The Milkman Murders

Written by Joe Casey
Art by Steve Parkhouse

When opening up a comic by Joe Casey, the informed reader expects a certain amount of excess - usually some ultraviolence in the vein of a Tarantino movie, or some satire of the comics industry.  I wasn't really prepared for the degree to which The Milkman Murders disturbed me.

Casey has set his story in a nameless American suburb, where Barbara Vale lives with her husband and two teenage children.  Her husband is abusive and takes drugs with his friends.  Her daughter is sleeping with her gym teacher, and has quite a history with this sort of thing.  Her son likes to shoot neighbourhood animals and skin them in the cellar.  None of these people show her any kindness, and so she retreats into watching "Leave it to Mother", a TV show based on Leave it to Beaver.

One day, rather randomly, a slob driving a milk truck shows up at the door and rapes Barbara viciously.  After this terrifying event, she decides she has to take matters into her own hands to fix her family.  And that's where things get really violent and disturbing.

I've followed Steve Parkhouse's North American comics for years, most recently in the excellent Resident Alien, but I've never seen his work so loose.  His characters are caricatures of typical Americans, although that makes this book look less American than almost anything else on the stands.

Casey and Parkhouse's comments on American society are just left on the surface for us to see, and there is no hidden depth to this book, but so far as straight-up horror comics go, this is one of the creepiest ones I've ever read.

Sex #1

Written by Joe Casey
Art by Piotr Kowalski

Joe Casey is a 'buy on sight' writer for me, even if I don't always end up loving his work (the more recent issues of Godland, and his very strange Final Crisis Aftermath: Dance did not really do it for me), he has a pretty singular voice in modern comics, as a writer of truly independent and unique superhero books.

His new series Sex continues that trend.  I had no preconceived notions going into the book (I don't read solicitation text or website interviews and articles about books I know I'm going to buy), but assumed that this would be a light comedy about heroes getting it on.  Not even close.

Sex appears to be a story about Bruce Wayne trying to cobble together a normal life for himself after giving up being Batman.  Bruce is called Simon Cooke here, and Gotham is Saturn City.  Cooke is returning to the very densely-populated city after a seven month absence, looking to take back control of his company, and apply himself to shaking off his flaky reputation.  His alter ego, the Armored Saint, has been mothballed, and in his absence, the criminals are becoming more bold.

Simon is determined to keep a promise he made to build a more normal life for himself, but that seems a little outside his capabilities right now.

With the title being Sex, you'd expect there would be lots of it, and for that reason, readers picking up the title for a thrill are likely to be disappointed.  Simon does go to a high-end peepshow establishment, but the whole scene is not that exciting for any of the participants.  Perhaps a little more-so for the reader.

This issue felt like it was over almost before it began, but Casey had a lot to do to get the ball rolling.  He did definitely pique my interest, and I'm curious to see where he is going to take this story.  Piotr Kowalski's art is very nice, with a bit of a Tonci Zonjic feel to it.  The book has a very European sensibility in its appearance, something furthered by Rus Wooten's lettering, which looks to be straight from a French comic.

In all, this is a very good package (I love reading Casey's backmatter pages).  I don't think this title deserves any of the criticism it received prior to publication (which is mostly because of the title, from what I can gather), but it does deserve some attention.

Butcher Baker the Righteous Maker #8

Written by Joe Casey
Art by Mike Huddleston

It's a real shame that the ending of Butcher Baker, Joe Casey and Mike Huddleston's gonzo comics series had to end with some on-line controversy and mud-slinging on the parts of the creators towards each other.  The book is hella late - this issue was solicited for October of last year, and it's a little odd to see Casey lay the blame on the artist, considering how completely screwed up the schedule has been for Godland, Casey's other Image series, for the last two years.

Anyway, I don't read comics for the behaviour of the people who create them, I read them for their own merits, and in that sense, Butcher Baker ends much as it began, in a burst of crazy energy and ideas.

Butcher is a patriotic hero, a cross between Ultimate Captain America, Rambo, and The Comedian, who drives around in an over-sized truck dispensing justice.  This issue has him finish his big confrontation with his old enemy Jihad Jones, deal with the other-worldly threat of The Absolutely, and reach some closure with the small-town cop who has been pursuing him since the series began.

Much of this issue is taken up with the extended fight between Butcher and Jones, both of them naked with their rather large appendages swinging freely.  It's like Casey took his goal of creating the most balls-out crazy action comic he could a little too literally, and you have to respect that.

