(w) Mark Millar
(a) Leinil Francis Yu (pencils) Gerry Alanguilan (inks) Sunny Gho (colors)
The irksome thing about much of Mark Millar's earlier creator-owned work published under Marvel Comics' Icon imprint was how much of what he did was basically a riff on existing superhero conventions; Kick-Ass, the film adaptation of which bears the tagline "with no power comes no responsibility," is Spider-Man with a twist. Superior, which features a nigh-invincible superhero with a frail alter-ego, is basically an amalgam of Superman and DC Comics' Captain Marvel, but with a twist. Nemesis was marketed as having the premise of a character who was as smart as Batman but as evil as the Joker. Of course, there was a twist to this, too, and a bit of misdirection involved.
Supercrooks Millar's second collaboration with Leinil Francis Yu after Superior is refreshing in that it hearkens back to Millar's earlier creator-owned work like Wanted. It's not quite as original as either of those two (as a couple of reviewers have said, it's basically Ocean's Eleven but with superpowers, extreme violence, and lots of swearing) but it seems to rely a lot less on shock value than work like Kick-Ass, with its foul-mouthed, mass-murdering 11-year-old girl, or Nemesis, the marketing of which apparently got the hackles of some folks at DC Comics up because it seemed like Millar was using Batman to plug a book that basically had nothing to do with him. This is a more pure Mark Millar at work here; one who seeks more to entertain than to offend.
Supercrooks is the story of a down-on-his-luck supervillain, Johnny Bolt, who has just done five years in prison after a superhero named Gladiator foiled his attempt at a robbery, when he is approached by a friend of his, Carmine, who is in a bind; he tried to trick the casino of a supervillain by employing a psychic accomplice, only to have the whole plan backfire, with the supervillain, a character named the Salamander, not only killing Carmine's psychic sidekick but telling Carmine to pay him $100 million in a month or forfeit his life. Johnny then hatches a plan for a heist that will not only pay Carmine's debts but will make him and whoever helps him very rich men. His girlfriend and one-time partner-in-crime Kasey protests that he will probably just go to jail again considering that there is a proliferation of superheroes ready to kick the crap out of him if he tries yet another heist, but Johnny counters that the main reason for all his failures is that his planned heists have all been in America, which has the highest concentration of superheroes in the world. His solution, then is to pull a job in Spain instead, where there are no superheroes. He gets his old gang of supervillains together, but the target of the planned heist may be too much for even a whole team of supervillians to handle; Johnny has set his sights on the nest egg of a retired uber-villain, the nastiest in the business, called The Bastard, who has as his bodyguard an ex-superhero with something like twenty-seven different superpowers called the Praetorian. Johnny's got a plan for every contingency, though, and in this case it helps that one of his recruits, a rather unlikely choice, is keeping a nasty little secret. Still, the idea of stealing nearly a billion dollars from a guy who can explode people's heads with his mind does not exactly inspire confidence, and Johnny and his crew may yet find themselves in way over their heads.
It's a pity that Millar has garnered a bit of a reputation for saying or writing things meant to shock people for shock's sake, as he is a genuinely talented writer. The good news is that with this story, his proclivity for shock value takes a back seat to his storytelling skill. This story really is Ocean's Eleven with superpowers, and though it's got a somewhat familiar storytelling cadence and some elements of predictability to it, it's a lot of fun to read. It helps that Millar has created a solidly scripted leading character. Johnny really is a likable rogue, even though, when he's getting his teeth knocked in during one sequence late in the story, it's hard to argue against his deserving the beating. His supporting cast, while nowhere near as well-developed as he is, are colorfully scripted, and not just because of the four-letter words that come out of their mouths. Particularly noteworthy are the Diesel brothers, a pair of nigh-indestructible supervillians capable of growing back just about any appendage that is ripped from their body. Their ability provides the basis for the book's single most graphic sequence and it's a doozy. It's the closest Millar comes to writing for shock value in this book, but it's played mostly for laughs and as far as I'm concerned it works like a charm.
One minus for me here, though is some really unimaginative code names for some of the characters. Carmine, a supervillain in his youth, was called "The Heat," another crew member who can turn intangible is called "The Ghost," while the big-time supervillain Johnny and his crew plan to rip off is called "The Bastard." This isn't exactly the first time Millar's come up with some really lame-ass code names; in Wanted, the lead character was called "The Killer," after all. One might argue he's doing it on purpose, but to what end, I really don't know. He almost makes up for it with a really cool name for a superhero like "Gladiator" but when another superhero is named "Praetorian," which is only a hop and a skip away in terms of theme, even if he is Gladiator's ex-teammate, it just feels a little bit like Millar skimped on the effort in thinking up really cool codenames.
Like fellow Ultimate Marvel architect Brian Michael Bendis, Millar has an almost preternatural ability to attract some of the most talented artists in the comics industry to work on his books, including Civil War collaborator Steve McNiven, Marvel Comics legend John Romita Jr., and the artist of this work, the inestimable Filipino artist Leinil Yu, who brings along with him another of my favorite Filipino artists, Gerry Alanguilan, and Indonesian colorist Sunny Gho. There's a crispness to Yu's work here that I haven't seen anywhere else. His linework has always been amazing, but the first couple of issues of this story, to me anyway, showcase his talent working on a level even higher than his norm. Maybe there's something to be said about the way Millar plays to his artist's strengths. Whatever the reason, Yu and his co-artists Alanguilan and Gho are really firing on all cylinders here. Also, it's thanks to the participation of my two countrymen that there's a lovely little Easter Egg for all the Filipino comic book readers at the end of the comic book in which a Filipino casino attendant speaks in Tagalog. It's good for a nice hearty laugh.
Overall, Supercrooks is a very entertaining read. It's not something destined to turn the industry on its head or break the internet in half, and it doesn't quite stand on par with Millar's best like his first run on The Ultimates, but it's a memorable read nonetheless and definitely worth adding to the collection.
4/5
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