Titan Books: Suicide Risk vol.1: Grudge War

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  Suicide Risk vol.1: Grudge War

  Artist:  Elena Casagrande  

  Author:  Mike Carey

  Colourist:  Andrew Elder

  Titan Books/Boom! Studios

  Trade Paperback

  Full colour

  112 pages

  £7.50

  ISBN 9781608863327  

  
  

  
  
  Heroes are dying, and cops are dying twofold. Humanity is underpowered in the face of their onslaught, and people are suffering untold casualties trying to stem the flow.
  
  After barely surviving a super-powered bank heist gone horribly wrong, beat cop Leo Winters vowed to try and find a way to stop them. Following a lead, he discovered two lowlifes who seemed to be able to grant a person powers...for the right price.
  
  Thing is: you don't get to choose which power. It's seemingly random, a crap-shoot, a risk. Will Leo decide to take that risk? And why is it that even the heroes in this world eventually break? bad?
  
  There is some very nice artwork here and some nice colouring, however, the story does not "light my fire".  It seems to be a re-hash of lots of previous comics of this ilk. Back in the 1980s Eclipse published ESPERS about super powered government agents. In fact, this just seems to be one more book to add to the overwhelmingly large heap of -and it should have all collapsed by now!- "super heroes in the real world".
  
  Now, I must be fair (though heaven (if it existed) knows why) and state that there is nothing wrong with the writing. It was just that this left me cold. I've read comics since I was five years old (I'm 57 now) and things just are not getting very inventive any more. True there are only a certain number of scenarios you can have in comics -believe me, I write comics so I know!
  
  This could be "any film" or "any comic series" out of a large number of choices -choices that are all....the same.
  
  We really do need to get out of this rut the industry is in. The Small Press is being far more original and inventive than Marvel, DC or Independent comics.  If you like this sort of thing then, okay. For me -no.  But then, who is going to listen to me??