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REVIEW: Criminal #11 "If Crime Stories Are Your Jam, This Will Likely Pique Your Interests"

(Image Comics, creative team: Ed Brubaker, Sean Phillips, Jacob Phillips)

A proposed heist at a sporting event develops some surprises for a hard luck hoodlum and his crew of goons. The pacing here is the best part as the intensity rises and climbs towards the plot twist ending. Let's talk about that ending, though: if this isn't your first issue of Criminal, or even your second, the surprise at the end would likely bear some weight. If you're a casual reader or someone not as well acquainted with the series, it will hit you like a bolt from the blue, without preamble or context. That's a challenge for the reader without even a word of protest shouted before the climactic moment. Likewise, getting a better sense of who some of the bit players are would have put some meat on this story's bones, but with pulp storytelling a lean meal is sometimes all that's on the menu.

If crime stories are your jam, this will likely pique your interests regardless of the very few flaws. If you're more of a generalist or someone with a passing interest in pulp, this may leave you a little peckish for more. RATING: HONORABLE MENTION.

WRITER: Ed Brubaker
ARTIST: Jacob Phillips, Sean Phillips
The heist. The most explosive issue of the CRUEL SUMMER arc yet.

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