Mike Huddleston has made this issue well worth the wait, as he continues to blend various styles and colour approaches, and makes every page stand out in a way we haven't seen since Bill Sienkiewicz first made his splash.

Casey's back pages are entertaining as always, and while it's too bad that we won't be seeing more of Butcher, I'm curious to see what Casey has in store for us with his next series, titled simply Sex.

Haunt #23

Written by Joe Casey
Art by Nathan Fox

I suppose that long-standing fans of this comic would have been happy to see that the focus of this issue returns to the Kilgore brothers, who have always been the stars of the book, but I was a little sad to see that Still Harvey Tubman, the best of many changes that Joe Casey and Nathan Fox have brought to the series, was relegated to a supporting role again.

One of my favourite things about reading Haunt is the letters page, where people who claim that the McFarlane/Kirkman/Capullo issues of this comic were among the best comics they've ever read attempt to find some positive things to say about Casey and Fox's revamp, before declaring that it's not for them.  I can understand that - the change in tone, aesthetic, and pace of the book is pretty drastic (based on comparisons to the first trade, which is all I've read of the old guard) - but their railing against innovation is still kind of funny.  I like some pretty traditional and unoriginal comics too, but there's nothing I'd be happier with than this type of comic becoming the norm at Marvel or DC.

Anyway.  This issue has the living Kilgore, Daniel, return to the church where he was nominally a priest when the series began, only to reveal to us all that it was always connected to this strange Second Church that attacked and kidnapped Daniel when Casey and Fox came on the scene.  There are now weird bug creatures crawling around the church, and a giant fire being has been rampaging through the city, also sent by the Second Church.  I'm still not too clear who these guys are, or why Casey loves fringe techno-religions so much, but it's all making this comic a pretty cool read.

Fox's visuals continue to be nuts - so much so that it's a little hard to follow the comic at times (like when the ship crashed into the shore).  Still, this comic is very exciting to read.

Haunt #22

Written by Joe Casey
Art by John Lucas and Nathan Fox

I feel like, with all the attention being given to some of Rob Liefeld's Extreme relaunches, that Joe Casey and Nathan Fox's similar revamp of Todd McFarlane's Haunt is not getting the recognition it deserves.

I recently read the first trade of the series, in an attempt to better understand what Casey is going to be doing with the series, and I was a little surprised by how little anyone seemed surprised to learn that the living Kilgore brother could see and speak to the recently deceased one, never mind join with him to receive weird powers.  Maybe that was explained later in Robert Kirkman and McFarlane's writing of the series, maybe it wasn't.  I'm not particularly interested to find out.

Joe Casey, however, has some interesting ideas involving the whole 'speak to dead people' aspect of this series.  In his second issue, he introduced the character Still Harvey Tubman, who could see the dead Kilgore, and seemed to know a great deal about the brothers and what was going on with them.  He helped them escape the Casey-esque religious army/church of the future organization that had abducted them, and when this issue opens, he is on a military flight back to the US with the living brother (I really don't remember their names).

Most of this issue is spent in 'backflash' (as it is called on the title page), and is drawn by John Lucas (despite the fact he doesn't get credited on either side of the cover).  We learn that Tubman is the last of the conductors (clearly the Tubman name wasn't accidental) who goes around leading the spirits of the dead to their heavenly reward.  We watch as he and his assistant look after the ghost of a mobster's sister in the 70s, after which, Harvey has to spend the rest of his days avoiding the mobster's desire for revenge.

It's a very good issue.  Still Harvey is a great character - equal parts The Dude from The Big Lebowski and Stick from Frank Miller's run on Daredevil.  Lucas's art is a nice change from Nathan Fox's usual frenetic explosion of action, although I look forward to him drawing the whole next issue.  Casey has finally laid out some sort of plan for where this book is going, and I think it will be interesting to see how the Kilgore brothers react to Harvey's duty of separating them permanently.

Butcher Baker, the Righteous Maker #6

Written by Joe Casey
Art by Mike Huddleston

What fun this comic is.  Butcher has been captured by Jihad Jones (great name), who is torturing him, finally being able to get his revenge for Butcher's part in the death of Jetboy, Jihad's former sidekick, and it is implied, life partner.  This death is shown to us through a flashback that looks like a 90s comic.

