Dynamite Entertainment 2016
Written by Andy Diggle & Angelica Cruickshank
Illustrated by Andrea Mutti
Coloured by Vladimir Popov
Lettered by Simon Bowland
Detective-Sergeant Kate Burnham isn't making any friends in the Washington DC Police Department. That makes her the perfect scapegoat when a routine homicide investigation threatens to blow open a criminal conspiracy that reaches to the upper echelons of the DC power elite. Kate makes it go away, or they make her go away. Cop or criminal, power is all about control, applied top-down from the penthouse elite to the hustlers on the street. But what happens when the street pushes back...?
I had no idea what to expect from this but I sure as heck wasn’t expecting anything like this. The opening is strong as we see what looks like a professional, hitman or agent take your pick, interrogating someone when they are interrupted. Immediately this sets the stage for this book and you know there’s something going on here but exactly what we aren’t sure and that’s half the interest factor.
This leads us to meeting Detective-Sergeant Kate Burnham and her partner. Shooting pool, drinking and watching the news. I have to say I like the news that they are discussing it may or may not be vital to the story at hand but if I were a betting man… So they are interrupted when their phones notify them that there’s an Officer Down and he’s nearby.
This is when the story starts in earnest. Circumstances are a wonderful thing and in any given situation things go any number of ways. Unfortunately for Kate things don’t go her way as the pair enter an apartment and a split decision action results in her partners death. This sets in motion both those who see her as the reason for her partners death and her desire to find the S.O.B. who did it.
We get a good deal of characterization here that is exceptional. The story is set-up so that we know something isn’t kosher but we see enough so that we want to see more. There’s an intelligence to the story that should make most cop shows jealous. There’s one twist in particular that really took me by surprise and sets the larger stage for what’s going to happen. With emotions running high and being too invested in this investigation can Kate pull things together enough to get her understaffed squad behind her and solve the murder of her partner and another officer while the finding the man responsible.
Andrea has outdone himself here. The work is clean, crisp and the attention to detail is utterly phenomenal. With Vladimir’s colouring the two have created a visually stunning book that is full of the right emotions needed for a story of this caliber. Dark, moody and full of anger and intrigue plus a last page that will make your eyes pop this is how a good cop story should look! Plus Andrea’s eye for storytelling through the use of pages and panels is exceptional here as are the use of backgrounds.
Dynamite continues to put out some of the highest quality original content stories. From concept to execution this is one of those that will thrill readers.