Premier Pop C Pop Culture News – Movies, Comics, Television, Books, Toys, Games, and More The best-selling crime comic of the decade finally returns with Criminal: The Last Of The Innocent #1, from the acclaimed team of writer Ed Brubaker (Captain America, Secret Avengers), artist Sean Phillips (Dark Tower) and colorist Val Staples.
What if your favorite children’s comic characters really grew up? Explore that dark question in the newest arc of the ICON series that has won Brubaker five “Best Writer” awards, and was recently named “Best Crime Comic” at the International Noir Fest in Lyon.
“With each new Criminal arc we try to do something different,” Brubaker explained. “This time we’re trying to make the ultimate crime comic, and what I mean by that is it’s a story that only works as a comic. Yes, it’s about sex and obsession and murder, but it’s also about nostalgia for the past and things lost, using tropes of old kids comics and 50s era crime comics, but putting our brutal Criminal spin over it all. It’s by far the most ambitious thing we’ve done.”
It’s also no accident that the title of this series is reminiscent of Dr. Wertham’s ‘Seduction of the Innocent’ — the book that led to the creation of the Comics Code and the end of the popularity of crime comics as a genre. “The history of crime comics is inextricably linked to Dr. Wertham’s book, so I decided to take the innocent days of youth and put them through all of Wertham’s worst fears,” said Brubaker.
