Criminal, Vol. 6: Last of the Innocent [Paperback]

Ed Brubaker (Author), Sean Phillips (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 21, 2011

THE BEST-REVIEWED COMIC OF THE YEAR COLLECTED JUST IN TIME FOR X-MAS!

Obsession, sex, money, and nostalgia for days long past all collide in THE LAST OF THE INNOCENT

Riley Richards got it all... The hottest girl in school and a ticket to the big time. So why isn't he happy now? Why can't he forget the life he left behind in small town Brookview? And why is he plotting a murder?

COMICS BULLETIN says this ambitious CRIMINAL story does for kids comics "what Alan Moore did for superheroes with WATCHMEN" and now is your chance to read the comic everyone's been talking about.

Introduction by best-selling author, actor, and stand-up comic Patton Oswalt.

Product Details

• Paperback: 112 pages
• Publisher: Marvel (December 21, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0785158294
• ISBN-13: 978-0785158295
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 0.3 x 10.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #233,518 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Archie Comics gets the "Watchmen" treatment January 7, 2012

By Sean Curley

Format:Paperback

The sixth collected edition of Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips' Icon series "Criminal" includes the entire "Last of the Innocent" miniseries (which looks to be the last "Criminal" we'll get for a while, since the team are now hard at work on their Image series "Fatale", and presumably there's a third "Incognito" volume in the works at some point, given where the second one left off). "Last of the Innocent" is the best thing Brubaker has done in a few years, since at least the "Lady Bullseye"/"Return of the King" arc in "Daredevil" and possibly since "The Death of Captain America" ended back in 2008. Spoilers follow.

Upon opening the first issue, I quickly realized that the story was going to be an elaborate deconstruction of the Archie mythos into a crime comic, which put a big smile on my face. Much as Alan Moore did, Brubaker has taken a collection of well-known popcultural archetypes and fitted them into a much more adult story, that plays to many of the undercurrents of the old stories. Our story follows one Riley Richards (Archie), now in his 30s and unhappily married to Felicity/'Felix' (Veronica/'Ronnie'), who he discovers is cheating with Terry (Reggie), Riley's old childhood rival. A return visit to his old town of Brookview reacquaints him with Lizzie (Betty) and Freakout (Jughead), and Riley soon comes to believe that his only chance at recapturing his lost childhood happiness is to be with Lizzie. But that means getting Felix out of the way (and before she divorces him and leaves him with nothing)...

This could easily have been a very simple pastiche of Archie as a noir story, but Brubaker has much more to say than simply parodying the simplistic world of Archie and his friends. This is about the seductive dangers of nostalgia; the childhood sequences we see are drawn in a cartoony Archie-esque style by Phillips, but the content is not idealized, complete with swearing and a serial killer (no, really), suggesting that the times weren't nearly as idyllic as Riley remembers them. There are also some metafictional comments on Archie itself, as when Archie is accused of not being "there" when no one is looking.

Highly recommended.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Innocent pasts, guilty presents January 22, 2012

By Noel TOP 1000 REVIEWER

Format:Paperback

Who hasn't looked back on their youth through rose-tinted lenses and wished they could go back? What if you were faced with that choice, that of the two girls who were after you in high school, you chose one and ended up with a depressing and horrible life - wouldn't you wonder if you would've had a better life with the other girl?

That's the decision Riley Richards makes when he returns to Brookview (an idealistic American small town) for his father's funeral and sees the girl that got away, Lizzie. Returning to the city he sees his wife who, despite being beautiful, worldly and rich, hates him and is cheating on him, and he decides to kill her and start over in Brookview with Lizzie.

Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips create another masterful story of crime and suspense in their brilliant "Criminal" series. The way Phillips draws is always extraordinary and he makes some interesting choices in differentiating between the present and the past, drawing the past as cartoonish and unreal. Brubaker is a helluva writer and his plotting and characterisation here is no less incredible than in the other "Criminal" books. I actually found myself rooting for the villain the entire time even though I knew what a terrible person he was. That's how good Brubaker is.

Anybody new coming to this series shouldn't worry about having to go back and start at Book 1, all of the books are standalone and can be read individually, and "The Last of the Innocents" continues that setup. That said, I heartily recommend the previous 5 if you liked this one. For fans of the other books, I don't need to suggest reading this as you'll no doubt either have done so or are planning to in the near future.

The only real complaint about the book is a material one - the cover to this is some weird new plasticky substance that means the book's covers start curling immediately. When you've read the book the covers will be curled into a fixed position which is really unpleasant and doesn't look good at all. "Incognito: Bad Influences" has the same type of cover material with the same problems too. I really hope Marvel switch to better covers than this as they make the book really shabby, completely different from its contents. C'mon Marvel don't be so damn cheap about the production of your books!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The very best work of Brubaker and Phillips' collaborations! December 26, 2011

By James Donnelly VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback

I'm a huge fan of Jim Thompson and the twisted worlds that are created by the greats of crime fiction. Ed Brubaker is an obvious fan as well as his oft-times collaborator, artist Sean Phillips. When they did BATMAN: GOTHAM NOIR, I was very excited to see more. I finally got the entire SLEEPER series, and it was one of the best series I'd ever read, with a brilliant mix of crime fiction and superhero comics. Then they did it again with CRIMINAL, which is straight-up, no-holds-barred crime fiction. This particular arc, LAST OF THE INNOCENT, is their best work yet. Combining a slick, imaginative artistic style with one of the best crime tales I've read since earlier arcs of CRIMINAL as well as Darwyn Cooke's wonderful adaptations of the PARKER books, LAST OF THE INNOCENT holds up as one of the best tales told of 2011. For fans of Brubaker and Phillips, it's a must own. To fans of crime fiction, it's a must own. To fans of great comics in general, it's a must own.

Just put it in the cart and buy it. Now.