Sleeper Season One

Written by Ed Brubaker
Art by Sean Phillips

I was a little late in jumping on to Sleeper. I bought the second season as it came out, but had not read the first. Eventually I picked up the first trade, but never got the second. Just recently I found this, which collects the first two trades, in a used bookstore, and decided it was time to reacquaint myself with Holden Carver.

Sleeper is a superior piece of comics. Brubaker's story of a double agent that is left on his own while his handler is in a coma combines the best of Cold War espionage novels with superhero action. Carver, his loyalties vacillating between his friends in Tao's organization, his former lover, and what he believes is right, finds himself in an impossible situation. Brubaker continuously adds tension to the story, as Carver is dragged deeper into Tao's world.

The team of Brubaker and Phillips have become much more reknowned since this work was completed - their Criminal and Incognito series are critically acclaimed and quite popular, and this title has a lot in common with Incognito. The thing is, I think I like this better. The main reason for that is that Brubaker is playing around in an established universe - he makes use of pre-existing characters and government agencies in the Wildstorm universe, and that lends a touch of gravity to this book, especially as he subtly subverts the structures of that universe, ultimately revealing that the world is run by an organization of people so rich and powerful, that they are completely unkwown.

Having finished this, I think it's time to dig back through the collection and re-read Season Two.