Separation Anxiety

In recent years, I've removed myself from the weekly trials and tribulations of following the Marvel and DC Universes. I read occasional highly-regarded runs on series, or isolated storylines, but that's about it.

I can't look at the latest or the next big event title with a straight face anymore. Nothing in them are believable, because everything they do is nearly immediately undone. There are no lasting consequences.

It's the old "lots of sound and fury, signifying nothing" thing.

This has been freeing, in many ways.

One of the unfortunate side effects, though, is that some creators whose work I generally enjoy are now cut off from me.

I can't tell you the last time I read a book from Brian Bendis. It's weird because his books were on the top of my weekly stacks for most of the early 2000s. "Ultimate Spider-Man" was the best superhero comic at the time. "Powers" was a fierce independent title that went in all sorts of crazy directions. And all of this was backed up by an entertaining letters column, a strong web presence, and a large fan community that gathered around his message board and debated every little thing.

It was glorious.

I miss it.

So when Comixology had "The United States of Murder, Inc." on sale last week, I jumped. Here's a self-contained stand alone mini-series with Bendis and his "Powers" partner, Michael Avon Oeming, that promises crime, swearing, and people talking to each other in interesting ways.

It works.

It's also copyright 2014, and we haven't had a sequel yet. This book is a complete story all its own, but with an ending that's set up perfectly to lead into new directions with future mini-series. I hope there's still a chance we'll see a second book, because I want to know what comes next, and I like these characters.

The United States of Murder, Inc.

This is the story of Valentine Gallo, a young man who starts the book being inducted into the organized crime family that his late father was once part of. You know it's serious because it involves a blood-letting, a skull, dark suits, and fire. We quickly find out that this isn't our world the story takes place in. This is one in which the United States is made up of five crime families, and relations between them and the federal government are not the best.

When Valentine goes off on his first trip to D.C. for "the family" to visit a Senator, bad things happen and he finds himself on the run from everyone -- not just his enemies, but also his own people. With a little bit of help from an enforcer in his criminal family, Jagger Rose, he'll travel the country tracking down the true culprit of the Very Bad Thing That Happened that he didn't really do.

To help build out the book, Bendis incorporates short sequences laying out the history of this alternate world, including big moments like the JFK assassination, 9/11, and the overthrow of -- Cleveland, Illinois.

Yup, this is a Bendis book, all right.

I'm sorry, but "The Battle of Cleveland" sounds like something from the "Chew" world…

I'm impressed by Bendis' story construction for this series. Everything and everyone is there for a reason. Valentine makes decisions you'd expect him to, but only because it's where the domino effect of events is pushing him. Characters say or do specific thing that make it natural for him to act out in the way he does. Cause and effect. It's what you want in a story to make it satisfying.

It's worth reading the book a second time to see how Bendis slips these little things in, and how they balloon up into something much larger and more momentous. Every character is connected to Valentine or adds to the confusion and drama of his life.

It's fun to watch Bendis adding in all the right pieces to flesh things out. It's as much about Valentine's family -- his relationship with his mother -- as it is his relationship to "The Family." The crime stuff takes up the overwhelming majority of the book, as it should, but the issues he has with his mother are always there. (They should leap to the foreground in any second volume in this series.)

Along the way, you get what you might expect from Bendis -- the patter of the dialogue reads smoothly. This is a Mature Readers book for a variety of reasons, one of which is the dialogue, which gets downright Tarantino/Kirkman-esque in its liberal use of four letter words.

There's even a couple parts where Chris Eliopoulos' word balloons drop out and you're reading Final Draft pages of dialogue to go along with the images. I'm not sure how big a fan I am of that technique, but it might just be a plot necessity. Drop that exposition quickly and move on.

Graphic Design

If this book was a romantic comedy, the above would be part of what they call the "meet cute."

It's amazing to me just how much acting and how much environment Michael Avon Oeming can milk out of every page. There's a ton of black ink on every page. The characters seemingly spend half their time on the page in heavy shadows. And when you can see them, the backgrounds have dropped all to black. Oeming's more "cartooony" figure drawing provides for easily identifiable shapes/silhouettes and details. Yet, you'll have no problem following the story. It's not obfuscated; it's simplified.

Piled on top of that is the coloring by Taki Soma. She's very spare with her coloring in the book. It's an intentionally limited palette with few special effects. There's usually a uniform background color and then a uniform foreground color, with just a few simple, basic shadows cut into it.

There are a lot of talking heads scenes in this book, and that differentiation helps keep everything separated and easier to follow. See the panels above for a sample. It can still work without the differentiating foreground color when you go straight to silhouettes:

(Remember that it's not really paranoia if they are out to get you.)

It's not that you'd ever want anyone to model three dimensional color over Oeming's inks, but there are different ways to add flatter colors. I think Soma nails a sweet spot. It looks almost simplistic in so far as the details go, but her work adds a bold graphic design element, in addition to the storytelling parts.

The colors are often bold and brighter. This is a book that's not afraid of being a comic book. It's not trying to look "realistic" or "natural." It leans into its own graphical sense, from both the art and the colors.

Recommended

I've barely told you half of the story here. No, even less. I'm leaving out some big parts because I'd hate to spoil anything for you.

I went into this book cold and enjoyed it. I like the visual aspects, which separate it from the pack. I like the lead character's relationships to the women around him -- from the hitwoman he's paired up with, to his mother, and even to the old flame he meets up with in Vegas. It's a book about organized crime that isn't mired completely in the politics of it.

I had a good time reading the book. It's a page turner. I couldn't put it down once I got started, even during natural breaks in the story at the ends of issues. This book is a thriller as much as a crime drama. Mixing the two together creates pressure on the story, which translated into excitement for the reader.

I'm not sure what the print edition has, but the digital collection has all of the letters columns from the individual issues, plus plenty of script samples, layouts, and sketches from Bendis and Oeming. It's a great way to get a look behind the scenes at the creation of a comic, if you're so interested.

So, yes, "The United States of Murder Inc." is a book I enjoyed and think you might, too.

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