Customer Reviews

Ruse v. 1: Enter the Detective

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Simon Archard is a master detective living in the city of Partington. The bane of the underworld, and the exasperation of his partner Emma Bishop, his razor-sharp mind collects information, allowing him to make lightning-fast deductions. This graphic novel covers two Archard adventures, and the start of a third. In the first adventure, the mysterious Miranda Cross comes to Partington, and immediately Archard finds himself faced with strange crimes on one hand and the strange hostility of the city elite on the other. In the second adventure, Emma Bishop, holding the fort for the missing Archard, must track down a murderer (there's more than one mystery here). The third adventure pits Emma and Archard against a bold murderer, who is also a master of disguise with a surprising background.

I picked up this book on a whim, and must admit that I was rather dubious at first. I though, "Here we go again with another Sherlock Holmes rip-off." Well, such is not the case. In the fictional city of Partington, with its flying gargoyles, and strange happenings, Simon Archard is something of a combination of Sherlock Holmes and Professor Challenger (another A.C. Doyle hero). The adventures are quite gripping, as Archard maneuvers himself through the fantastic, his keen mind taking everything in.

The illustrations in this book are surprisingly excellent, and quite pleasant to look at. So, let me just say that I liked the characters, the story, and the illustrations. In other words, I loved this book!

In the graphic novel, RUSE: ENTER THE DETECTIVE, Simon Archard is the world's most brilliant detective. The world of Arcadia, that is. The World's Greatest Detective, as he as known by, lives in Partington, one of the largest and most successful cities on the planet. Archard is an inventor, a trained thinker; his detective work is a passion, possibly the only one he has ever developed, according to Emma Bishop, his aide and chief confidant. In ENTER THE DETECTIVE, Archard is asked to investigate the murder of a blind and near-deaf ex-ship's captain down in the city's docktown area. In no time at all, Archard and the beautiful Emma are off in hot pursuit. The twisting and treacherous trail leads the investigators to their near-deaths in a burning ship filled with rats, to the murder of a good friend and trusted ally, and the exhumation of that friend's body later. In the meantime, Archard himself suddenly becomes an enemy of the Partington Police Force after he is framed for murder. The fifth chapter in the graphic novel deals with Emma's search for a serial killer of young prostitutes while Archard remains conspicuously absent. In chapter six, Archard and Emma confront Lightbourne, the detective's last partner before Emma's arrival. The murder of a man while in a trick Harry Houdini made famous is the bait that draws Archard into the trap set by his archrival.

Mark Waid has written hundreds of comics for DC and for Marvel, and he's been nominated for several awards. Several Eisners were nominated for his work on the on-going monthly series, RUSE, from which this graphic novel was taken. He had a long run on DC's Flash comics series, creating several concepts and character takes that the series still uses, and created IMPULSE, a very successful book while Waid brought his trademark humor and sense of adventure to. With Ron Garney, he re-created the Captain America franchise for Marvel Comics for a while. And he wrote JUSTICE LEAGUE YEAR ONE, a fan favorite, and several issues of the JLA monthly series before signing exclusively with CrossGen Comics. Butch Guice got his start doing pages for Marvel Comics' IRON MAN, but quickly moved on to fan favorite of the 1980s, MICRONAUTS. He worked on THE DEATH OF SUPERMAN, but really hit his stride with BIRDS OF PREY, which has since gone on to become a TV series.

RUSE: ENTER THE DETECTIVE is a slam-bang ride for Sherlock Holmes fans, Victorian England period lovers, and many mystery buffs. Waid always succeeds in creating original yet familiar characters, then imbuing them with real personalities, and the problems and successes that stem from those personalities all on their own or when combined with others. Waid's dialogue, simply one of the best of his many talents, fires on all cylinders, pushing the plot along, establishing character and history panel after panel. The action is quick and dynamic, the plotting deft and razor-sharp. He has paired his hero and heroine well, giving them both strengths and weaknesses and secrets that readers will eagerly await to see in action. Butch Guice's pencils are absolutely jaw-dropping beautiful. The research he's done on the time period shows, and the RUSE issues could actually be used for reference material for anyone. The work he does on the streets and docks of Partington are breathtaking. His panel breakdowns for the action that Waid calls out in the script are filled with blistering action, and the reader can feel the wind in his or her face. The colorist and inker, Laura DePuy and Mike Perkins, excel at their crafts and make Guice look like a natural wonder.

Fans of Johnny Depp's FROM HELL movie or Alan Moore's graphic novel of the same name will enjoy RUSE: ENTER THE DETECTIVE. Waid and Guice fans will definitely want to pick up this graphic novel for their collections as well because the book showcases some of their best work.

One of the wonderful things about the CrossGen line is that there really are books for fans of any genre -- "Negation" for hard sci-fi fans, "Sojourn" for the Tolkienites, "Route 666" for horror buffs, "Way of the Rat" for Kung-Fu lovers... "Ruse" is the book for fans of a good old-fashion Sherlock Holmes-style mystery... but with some big twists. Holmes and Watson were never the mysteries themselves, after all.

Our heroes are Simon Archard, the brilliant detective of the city of Partington, and his assistant (or partner, depending on whom you ask), the beautiful Emma Bishop. This initial case introduces our heroes, Archard's cadre of "agents" he employs from time to time and also is a very good murder mystery.

But our heroes are mysteries themselves, ones without easy answers. Emma has strange powers that she hides from Simon, and while this book does not appear to feature a "sigil-bearer" (the superpowered protagonists of many CrossGen titles), Simon himself discretely wears the sigil on his clothing. Why?

