Incognito: Bad Influences 1

Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips have been making comics together for some time now. Criminal is their main title. As the name suggests, it deals with crime, criminals, and assorted scuzzy lowlifes, all tinged with a certain noir sensibility. Incognito is an attempt to apply that kind of approach to something bearing a closer relationship to mainstream superhero comics. The last series dealt with Zack Overkill, a former supervillain placed in a witness protection programme after giving evidence against his former boss. In this title he has been recruited into the shadowy agency that runs the government-approved superheroes.

The set-up gives Brubaker and Phillips great opportunities to have Zack and his bad-ass friends run around punching in the faces of other bad-asses, opportunities they seize with great gusto. This is like a superhero title on crystal meth, everything cranked up beyond the normal maximum, with Phillips’ art being key in creating an atmosphere of grotty violence well divorced from the clean lines of a more conventional super-title. For all that, a lot of the villains are more like escapees from a pulp title than anything more usually found in a superhero title. This is not too surprising, as Brubaker and Phillips are big pulp nerds, with a surprising number of Incognito characters being resurrections of actual characters not seen since the pulp heyday.

At times, though, it does seem like these two follow crime genre conventions a bit too far. In keeping with the stereotypes of noir and hard-boiled crime fiction, they have in both Criminal and Incognito resolutely refused to serve up anything approximating to a convincing female character. Or rather they have just given us the same female character over and over again – a mysteriously shady noir lady, with unknowable desires and questionable motivations. In both titles, she always ends up shagging whoever the main male character is, always bringing disaster on him for doing so. This kind of thing does make me wonder whether there are some genre conventions that would be better consigned to the dustbin of history.

Still, the recurring one-dimensional female character never really detracts from the enjoyment to be had from the Brubaker-Phillips titles – it seems more like an almost endearing quirk than a serious flaw. Of course, women readers might see things differently. For me, Incognito is like raw thrill power with action, plot twists, cliff hangers and violence – a title that keeps you turning the page and wanting more, eagerly awaiting the next monthly instalment.