By: Dan Abnett (writer), INJ Culbard (artist), Patricia Mulvihill (colors), Travis Lanham (letters), Mark Doyle (associate editor) & Will Dennis (editor)
The Story: Inspector Suttle continues his search for a killer in zombie-besieged 1910’s London.
A few things: 1). Inspector Suttle is a great character. – The highlight of this series is the main character. Each issue we learn little new things about him that make him more interesting. He’s so dedicated to his duty, but not in the way that we usually see with dedicated characters. When I think of a “dedicated” character, someone like Officer McNulty from The Wire often comes to mind: dedicated, obsessive, GREAT at his job….but also tragically flawed by self-destructive behaviors. There’s none of that with Suttle. The guy is so dedicated to his duty that he willingly became a vampire in the first place (to fight off the zombies)….and that was only after he survived several tours of duty as a normal man. Now, he seems to be the last working murder inspector in all of London. But there’s no screaming at colleagues, no bitching about bureaucracy, no lying to his spouse, no excessive drinking. Nope….Suttle just goes about his work in a highly professional manner. It’s refreshing to see a hero/protagonist where the creators aren’t trying to give him an obvious flaw. I mean, he IS a vampire. So, I guess he has a “flaw”, but he seems like a wonderful person to be around, nice, courteous, hard-working, etc.
2). Don’t care about the murder. – The biggest problem I have with this series is that I don’t give a poop about the murder that Suttle is investigating. It should feel important because it is a murder of a vampire….but Abnett has yet to convince me that this murder is somehow central to the story. Fortunately, merely following Suttle around on his investigation is enjoyable enough because this comic could become a mess if the character was boring AND the murder wasn’t interesting.
3). Interesting world-building. – So far, we’ve seen Zone A which is the nice, fancy part of London. We’ve seen Zone B, which is where the working folks live. Now – in the next issue – we’re off to Zone D. Gah–this looks serious: HUGE cement wall, soldiers with flamethrowers torching any zombies that linger near the gate, etc. There are so many zombie stories that take place during the fall of humanity that it’s nice to see one that occurs after the humans have reestablished civilization (such as it is) and the zombies are just a fact of life….like thunderstorms or earthquakes or wolves that bite. Love the armored zombie-car with the gun-slit windows!
4). Very sharp art. – I think a lot of why Inspector Suttle is such a nice character is down to the art of Culbard. Suttle’s always nicely dressed, his hair is always combed, he’s always shaved, he buttons his coat when he’s standing up because gentlemen don’t let their coat flap in the breeze. Everything about his panels is nice and clean and focused on the storytelling. It’s so nice to see artists who aren’t tossing in stupid splash pages for no good reason (or writers who are feeding that insanity).
Conclusion: Another wonderful little issue. If you aren’t reading this, it’s well worth checking out.
Grade: A-
– Dean Stell
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