Those scenes are not the most interesting in this book though.  And while I like the parts with Arnie P. Willard, the cop that is chasing Butcher, even into his dreamstate, they aren't the best either.

The reason why you should read this comic is for the scene where Dick Cheney and Jay Leno get pulled in front of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to discuss their role in Butcher's destruction of the Crazy Keep.  It's a very funny scene, with Leno attempting to alleviate the mood.  Huddleston goes even more crazy on the art in this section than he has been all along.  He draws the military brass as having faces that are puddles of colour, sometimes looking more like demons than men.  Were Ralph Steadman to paint portraits in the Pentagon, they would look like this.

As always, the back matter is almost as good as the comic itself, as Casey writes about how he acquired comics throughout his childhood.  I'm sure I'm not the only person who felt a wave or two of nostalgia reading this.

Butcher Baker, the Righteous Maker #5

Written by Joe Casey
Art by Mike Huddleston

There's a lot to like about the newest issue of Joe Casey's patriotic superhero grindhouse extravaganza, but I want to talk about the thing that stood out the most in this issue first.

Mike Huddleston's been doing a great job on this comic from the beginning, but in this issue, his colours really stood out as the best thing about the comic.  I don't normally notice the colouring first, but the fight scene is New York is made so lovely because of the way he makes everything look like it's happening at sunset.

The rest of the comic is great too.  Butcher finishes off the three villains that have attacked him, but not without gaining the enmity of the United States army.  This causes Butcher to have to go into hiding at a retirement resort for the powered set.  Poor Arnie, the highway patrol guy that's hunting him just misses him.

The comic is really very good, but Joe Casey's essays in the back are almost worth the purchase price alone.  This month he talks about the trailer to the Michael Keaton Batman movie (I must only be a couple of years younger than Casey, and remember the excitement of that summer very well), how a crazy non-fan reacted to Butcher Baker, and the info scroll technique he used in The Intimates.  Has it really been six years since that comic was published?  Man, I loved that title.  It hasn't even been collected I see - look for it in the quarter bins, it was great.  Stupid Wildstorm....

Butcher Baker, the Righteous Maker #3

Written by Joe Casey
Art by Mike Huddleston

The last issue left me a little unsure about this series, but with this one, I'm back on board whole-heartedly.  Casey really find a balance this month between his principle characters - Butcher Baker (who is maybe not all that interesting except as a walking, talking plot device), Arnie B. Willard, the walking cliche of a small town cop that is chasing Butcher, and the super villains who are looking for revenge.

I think the most interesting character in this comic is Jihad Jones, who in this issue, breaks into Butcher's home/headquarters, and does some pretty nasty stuff.  He's got that wise psycho thing going for him, and its interesting to see how the other, more bumbling villains relate to him.

Willard is another great character, in his homespun aggression and blissful embrace of trashiness.  And that, of course, is the central concept of this comic as a whole - the embrace of trashiness.  Casey admits as much in his essay this month, which compares comics to junk food.  What makes this comic work is its self-knowledge, as Casey tries to outdo himself with wackiness and trash, while maintaining a structurally sound exploration of superheroes.

I don't think this comic would work without Mike Huddleston.  He employs a few different styles and art techniques while drawing this comic, and this helps keep things fresh and interesting on every page.

Butcher Baker, the Righteous Maker #2

Written by Joe Casey
Art by Mike Huddleston

It's only been two weeks since this new, over-the-top series debuted, and we already get to read the second issue!  That's impressive, especially when you look at Casey's other 'monthly' book, the delay-plagued Godland.

Where the first issue of Butcher Baker was concerned with establishing Butcher's character and situation, this issue is mostly given over to the surviving members of his rogue's gallery, who are now free from their imprisonment.  We meet Jihad Jones, who has the potential to become a very interesting character, and a bunch of other standard super-villains, who so far don't seem too interesting.  There's also a cosmic hermaphrodite character who could fit just as well in Godland, and who seems to be manipulating the others.

The core of this book, to me at least, appears to be the growing conflict between Butcher and Arnie B. Willard, the local sheriff he ran of the road in the first issue, and now ends up sharing a drink with at a roadside eatery.  Picture Boss Hogg getting into a fight with the Comedian from The Watchmen, and you'll get the idea.  These scenes are pretty funny, but I found the villain scenes to be a little long.  It's Casey though, so he gets the benefit of the doubt for now.

