CRIMINAL VOL. 2: LAWLESS by Ed Brubaker

I'm very excited about Ed Brubaker's Criminal series, so I was excited to quickly jump into the second installment, Lawless. Think of this series as a more grounded, realistic version of Sin City, where Brubaker and artist Sean Phillips tell a set of loosely interconnected noir tales that all center around the fictional Central City, the Undertow Bar, and the unfortunate losers that are stuck in this place. 

This new installment stars Tracy Lawless, a soldier who goes AWOL from his unit in the Middle East, after getting the news that his little brother has been murdered. He travels back home to Center City to find the person responsible and make it right.

This book was a great follow-up to the first volume and I began to see how the different stories would relate to one another. And this one had an even more morose atmosphere due to the constant snowing, and that mood provided an interesting contrast to the fact that it's Christmas in the story. Seems like Christmas is never merry in Center City. Although dead, Tracy's brother Ricky becomes an ever-present character because while Tracy is on the hunt for vengeance, he's also coming to terms with the regrets and missed opportunities that he feels with his relationship to his lost brother. The book has a slightly different feel than the first volume but it definitely exists not only in the same physical place, but also in the same thematic universe as well. And plus, any book that has a pistol packing nun should automatically earn it at least a B!

GRADE: B+