Review: Sleeper: Season Two #8

Sleeper: Season Two #8
DC Comics/Wildstorm Comics
Writer: Ed Brubaker
Artist: Sean Phillips

Ed Brubaker is writing some good comics right now. I've caught a glimpse of Gotham Central, which I thought was a dopey concept, but is a great crime comic. His relaunch of Captain America has been top notch. The Authority: Revolution isn't quite as good, but it's the best version of that comic that hasn't been written by a jaded fellow from the UK. That brings us to Sleeper, the book everyone loves to praise but nobody loves to buy.

We're in the home stretch for Sleeper, and one thing I enjoy is that it's totally unclear what the outcome will be for Holden Carver. With other titles, the protagonist is expected to survive the end of the series because his name is "Superman" or some other equivalent. On the other hand, Holden's story has an ending, but we do not know if it will be at the end of this "season" and we also do not know if it will be a happy ending.

This series has the same quality Planetary does, in that each issue is a self-contained story within a larger framework. This works really well for the monthly comic books and doesn't have the same feeling as some of the decompressed storytelling that's so popular these days. In the first series, Brubaker took each issue and used it to spotlight a different character. This time around, he's managed to create little stories within the bigger espionage conflict.

Miss Misery gets a little focus in this issue, and here's a character that's well conceived -- a villainess who has to do bad things or else she will wither up and die. A tragic villainess - a woman whose physical well-being is dependent on her actions. It's strong characterization and the game of trust and knowledge that is Sleeper continues on.

I've never seen the tv show Alias, but from what I heard it's like Sleeper. If that's true then it's probably a pretty good show.