By Chris Orr (@Orr_Man)
You cross one ocean, you face them all…
It’s “X-Men meets Ocean’s Eleven” (although it’s probably more similar to Ocean’s Twelve).
When it comes to Mark Millar, I am a man divided. I’ve read some of his work at DC and loved it (for example Superman: Red Son) and the same stands for the work I’ve read of his at Marvel (such as Wolverine: Enemy of the State). But, when it comes to his creator owned work, I’m not always as convinced. Millar’s creator-owned work is known for its over-the-top action, violence, seedy suggestions, and strong language. The problem for me is that comic books and graphic novels are often viewed by those on the outside as childish and immature, and when reading Millar’s own creations I often feel that the extreme nature of his style and writing actually reinforces this instead of alleviating it. It’s too over the top, too violent and the f-bomb is dropped so often that it’s no longer “mature” and “adult” but has in fact brought the genre full circle back to immaturity. It just feels a bit too much like it’s aimed at stupid teenagers at times.
Millar’s creator-owned work is known for its over-the-top action, violence, seedy suggestions, and strong language.
Supercrooks, however, doesn’t suffer from this. It’s “X-Men meets Ocean’s Eleven” (although it’s probably more similar to Ocean’s Twelve), as a group of super-powered criminals decide to do one last job to help a friend out of financial trouble. Thinking outside the box, they head away from the superhero-centric United States and go to the superhero-light Spain instead. Here they plan to steal from a retired and brutal super-villain known as The Bastard.
Here they plan to steal from a retired and brutal super-villain known as The Bastard.
It’s a fun story and Millar’s writing here shies away from his excessive tendencies instead creating a fairly mainstream and relatively tame tale (compared to Kick-Ass, Kick-Ass 2 or Wanted for example). There’s still plenty of violence, action and bad language (the bad guy is called The Bastard after all), but it’s tuned to a level that stops Supercrooks from feeling overly immature and over-the-top. The influence from the Ocean’s film series is clear here, and whilst not necessarily a bad thing, it does mean that Supercrooks feels less original than some of Millar’s other works. And with only 4 issues, Supercrooks feels too brief. It would have been much better if Millar had expanded more on the back-story of Supercrooks. The history of the main characters and their relationships with the superheroes and each other is explored far too briefly in favour of a quick, snappy story that wraps everything up neatly without much hope of a sequel. In fact, Supercrooks feels like it’s written with an easy film adaptation in mind.
Credit, however, must go to Leinil Yu, the artist on Supercrooks, who does a brilliant job. The artwork looks superb, with bright vibrant colours, detailed facial expressions, and accentuations that play to the strengths of Millar’s more mainstream and less teen-extreme work on show here. Rest assured though that when the action and violence does break out, Yu is more than capable of providing artwork to match. Millar and Yu worked together on Superior, arguably one of Millar’s other less extreme books, and there’s something about this pairing that just works.
Rest assured though that when the action and violence does break out, Yu is more than capable of providing artwork to match.
Supercrooks, like my general feelings on Millar’s work, leaves me divided. I like the story and the artwork a lot, but there’s not enough depth and daring on show here. I like that it doesn’t rely on Millar’s over-the-top violence, swearing and sex, but at the same time I know Millar is capable of creating darker, grittier, stories that involve more mature themes, and it feels like Supercrooks could have benefitted from this. It’s so clearly influenced by the Ocean’s film series that the feeling that Supercrooks was written just to be easily adapted into a film is inescapable.
Supercrooks: The Heist (which collects Supercrooks issues #1-4) is a decent comic book if you’re looking for a casual read that doesn’t ask you to think too much. Beyond that, it’s unlikely to make much of an impact on the world of comic books. It’s enjoyable and fun, but mostly forgettable.
Thanks for reading, and please feel free to leave a comment. You can follow me on Twitter (@Orr_Man) and Tumblr (www.dresslikethehulk.tumblr.com).
Posted on March 14th, 2013
Category: PROJECT COMICS, REVIEWS
Tags: Chris Orr, Comic Reviews, Kick-Ass, Kick-Ass 2, Leinil Yu, Mark Millar, marvel comics, Millarworld, Project Comics, Supercrooks