Gerry Duggan’s Dead Eyes returns with a five-issue miniseries for all you crime fans out there. Two crooks cut paintings out of their frames with box cutters at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. This sends the authorities and mob after the crooks, but Dead Eyes has the scoop and decides to extort the museum for the artwork’s return.

It’s no small feat making a crass character likable, but Jerry Duggan has done the leg work with his time spent on Deadpool. Dead Eyes is a different type of scoundrel. While he has no qualms about kicking a museum when it’s down and extorting money from them, he also has no problem taking down crooked cops that ripped off a friend.

John McCrea is no slouch when it comes to drawing questionable characters, yet it’s an interesting choice to keep the guards and the art thieves’ faces blacked out in the first few pages while Dead Eyes goes through the initial crime. The art feels more cinematic than most crime comics I’ve read. The close ups and quick cuts help with the set ups while Dead Eyes’ narration fills in the gaps. This is an issue of mostly exposition, but you wouldn’t know it.

Mike Spicer’s colors give the right amount of vibrancy in Dead Eyes’s gritty world. While the colors of the world are toned down, the characters have sort of a flash to them; they each have something that sticks out, whether it be Dead Eyes’ purple gloves or the pink car that the weak link in a hospital scam has bought with her stolen money. Joe Sabino’s letters meld perfectly with the rest of the creative team’s strengths.

This explosive first issue moves at a fast pace, and I encourage you to pick up a copy!

Creative Team: Gerry Duggan (writer), John McCrea (artist), Mike Spicer (colorist), Joe Sabino (letterer)
Publisher: Image Comics
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