive cast of this one, and I think his protagonist, smart and tough P.I. Nate Hollis, is my favorite of any character he's created. In addition, Martinbrough and Loughridge do some really nice work here, reminiscent of a cross between Phil Hester and Cameron Stewart, and the creative team does a pretty good job of bringing the dirtier side of Los Angeles to life while starting up a murder mystery and conspiracy that has me riveted.
One thing you can say for Phillips, he doesn't believe in slow and he doesn't believe in small. The story here starts with a shocker on page two, and by the time we're on page three, the huge stakes of the story have become clear. Through a rapid-fire press tour of reactions, Phillips fills us in on the backstory of pro basketball player Theophus Burnett, the unauthorized biography by his lover and the murder that has any number of different people on his tail. And those different people include his lawyer, a tough-as-nails female bounty hunter, a police detective and a loan shark, colorful and interesting characters all. By far the most interesting character of the bunch, though, is Phillips' lead, Nate Hollis. He's a smartass and a tough guy, full of charismatic charm and deceptive ability, and it's easy to see that he's good at his job. Hollis's story also involves his grandfather and his father, the latter of whom is a murdered cop who was accused of corruption. If you're getting the sense that Angeltown #1 throws a lot of balls in the air, you're not wrong.
The trick will be seeing if Phillips can juggle all those characters and subplots without getting into an overly confusing narrative or dropping an anticlimactic ending on us. He's off to a good start, because the introductions this issue are pretty smooth, and the segues generally pretty strong as well. I had my moments of confusion, like trying to figure out for a few pages if Maynard Regus was somehow related to Nate Hollis and his father, given the way the narration lead into his scenes, but those are minor bits of confusion. In general, Phillips takes the reader on a whirlwind tour of seedy Los Angeles, as Hollis closes in on his prey and others start their own chases.
Just as I generally haven't been a fan of Phillips' comics work, I've also had mixed appreciation for the work of Shawn Martinbrough. Oftentimes, I found his style confusing and hard to read in the past, but he seems to have clicked with this script, and this is some of the strongest work I've seen from him since the early days of Detective Comics with Greg Rucka. The look of the characters really does remind me of the stylistic approach of Phil Hester on Green Arrow, and that's certainly no bad thing. Martinbrough's storytelling is put to the test, as he has to basically convey a lot of characters interacting with each other in quiet ways, talking instead of fighting, teasing each other or being angry with one another or hiding something from one another, and he gets these quiet moments across very effectively. The personalities of the characters, from the easy flirtation between Hollis and Monica Orozco to the bubble-headed naivete of Toasty, comes through loud and clear in the art, and the fight scenes, when they do happen, are brutal and nasty, just like they need to be.
Phillips has a lot of story built up to resolve in Angeltown, everything from high profile murder to a cold case with a personal connection to conspiracy, but he's off to a good start. Angeltown has everything a good crime comic should have: Interesting characters, an intriguing mystery with plenty of red herrings, a well-realized seedy setting and plenty of sex and violence. 9/10
