Comic of the Week - Thief of Thieves

Keeping it really short this week, but here goes.

I've always loved heist movies. This is probably common and I think it's because we all like the idea of being able to get away with something and feeling like we're not just smart, but smarter than everyone else. Heist movies let us vicariously do this on a grand scale as we all dream of being the mastermind behind a great scheme. So when I heard Robert Kirkman and Nick Spencer were putting out a book called Thief of Thieves about a master thief, I knew I had to try it. Not only did the book meet my expectations, it completely subverted them as well. The story is about Conrad Paulson, the best thief in the world, and we get all the things we've come to expect from this sort of character and story. He is suave. He is respected. He teaches a novice thief. All of these are standard to the heist genre. And by the end of this first issue, we're thrown a curve ball that I actually did not completely see coming. More than anything, this issue sets up the tone, characters and world so that the next issue can really begin the exploration. The dialogue is right on target with the right amount of snap you'd expect. It would be easy to compare this to the Ocean's films and picture George Clooney delivering some of the lines here, but it's not as if that's the intention. They aren't imitating anything specific. The comic just has a cinematic flow to it. Shawn Martinbrough's art is well choreographed and edited like a good heist film should. The look of this book is as clean and effortless as you'd expect a master thief to be. This looks to be a very promising series.