Butcher Baker, the Righteous Maker #1

Written by Joe Casey
Art by Mike Huddleston

You have to appreciate the role that Joe Casey plays in modern comics.  It's clear that he loves superhero comics, and in his work, he embraces them, with all their peculiarities and nonsense, with such a fervor that he creates stories that aren't so much satire as pure, unadulterated superheroics.  His new book, Butcher Baker, is to the gritty post-heroic 90s of the Watchmen, the Punisher, and Rick Veitch's Brat Pack what his Godland is to Jack Kirby.

Butcher Baker is a retired patriotic superhero (more Comedian than Captain America) who is brought out of retirement (by Dick Cheney and Jay Leno) to help clean up some loose ends.  He mostly spends his days having sex with multiple women, and drives a souped-up gigantic semi painted to look like the American flag.

Despite all appearances, it seems his life is kind of empty.  Or at least, that's what this issue hints at, but most of this comic is spent establishing his unique character.  It's a fun comic, and Huddleston does a great job of showing different eras in Baker's career.  I'm not sure if this is a mini-series or an on-going, but it seems interesting enough to get me to stick around for a while.

Officer Downe

Written by Joe Casey
Art by Chris Burnham

If I say that this is a graphic novella by Joe Casey about a hardcore cop who can't stay dead, fighting crime however he feels like it, is that enough of a description to totally understand the concept and make enough of an informed decision about whether or not you would enjoy it?  Basically, they had me at Joe Casey, but perhaps a more discerning reader would need more incentive...

How about that the book is set in Mother****ing L.A (as the first words in the book tells us)?  Or that it's drawn by Chris Burnham, who assisted Casey so well on the brilliant and under-rated Nixon's Pals a couple of years back?

Maybe you'd need to know that Officer Downe is resurrected through the efforts of hundreds of men with degenerative neurological disorders?  Or that the LA crime scene is under control of the Fortune 500 - a group of animal-headed criminals?  Maybe you'd need to know that the Fortune 500 hires the assassin Zen Master Flash and his cadre of students dressed in Kick-Ass's track suit to kill the good officer?

If that's not enough for you, maybe you should be aware of the fact that this book is like reading a strange mix of Marshal Law and Hard-Boiled.

If none of that convinces you to go pick this up, then you're beyond help, because this is a balls-out fun comic to read, and proof of the fact that Casey is in a class of his own as a writer (when not working for the Big Two).

Godland #32

Written by Joe Casey
Art by Tom Scioli

As much as I like Godland, I think I'll be happy when it's over.  The story has become more than a little exhausting, and as the lengths between issues become more pronounced (I'm not sure if they're getting longer or if I'm just noticing it more), I find it harder and harder to get back into the story with each new issue.

And really, it should be easy to love this comic.  Things are getting really wild, as the entire issue is taken up with massive fight scenes, and double splash pages.  Friedrich Nickelhead's crew is going up against the Almighty Decimator army, and are joined by Basil, sporting the new body you see to the right.  While all of this is going on, the little smoking butterfly thing fills Friedrich in on his origins, which get a little meta-textual in a very Jack Kirby way.

On the other side of the universe, Archer and his sister continue their battle with R@d-Ur Rezz, and their allies go all ritual magic thingamajig.  Actually, I'm totally bored with the Archers, and am happiest with the pages that feature the villainous characters.  Next issue looks interesting though, as Archer visits Maxim's world.

The Hellboy Project: Hellboy Weird Tales Vol. 1

by too many people to list here

I've been reading a lot of Hellboy (and Hellboy-related) comics lately.  I'm trying to get caught up with the current issues now coming out, and so I've accelerated my 'Hellboy Project' a little.  Reading this was a nice way to recharge a little.

The Weird Tales books collect the mini-series of the same name.  It features stories starring Hellboy and his BPRD friends, but Mike Mignola's name is nowhere near this project (except on the logo - I just noticed that).  Instead, the stories are done by a number of different people from the comics and animation industries, and while the results are a little mixed, the book is never boring.

The highlights are stories by John Cassaday, Alex Maleev, Jason Pearson, Eric Powell (young Hellboy!), Steve Lieber, and Steve Parkhouse (w/ Joe Casey).

Perhaps the most impressive story is the one that involves Hellboy dealing with a haunted hot spring in Japan.  It is written by Randy Stradley, and features the first published work of artist Seung Kim, whose black and white pencils are gorgeous.

