While Brubaker entertains with his deconstruction of the classic Archie characters, what the story is really about is how one lives life. Here, Riley has for an easy life. While he denies it, he's clearly in part drawn to Felix because of her money. He marries for convenience, not for love. It's not to say that he never felt anything for her, but that she represented what he wanted to reject: his small-town life. Riley wanted out of his own past, but now, he wants back in, away from the dark place he inhabits now. The problem is that he's using the ugliness in which he's been immersed as a means to achieve his ends. Read Full Review

Paired with Sean Phillips, whose delicate, vintage style recalls poster art of the '50s, Ed Brubaker has made Criminal one of the best crime series in existence in large part because of the way he and Phillips have played with the genre's own nostalgia. Reconfiguring the clichs and tropes of crime lit's most celebrated era, Brubaker and Phillips have crafted something that's simultaneously reverential and refreshingly different, a series that looks forward and backward at once. Read Full Review

A great first issue. Series like Criminal are what the comic industry needs. You could hand this to your dad or your boss and they'd enjoy it because this is proper adult fiction, not something for overgrown fanboys with nostalgia issues (of which I'm one). Read Full Review

It's too early to tell how The Last of the Innocent will compare to past Criminal stories, but it is clear this tale has potential to outshine them all. Criminal was sometimes guilty of wearing its influences on its sleeve early on. But with this new series, Brubaker and his team are showing themselves to be highly inventive crime storytellers. The least readers can do is make a point of giving The Last of the Innocent a chance in a week when Flashpoint and Fear Itself threaten to bury everything else on the shelves. Read Full Review

This is an excellent jumping on point for new readers, so if youve never read a Criminal comic before, why not start here? Read Full Review

Criminal is a series where each arc is its own jumping on point. However, this arc is different than all the rest because you don't have to be a hardcore noir or crime fan to enjoy this read. This book manages to present a different kind of story that should hopefully be more appealing to a wider audience. I enjoyed this book thoroughly and highly recommend it for anyone looking for something a little different than the usual capes and cowls book. Read Full Review