Greek Street #16

Written by Peter Milligan
Art by Davide Gianfelice

I feel like this is a comic that should have worked better than it did.  Milligan is usually a terrific writer, and most of his best work has been at the Vertigo imprint.  Gianfelice is a terrific artist, and the book looked great.  But things never quite gelled for this series, and I think that Vertigo was pretty generous giving it almost a year and a half to work itself out before pulling the plug.

The concept of Greek Street was that a group of people living in modern-day London were reliving the lives and stories of Ancient Greece, but with a twist.  The main character was Eddie, a young man who killed his own mother in the first issue after meeting her for the first time, and sleeping with her.  Later, Eddie hooked up with Cassie, a girl that had visions of the future, which no one believed.  And so on, with Lord Menon, the Fureys, and a Greek chorus of strippers.

I'm not sure why, exactly, this book never worked.  It was hard to follow at times, and maybe a little too gratuitous in its violence and self-mutilation (Eddie tried to castrate himself at one time, and plucked out his own eye another).  I'm a little surprised that I stuck with it, but I felt like there was a lot of potential here, it just unfortunately was never realized.  I think Milligan must feel the same, as evidenced in his deus ex machina ending to the series.