SLEEPER is the critically acclaimed graphic novel series written Ed Brubaker and illustrated by Sean Philips, the Eisner Award winning creative team of Criminal, which tells the story of agent Holden Carver and the secret criminal organization he becomes enmeshed with. Carver is forced to live one day at a time in a deadly game of cat-and-mouse he plays with its leader, Tao, the amoral master of manipulation trying to elude detection since he has no way back in from the cold.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A sleeper hit,
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This review is from: Sleeper: Season 1 (Paperback)
Sometimes I am reluctant to seek out earlier work from a writer whose current stories I enjoy, for fear that I'll end up reading material completed during his or her formative years, and that it won't match up. That's silly, of course, and various works have proven me wrong over the years (one of the latest being Cormac McCarthy, whom I discovered via The Road and whose earlier All the Pretty Horses is a masterpiece), yet I persist.
So I was cautious about Sleeper: Season One from the Eisner Award-winning writer and artist duo of Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips. While I love the work the two are doing with Criminal and Incognito over at Marvel, I was reluctant to try their Wildstorm series for the reason listed above and because the title is set in the Wildstorm super-hero universe, a locale I hadn't explored and had no interest learning anything about. I shouldn't have worried. Yes, there are a few heroes flying around in Sleeper, but no advance knowledge is required to appreciate the story. It isn't really a super-hero tale at all, but rather a big, dark, hard-boiled spy/espionage saga. The protagonist, Holden Carver, is a double agent assigned to go deep undercover in a "post-human" criminal organization, so far undercover that not only is he is framed for crimes he hasn't committed, but his father (now deceased) is also implicated. This guy is so far out in the cold that it makes Siberia look like the Bahamas. Then, the one person who knows the truth of his undercover status -- his boss, Jack Lynch -- ends up in a coma, and Carver is screwed. The series is one cat-and-mouse game after another, as Carver tries to keep up his facade as an operative in a villainous organization while trying to re-enter his former life as one of the good guys. Along the way, he becomes romantically entangled with one Miss Misery, a woman who maintains super strength (not to mention her health) only when involved in morally repugnant activities. Carver's super-power, granted by an alien artifact left on Earth (and one not wholly explained in the first twelve issues comprising Season One), is to collect and store pain and then release it on others. So he can stick his finger into an electric socket, soak up the juice, and fry an enemy at a later date. He becomes, in effect, a man without physical feeling, which adds to his isolation as a sleeper agent. Man, is this series good! Given the premise, Brubaker could spin story after story in such a rich universe, but his goal seems not to maintain the status quo, but to constantly advance the plot and raise the stakes. Phillips' art is just as good here as it is in his later Criminal work, providing a gritty texture perfectly in keeping with the noir-ish world Carver inhabits. Sleeper: Season Two (and final, apparently) will be re-released in late September. I have no reservations about picking it up, and no qualms about seeking out an earlier Wildstorm tale, Point Blank, also by Brubaker, that serves as a prequel of sorts for Sleeper. Highly recommended.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of Brubaker's finest works,
By DJ Joe Sixpack (...in Middle America) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER) (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)
This review is from: Sleeper: Season 1 (Paperback)
"Sleeper: Season One"
Written by Ed Brubaker Illustrated by Sean Phillips ----------------------------------------------- This is definitely one of Ed Brubaker's best, most captivating works, the story of Holden carver, a hardbitten superhero secret agent who's gone deep undercover inside one of the most ruthless criminal syndicates ever. I tend to read graphic novels and recycle them -- pass them along to friends or sell them to local bookstores -- but this one I kept. I've re-read it twice so far and I'm sure I'll read it again, when the time is right. Nice to see it all gathered into one big omnibus book. (And does the "Season One" subtitle mean there's more to come? I sure hope so! I'm a big Holden Carver fan.) This is highly, highly recommended. (Joe Sixpack, ReadThatAgain book reviews)
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Series,
This review is from: Sleeper: Season 1 (Paperback)
This is a great series. I'm hooked. I started reading Incognito, which is Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips too. I liked it so much, I decided to pick this up. I never expected it to be this good, but it's great. The plot and characters are great. The dialogue is top notch and the artwork is fantastic. It's a great tale of paranoia and intrigue. Do yourself a favor and buy this now.
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