Post by NexusOfLight on Feb 22, 2011 11:33:33 GMT -5
Radical is probably my favorite publishing company on the market. I first got into them about two years ago when I picked up Hotwire: Requiem for the Dead. Loved every issue not only for the story, but the astounding artwork. Then I moved on to some other books they put out and came across City of Dust. The concept for it was so good, and the story itself was so well executed. What would a world be like if creative expression and religion itself were outlawed? What would life be like if you were a cop trying to enforce that law? Man, that was good stuff. Then I got trade after trade of some stuff from 'em whenever I got the chance. All their titles were just as good. Well, the only one I didn't care for that much was Freedom Formula but that may have been more so because it didn't particularly appeal to my interests.
Anyway, recently, I just picked up the trade for The Last Days of American Crime. What was it like? Radical to say the least. This is real movie material fo' real fo' real. The premise of it is that crime has gone so far in the US that the government's decided to say "forget this mess, we doin' mind control." Ha, more or less, yeah. So naturally there's elements of how much you'd be willing to sacrifice freedom for protection, but the best part is that's all goin' on in the background. The story, the real meat of it it is, in the face of what's surely going to be the last days of American crime, how does this old hardened criminal pull off the biggest and greatest heist of his career and get away from it alive? Here's a quick synopsis from their site.
As a final response to terrorism and crime, the U.S. government plans to broadcast a signal making it impossible for anyone to knowingly commit unlawful acts. Enter: Graham Brick, a career criminal never quite able to hit the big score. Now, Graham and his team have just a few days to turn the crime of the century into the last crime in American history.
This was a grade A crime story. There's sex, drugs, violence, and people so messed up, you can't help but feel sorry for them. Everyone's got a broken past, everyone's just trying to get by, and everyone's tryin' to work some kinda angle to make it in the hardened world Rick Remender imagined for them. Oh yeah, that's right, Remender wrote this. That's the same Remender that's currently writing Uncanny X-Force, so you know this is good right off the bat. And the art's by Greg Tocchini, the dude who did Thor: Son of Asgard. Everything about this book was spectacular. It's a real good read. Next time you're in the comic store, pick this mess up. It was only $14.95. Money well spent, especially if you like fast paced, hard hitting action with some excellent story telling and beautifully crafted artwork.
I'm not one for rating things because I really don't think I know how to rate things properly. Part of the reason I don't do reviews. Really didn't expect to do this thing. Sorta just happened as I was tellin' someone else about it, but since it is a review, I guess I could pull a number outta the sky. Let's go with 4 and a half outta 5. The story was good, easy to follow, everyone who was in it from the three major characters to the minor characters all played a role, everyone who was anyone got developed very well, it was just cool. Like I said, if you like crime and action stories, the kinda stuff you'd see in the movies, you'll enjoy this. If you're not all for cussin', nude scenes, bad guys being protagonists, an' junk like that, you might be turned off.
That's about it.
