Hard Case Crime/Titan Comics 2018
Written by Duane Swierczynski
Illustrated by Simone Guglielmini & Raffaele Semeraro
Coloured by Chris Chuckry
Lettered by Comicraft’s Jimmy Betancourt
Two hours to save Philadelphia! Thrust into a terrorist plot, can Joe save those he loves… even if he needs the secret agent in bed with his wife?
I think that Duane has hit on a stellar concept with this story. There’s nothing that makes the blood race than when your on the clock, it’s ticking down and you’ve no idea what the hell you are doing. The fact that he can take this idea of time and make it feel kinetic in a comic isn’t as easy to do as you think. Add in the adrenaline rush and the whole Truth Serum and working with the man you think is doing your wife yeah it’s a mile a minute non-stop action and fun.
For me it’s like taking a Liam Neeson film casting it as a team-up with your typical uptight straight man who wants to be serious but is more comic relief with the real Agent who is incapacitated and is need of help. Kind of like Matthew Broderick and Chris Pratt which come to think of it I'd pay good money to see them in these roles. Now you see what I have just done right the level of quality writing here has made my mind jump from the book and expanding that into something else. This is what Duane does spectacularly well, he gets the reader to take what’s presented and really get into it in such a way your mind works overtime.
I love the way that this is structured! The flow is exceptional and the dialogue and the banter they have in this just makes it as much fun as it does interestingly dangerous. Last issue blew me away I mean to see that array of sex toys that a woman (or man) might use on some guy was something to see for damn sure. So was seeing Scott get that shot of truth serum in the leg and now this issue we get to see the results of that injection. God so many words so much double entendre in almost any you can think of choosing.
The characterisation is flawless and the pacing here is utterly marvellous. I love how you can tell a story where time is ticking down and yet the entire issue is spent on these two bickering like lovers and trying to race to intercept a would be terrorist. I wouldn’t have this any other way either because in the end either the good guys win or lose it’s the race to get there that’s the fun parts.
I am also pretty damn impressed with the level of the quality in the interior artwork as well. The way that we see the linework manipulated through all it’s varying weights is sensational. The attention to detail that is created here and the lines can be fine or bold is lovely. The use of foreground or backgrounds here is phenomenal and really do wonders in fleshing out the scenes and giving us a great sense of size and scope. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels shows off a very solid eye for storytelling. I do like the colour work here as well, it’s winter and the colours are muted so that we kind of feel this dreary weather in our bones yeah I just told what you need to know about how good they are. Though I wish that dildo were a brighter tone because that would’ve been funnier.
There is so much about this to thoroughly enjoy and absolutely nothing to hate on. The writing is beyond solid and the interiors capture the whole thing perfectly. Titan really has emerged alongside a handful of other smaller companies to put out some of the best books you can possibly read.