Source: comicvine.gamespot.com
4. Criminal
(Image Comics)
Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips’ Criminal is THE Crime comic of the twenty-first century. It’s the first thing you hand someone who likes crime.
The book is an anthology that tells the stories of various criminals in one very loosely connected universe. The stories are often about the Lawless family. Tracey and Teeg are both great characters with excellent arcs. But my favorite is the most recently released miniseries, The Last of the Innocent. Last of the Innocent is a dark crime story that draws heavily from Archie Comics. Like Riverdale, but with adults who are somehow even sadder. Riley is an immensely affecting protagonist whose tale of horror and sadness legitimately made me have to sit and think for a while after I finished it.
The first arc, Coward, is also excellent. In Leo Patterson’s story, the lead criminal is fundamentally not very good at crime. It’s a great story, and one of the few that’s not about a Lawless. But don’t let that trick you into thinking the Lawlesses (Lawli?) aren’t great protagonists, because they are.
Criminal is definitive for a reason. It’s the platonic ideal of a crime comic.
