I think I have been too easy on the artwork in this book, and I guess I can attribute that to the fact that I enjoy reading it so much I don't stop to look for things that might bother me. Another part of it is that last issue many of the pages featured Tony in uniform, and these scenes are usually drawn and colored wonderfully. The same can not be said about this issue which has barely any panels of Iron-Man in action. Like many, I have problems with some the faces Larroca draws, but I feel like that situation has progressed over these first four issues. In fact, his pencils on this issue were really solid. My only complaint is with how young he made Reed Richards look. Well then what is the problem that I've been glancing over? The coloring. For example, why do characters particularly Tony sometimes seem to look like Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer? I suppose it is an attempt at hyper-realism but it just doesn't work in these panels and many others. As I said the pencil work is getting better, but for the artwork as a whole to really shine the coloring needs to find its groove.
On to the story. Not too much to stay here, Fraction moves the story along nicely although slowly while staying true to the themes about Tony's fears that he has built up. Not bad by any stretch although probably the weakest of the four issues so far, but to be fair there is usually at least one slower one in six issue arcs.
Criminal #4
Sex. Violence. Booze. These three things are fun in real life, but honestly I think I'd rather be reading about them in the Criminal universe than sitting at the bar with some sexy dames and bruised knuckles. Not to mention the fact that this book comes out once a month and sexy dames hang out at the bars I frequent every ... never. The combination of Phillips' perfectly gritty artwork and Brubaker's excellent character narration and dialogue make the seedy underworld infinitely more interesting than it is when I find myself stumbling into it. All these things have been part of the series from the start and they are certainly here too, but this issue still feels different from all the others. This issue has much more humor and the main character here is more of a nerd than a tough guy with a mysterious murky past, but it still works perfectly. When we met him in a previous Criminal arc I didn't really feel either way about Jacob but after this issue I'm fully on-board for this Jacob-centric arc. The guy is pretty pathetic, but not so much so that he becomes completely unlikable or un-relatable. I'm sitting here skimming through this issue again, and I still can't think of anything more to say. Criminal is the best comic book being published.
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