I'm not one for cutesy comics, so the contributions by Bob Fingerman, Roger Langridge, and Ovi Nedelcu did nothing for me, although I kind of liked Eric Wight and Andi Watsons' stories.

In all, it's always fun to see different takes on a favourite character, and the editors of this book did not disappoint.

Longbox Digging: Wildcats Version 3.0 #13-24

Written by Joe Casey
Art by Dustin Nguyen, Richard Friend, Sean Casey, Francisco Ruiz Velasco, Pascal Ferry, Sandra Hope, Duncan Rouleau, John Dell, Trevor Scott, and Eric Nguyen

A while ago, I read through the rest of Joe Casey's various WildC.A.T.S. trades, spread over two titles, and resolved to dig out my back issues, fill in any remaining gaps there might have been, and read the series through in its proper order, which was not how I first experienced it. I hit a bit of a snag, in that it took me a few months to track down an issue of number 16, but that was accomplished the other week.

The last twelve issues of Casey's run on the title were quite varied in their approach. The first six, which saw regular artist Dustin Nguyen get replaced by Francisco Ruiz Velasco (with a very cool semi-fill-in issue by Phillips) continued to focus on the daily operations of the Halo Corporation, and Jack Marlowe's (aka Spartan) plans to change the business model of the free world. These issues saw the introduction of the Halo car, Jack moving to take over the internet, and him catching the attention of Washington fat cats whose interests would be better served by continued reliance on fossil fuels.

Also during this half of the run, we saw Agent Wax deal with, and eventually replace, his long-time rival in the Parks Department, Agent Downs. Wax got more 'screen time' throughout these issues, and was shown to be a more morally complex man than before. Also, it is during these issues that Grifter figures out how to wirelessly control Maxine Manchester's (aka Ladytron) body.

Following these issues (which I imagine would have been volume three, had they ever been printed in trade), the series takes a definite turn back towards slightly more conventional superheroics.

This arc addresses Zealot's on-going war with the Coda, the female assassin army she created, which has gone rogue. She gets captured, and Grifter/Ladytron has to call in all sorts of chips to assemble a rag-tag team to go to her rescue. This arc also has Marlowe and Wax confront a government assassin. That's about it though, which is odd for a book that had previously been very compressed in its storytelling.

Of course, you can't discuss the end of this title without bringing up the summary cancellations of both this title and its sister book Stormwatch: Team Achilles. At the time, both titles were selling poorly (by the standards of the day) and the decision was made to terminate them, despite the regular high critical praise they were receiving. It makes me wonder if the book didn't become all action and adventure as an attempt to 'give the readers what they want' a little more, even if all that action did end up involving a transexual robot and a couple of large men in S&M gear...

Rouleau was a good choice as artist for these issues (with one issue by Pascal - shouldn't that be Pascual? - Ferry), as he has a large and open style that worked very well with these action sequences.

Casey's approach to the Wildcats was a very refreshing thing, as comics emerged from the darkness of the 90's. It is too bad that he didn't get to stick with the title, as I'm sure he had more plans for Marlowe and the crew. Also, whatever he wanted to do couldn't have been worse than where things ended up for these characters, and the Wildstorm titles in general...

Gødland #31

Written by Joe Casey
Art by Tom Scioli

You can't read Gødland without smiling throughout these days. Casey's just going nuts with this story, as he gets closer to the end of the series. I get the feeling that he is not so much attempting a clean resolution to the various plot lines that have developed over the years, as he is just loading them all into a gigantic Conceptual Hadron Collider, and waiting to see if they will form new little baby universes, or a black hole that will wipe all of his characters out.

This issue has: a new look for Basil; a stirring speech by Nickelhead; sibling rivalry at the edge of the universe (again); more "winged horseheads"; a lengthy diatribe by R@d-Ur Rezz; another posthumous visitation from a gigantic cosmic dog-thing; and the revelation that the butterfly smokes a cigar.

Also, how wonderful is that cover?

Krash Bastards

Written by Joe Casey
Art by Axel #13

Joe Casey is a pretty interesting writer. He can handle mainstream comics, but is best known for playing with genre conventions and trying new things in a manner that is respectful of what has gone before. The perfect example for this is Gødland, his post-modern Kirby on steroids series.

