Criminal, Vol. 1 Review: Brubaker & Phillips’s Noir
Brubaker and Phillips's gold-standard modern crime comics.
By Web Admin
If you want to know how good crime comics can get, you read Criminal. The flagship collaboration between writer Ed Brubaker and artist Sean Phillips, it launched in 2006 and has become the gold standard of the genre — a sprawling, interconnected series of hard-boiled stories set in one shared, doomed underworld. It’s the kind of comic that wins Eisner Awards by the armful and converts prose crime readers who’ve never touched the medium. This is our full review of Criminal, Vol. 1 — what it is, where to start, and why Brubaker and Phillips are the most reliable partnership in comics.
What is Criminal?
Criminal is a creator-owned crime comic written by Ed Brubaker and drawn by Sean Phillips, with color by Val Staples (and later Elizabeth Breitweiser). It first appeared in 2006 under Marvel’s creator-owned Icon imprint and later moved to Image Comics, where the pair have continued it. Rather than one continuous story, Criminal is an anthology of self-contained arcs — each following different characters, all orbiting the same corrupt city, the same seedy bar (the Undertow), and the same tangled web of thieves, cops, and grifters. Characters from one story turn up in the background of another; a father in one arc is a legend in the next.
Volume 1, subtitled “Coward,” collects the first five-issue arc and is the natural entry point. It introduces Leo, one of the best pickpockets and getaway men in the city — a careful, cowardly professional with a strict set of rules — who gets pulled into a heist that goes catastrophically wrong.
The story: “Coward” and the perfect heist gone wrong
“Coward” is a near-perfect noir. Leo has survived in a lethal business by being cautious to the point of cowardice — he runs at the first sign of trouble, and that’s exactly why he’s still alive. When a crew talks him into planning a jewel heist off a police evidence transfer, his rules start to bend, and everything Leo has protected himself from comes crashing in. Brubaker structures it like a great crime novel: a likeable, compromised protagonist, a scheme that curdles, and a spiral of betrayal that feels both shocking and inevitable. It’s roughly 128 pages of tightly wound tension.
The interconnected underworld
What elevates Criminal above a good genre exercise is its architecture. Brubaker built an entire criminal ecosystem — a city with its own history, families, and legends — and each volume illuminates a different corner of it. “Coward” follows Leo; later arcs like “Lawless,” “The Dead and the Dying,” and “Bad Night” follow entirely different leads, but the world knits together. Read them all and you get something close to a crime saga spanning decades, told in fragments. You can start anywhere, but “Coward” is the cleanest on-ramp.
Brubaker: the crime writer’s crime writer
Ed Brubaker is one of the finest writers working in comics, celebrated for his acclaimed run on Captain America (where he created the modern Winter Soldier) and Daredevil, but crime is his true home. He writes noir the way its best novelists did — with empathy for the damned, a sharp ear for regret, and an understanding that the genre is really about people trapped by their own worst choices. His narration is spare and confessional, never flashy, and it does an enormous amount of quiet work.
Phillips and the art of noir
Sean Phillips may be the perfect crime-comics artist. His heavy blacks, weary faces, and rain-slick cities feel lived-in and cinematic without ever showing off. He excels at the small human beats — a flinch, a glance, a moment of dread — that make the violence land when it comes. Combined with rich, moody coloring, his pages have the smoky texture of classic film noir. Brubaker and Phillips have worked together for two decades across Criminal, Fatale, Kill or Be Killed, and Reckless, and it shows: they write and draw as a single mind.
Content warning
This is hard-boiled crime fiction for adults. Expect graphic violence, strong language, drug use, and dark, morally bleak subject matter throughout. Nobody in these pages is clean, and Brubaker doesn’t soften the consequences. It’s not gratuitous — the darkness serves the tragedy — but it’s unmistakably a mature read.
Pros and cons
Pros
- The benchmark for modern crime comics
- Self-contained arcs — start almost anywhere
- Career-best noir art from Sean Phillips
- A perfect gateway for prose crime readers
Cons
- Uniformly bleak; no happy endings here
- Graphic violence and adult themes throughout
- The shared-world payoff builds across many volumes
How it compares to other crime comics
The obvious comparison is Frank Miller’s Sin City, and the two make an instructive pair. Where Sin City is stylized, operatic pulp — all silhouette and hard-boiled excess — Criminal is grounded, novelistic, and character-first. Miller gives you myth; Brubaker and Phillips give you people. Both are essential, but if you want crime comics that read like the best of Elmore Leonard or Richard Stark, Criminal is the one. Its consistency is what earns it a place among the great comic book runs and marks Brubaker as one of the medium’s finest comic book writers.
Which edition should you buy?
Criminal has been collected several ways over the years. Here’s how the main options compare.
| Edition | Collects | Approx. price | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vol. 1: Coward (trade) | First five-issue arc | ~US$17 | Trying it out |
| Individual Image trades | One arc each | ~US$17 each | Reading arc by arc |
| Deluxe Edition hardcovers | Several arcs each | ~US$40 each | Best value for the full saga |
If you suspect you’ll love it (you probably will), the oversized Deluxe hardcovers are the best way to read the interconnected stories in order and show off Phillips’s art.
AmazonCheck price on AmazonIs it a good starting point?
For crime fans, absolutely — even ones new to comics. The self-contained arcs and prose-like storytelling make it unusually easy to pick up. If you’re totally new to the medium and want something broader first, browse our best crime and noir comics guide, then come to “Coward” when you’re ready for the genre’s peak.
The verdict
Criminal is the crime comic other crime comics get measured against — lean, humane, gorgeously drawn, and reliably devastating. It anchors our best crime and noir comics list and stands as proof that Brubaker and Phillips belong among the best partnerships the medium has ever produced. Start with “Coward” and clear your weekend.
Frequently asked questions
Where should I start with Criminal?
Start with Volume 1, “Coward.” It’s the first arc, the cleanest introduction to the shared world, and a complete story in its own right.
Do the Criminal stories connect?
Yes. Each arc is self-contained, but they all take place in the same city and share characters, history, and locations. Reading them all builds into a larger crime saga.
How violent is Criminal?
Very. It’s hard-boiled noir with graphic violence, strong language, and bleak, adult themes throughout. It’s strictly for mature readers.
Who are Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips?
They’re a long-running writer-artist team behind acclaimed crime comics including Criminal, Fatale, Kill or Be Killed, and Reckless. Brubaker also wrote landmark runs on Captain America and Daredevil.
Next, compare it with the genre’s stylized giant in our Sin City review, or see the full field in our best crime and noir comics guide.