The whole CrossGen universe is a mystery. "Ruse" gives it a detective. The best question left is, will the audience solve the puzzle before Simon and Emma?

I saw this title in a small bookshop and was instantly drawn to the illustrations. They are so clean and the lines are beautiful. Even if you know nothing about art you will appericiate these illustratons. I basically bought the book on the ilustrations and that it was a mystery. I love the story line. Emma is,of course,my favorite character. She's witty and bright and is always trying to show Simon that is a worthy PARTNER! Even though Simon still sees her as a n assistant she struggles on and gives 110 percent. You will love reading the story and the art will continualy entertain you.

This volume is a compilation of the first six issues of a comic from the highly-regarded Waid, who has done a ton of stuff for Marvel. The setting is the city of Partington in the world of Arcadia, which strongly resembles late-Victorian London -- with the addition of live gargoyles and a touch of the supernatural. The story revolves around Simon Archard, a not very personable Holmesian sort of detective who seldom finds a challenge in the crimes and puzzles he investigates. His assistant (or junior partner, depending on who you ask) is Emma Bishop -- who is not the retiring Doctor Watson sort and is nearly as quick-witted as Simon, and who has (unbeknownst to him) the ability to freeze time. Emma don't get no respect, though. And there seems to be some kind of cosmic game or field study, or something, going on with her but, unfortunately, it's never explained. Not in this volume, anyway. Into the picture comes the mysterious and dangerous foreign baroness, Melinda Cross, with plans to control (through drugs) the city's social and political elite, and Simon and Emma have to find out what's going on and how to stop it. The fifth chapter has Simon mostly off somewhere on his own (at Reichenbach Falls, maybe?), leaving Emma to solve a streetwalker-murder case. And the sixth and last chapter goes off in an entirely different direction, bringing in Simon's earlier partner, presumed dead, but actually just pathological. The book ends there, just as the new story arc is getting started, which is annoying (they should have restricted this volume to only the first five issues), but the byplay between Simon and Emma is enjoyable, the plotting is over the top in true Victorian fashion, and the realistic art style is terrific.

This was the very first graphic novel I picked up, and it's the one I compare every other series to. A masterfully done, totally enveloping work, "Ruse" takes you in and refuses to let you go, even after the last page. I have to confess that I've become a rabid fan and I'm counting the days until the next collection comes out.

The story, in brief: Emma Bishop is the beautiful, intelligent assistant to Simon Archard, the greatest detective of the age. It turns out that Partington, the ever-so-slightly fantastic victorian town in which they live, is full of mysteries to be solved. The major one in this collection is the strange Baroness Miranda Cross who, along with Emma, posesses a strange power to stop time. Who is Miranda Cross? Why is she trying to control the higher-ups of Partington? The answer remains a mystery until the end, and even then the answer is not really known.

The art in "Ruse" is very high quality and goes along with the crisp dialogue. Both manage very well to keep everyone in character, something that other Crossgen books, such as "Sojourn" don't quite succeed at. We sympathize with Emma through all her attempts to do the right thing, though she's never quite able to meet the standard of her employer. Simon, though terribly arrogant, is also a sympathetic character, who the reader learns to love. The bad guys are without a doubt bad. Miranda Cross is a delightfully conniving villainess who never wavers from her quest to screw things up in Partington.

All in all, "Ruse" is certainly worth a read. My advice is that you keep the second volume close at hand, because you won't want to wait before reading it.

I'm not much of a comics reader in general, but this collection of the first six issues of the "Ruse" series caught my eye. The setting is Partington, the capital city of a place very much resembling gaslight Victorian England. The hero is super-genius detective Simon Archard and his stubborn blonde assistant, Emma. Archard is kind of a Sherlock Holmes character, capable of stunning feats of deduction-but with the body and dexterity of an athlete. Emma is a smart, tough, witty, and beautiful, but continually frustrated by Simon's condescension to her. She also possesses the magical ability to stop time, although for reasons that remain murky, she's not allowed to use it. The two interact in a remarkably witty nonstop banter, much in style of the screwball comedy films of the '40s, with Simon inevitably getting the last word in.

Their adventures in this book begin with a relatively simple murder investigation, which ties into a drug-smuggling operation masterminded by a beautiful foreign baroness. The stakes mount and mount over the first four chapters as the baroness brings the city's most influential citizens under her power and Simon is framed and forced into hiding. The fifth chapter finds Emma alone to confront a series of grisly prostitute slayings (a la Jack the Ripper), and to contemplate Simon's disappearance. The last story introduces the Simon's enigmatic archnemesis, in a teaser to set up the next big storyline.

The artwork is unbelievably rich and detailed-every panel is excellent, and many times unusual perspectives are given to the most mundane scene to make it interesting. The panel flow can be a bit confusing at times (a couple times I had tostop and figure out if I was supposed to read across the both pages, or continue down the left-hand page), but it's a small price to pay for the inventive paneling. The level of detail on clothing, architecture, and interiors is just amazing, and the colors work perfectly in conjunction. My only quibble is that the last chapter uses different artists and the look is completely different, much thicker and simpler lines, and much more drab coloring. Overall, however, it's great artwork with a compelling storyline and well worth checking out.

But the storylines leave something to be desired. Simon and Emma solve their cases quickly and without much elaboration regarding the process. This doesn't exactly make for an engrossing read. I think this book would have been better if they had focused on solving only one mystery and providing details and character development rather than presenting 3 underdeveloped mysteries.