Early Review of This Week's Issue, and A Look Ahead.

After a hiatus of nearly fifteen months, our favorite crime comic returns. The first issue of Criminal: The Last of the Innocent is in stores this week. I believe it reaches stores Wednesday for most retailers, and IGN has an advance review, giving the issue 9.0 out of 10 and writing that this arc could outshine all that has come before it.

Comics Alliance includes the series in a list of top noir comics, alongside Brubaker and Phillips' Batman: Gotham Noir (reprinted this July), Gotham Central, and Darwyn Cooke's Parker adaptations.

Looking forward, we already have a good bit of information about the rest of the series. Marvel's August solicitations include the third issue of the mini-series, with an August 3rd release date. The issue is third of apparently four issues, and Sean Phillips has posted cover art for what is presumably the finale, as a sketch, pencils, an in-progress painting, and as the final cover.

And did we mention the return of Teeg Lawless?

We previously reported Ed Brubaker's criticism of too much info being out there too soon, but everything I've seen for "The Last of the Innocent" has whet the appetite without spoiling anything.

The trade for Incognito: Bad Influences is due later this month, and with the reprint of Batman: Gotham Noir, it's a fairly big couple of months for Brubaker/Phillips fans.