Review by Avi Pollock
Writer: Ed Brubaker
Artist and Colorist: Sean Phillips
Thanks to Image Comics for the review copy!
The Knives is Brubaker and Phillips’ graphic novel return to the world of Criminal and I’m already sorry it’s over.
It’s been 5 years since we’ve visited the Criminal universe. The amazing thing about what Brubaker and Phillips have done here is they’ve created a book that is incredibly rich if you’ve read everything that happened in the previous series and at the same time is incredibly accessible for new readers. This is great for someone like me who read everything that came before but has forgotten over the past 5 years many of the details.
Instead of another mini-series The Knives is a long form graphic novel broken into what starts as discrete stories that eventually comes together over a ten year period to form a single narrative.
The book begins revisiting cartoonist Jacob Kurtz who we first met in the Bad Night arc. He appears to have moved on from his criminal days and is moving to Hollywood to take his Frank Kafka PI character to the big screen. But nothing is smooth for Jacob who learns that a Hollywood lifestyle can chew you up and spit you out as quickly as it can make you into a star. While in California he reconnects with his aging wealthy aunt who wants to leave him her estate to the dismay of others who are not afraid to use force to get what they want.
We also reconnect with Angie, someone who was in the background before but who we haven’t gotten to know. Here we get to see her origin including how she came to work at the Undertow(n) bar and live with its owner Gnarly. Angie loses everything and starts a life of crime that takes her in conflict with mob boss Brandon Hyde, son of Sebastian Hyde who played a dominant role in the previous Criminal series. It also gets her thrown together with Jacob who takes on a father figure role for Angie as he gets drawn into her troubles with Hyde. Fortunately for both of them Jacob has Tracy Lawless in their corner. Tracy was the star of previous arcs Lawless and The Sinners but all you need to know about him is he’s a bad a$$, ex-Special Forces who comes from a legacy of criminals and is comfortable living in that world.
Beyond the narrative, the art by Sean Phillips is just perfect for the stories being told. It drives the story forward and makes the characters feel truly real.
I could say a lot more but better just to say – Read this book. Even if this is your first time in the world of Criminal, after reading this I guarantee it won’t be your last.
Rating: 10/10
The Knives will be released on August 27th.
Are you going to pick up the comic? Feel free to leave a comment below or chat with us on Threads at @theconventioncollective, or Bluesky at @theconcollective.bsky.social
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