With Krash Bastards, Casey has created a post-modern English language manga comic. The Bastards are a group of celebrity superheroes (a recurring theme in his work - see Youngblood or Final Crisis Aftermath Dance, which is basically the same series) in some future world. They have been together for a while, and fit the usual archetypes for Japanese comics and films like this. There is the good looking leader, his girlfriend, some annoying kid character (his little brother), the mysterious spooky character (female in this case), and some older guy who takes on a mentor role.

They fight against a 'Giant Gekko God-Being', a bunch of S&M leather bad guys, some Minotaur-type, and eventually the main Bastard fights some Shogun Baron Karza figure named Kau Death. None of it makes much sense, but it does move quickly, which I think might have been the goal here from the beginning. Axel #13's art works in this setting, but is nothing too spectacular.

This is a fun read, but the story only takes up half the book, while the remainder consists of script pages and sketches. When one attempts to ape manga, one should at least create as meaty a reading experience...

Wildcats Vol. 4: Battery Park

Written by Joe Casey

Art by Sean Phillips and Steve Dillon

While I've been trying to systematically read Joe Casey's Wildcats run (spread over two series of the title), this volume had been eluding me for a while. I was quite pleased to find it in a sale box on Boxing Day this week.

This entire book feels like Casey sweeping away some old sub-plots in order to position the book Version 3.0. In short order, this book: sets up Jack Marlowe with Void's powers, helps Marlowe set out a business plan, fills Wax in on what the team is all about, and shuffles Voodoo, Zealot, Maul, and Noir off the stage. It also introduces Agent Orange.

It's an odd volume, first because it lacks a larger narrative structure, and because it has an ugly cover by Sean Phillips, the only one I think he's ever made. It does fill in a few gaps for my Version 3.0 reading, for which I am now only missing one issue...

Longbox Digging: Wildcats Version 3.0 Vol. 2: Full Disclosure

Written by Joe Casey
Art by Dustin Nguyen and Richard Friend

So, having finally read most of the earlier parts of Casey's run on Wildcats, I figured it was a good time to re-read Volume 2, and then move on to the single issues that were never collected in trade. It turns out I'm missing a few, so now I know what I'll be hunting for come Boxing Day...

In this volume, Casey almost completely abandons the trappings of a superhero comic, choosing instead to focus on the corporate aspects of life at Halo. There is the lengthy scene wherein Dolby, the accountant, is trained to replace Grifter, who was crippled in volume one, but his mission feels tangential - there is never even any follow-up with the child that he 'rescued' from the FBI.

The rest of the book is all about Spartan's machinations in the business world. Sure, that still involves accounting firms that are fronts for the CIA, but it is just as much about hostile takeovers of major media corporations. What makes this book so great is that the corporate stuff is just as exciting and well-drawn as the few action scenes.

Casey was really on to something with this book. I'm looking forward to re-reading (or reading for the first time) the rest of the series.

Gødland #30

Written by Joe Casey
Art by Tom Scioli

This is another typical issue of Gødland, which means that parts of it don't make a lot of sense, but the story itself is a lot of fun. Adam and Neela deal with some drama at the far end of the universe, while Nickelhead's assault on the American government becomes a piece of performance art improvisation.

To be honest, it's the Nickelhead scenes that I read this book for. I've grown tired of the more cosmic aspects of the story, and much prefer the truly bizarre villains that Casey has populated this comic with.

Wildcats Version 3.0 Vol. 1: Brand Building

Written by Joe Casey
Art by Dustin Nguyen and Richard Friend

It wasn't until later in the run that I started to read what has to be the best approach ever taken to a creation of Jim Lee's.

Casey completely shed the 'Action Teams' aspect of the WildCATs, although he did sort of keep the 'Covert', instead taking only a few of the characters from the original team, and re-purposing them as industrial barons on a mission to improve the world through aggressive capitalism. These were superheroes for the new millennium, although parts of Casey's first few issues read as much like an article by Naomi Klein as Larry Hama.

This volume does a great job of introducing some new characters: Dolby, the accountant, and CC Rendozzo, the information broker are two memorable individuals. Casey did not completely break with the main characters' pasts, he just made them largely irrelevant to the business at hand.

Nguyen's art is crisp and enjoyable, as he plays around a little with lay-outs and provides some interesting ads. The covers, by Nguyen but with the guidance of Rian Hughes, are often the best part of the comic, and the comic is damn good. I think it's time perhaps to re-read Volume 2, and then dig through the single issues that make up the bulk of this run (which has not been collected yet).