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Rating: 
Summary: We are the mods!
Review: Ed Brubaker's deadenders hasn't reached the grand disinfo/revolutionary, world-changing, thick cultural commentary of its now dead Vertigo peer The Invisibles. But comparison to what is probably the best comic book of the decade is a tall order, and I only make it because deadenders really is so good, and transverses some of the same countercultural territory.What's really beautiful is how Ed Brubaker appropriates Mod culture so precisely and updates it for a uniquely "post" world - not post-apocalyptic, post-cataclysmic, and there's a difference. This is like William Gibson with parkas, addidas, and Vespas. I'd call it Grey Pop. Like the best futurism, deadenders is pretty darn relevant to the current social landscape and sub/counterculture. Ed Brubaker has an innovative and unique take on the whole notion of time travel, and I'd suspect that if you get this graphic novel, you'll probably go out to the local comic shop and pick up issue #5 and not stop till you get caught up and probably not then either. Ed Brubaker really knows how to write a mystery, and though deadenders is by no means part of the mystery genre, it certainly pulls you in with the same power. Part of it might be my love of Mod culture, but this is my favorite current Vertigo book. Change the world.
Rating: 
Summary: Engaging alternative to typical comics
Review: I stumbled upon this comic by chance, a fellow Vespa rider recommending I pick up the "comic with scooters in it." Although I collect scooter-related stuff, I was surprised by how this story gained my interest. Not much violence, no super-heroes, but an engaging story with well-executed illustration. If you're looking for something that is an alternative to good-battling-evil and mindless sitcom stories, pick up this realistic story that is tempered with a bit of science fiction and mystery. If you like scooters, you'll find their plentiful inclusion a bonus. I would actually give it 3.5 stars. 4 stars if the whole 16 issues were collected here.
Rating:
Summary: Engaging alternative to typical comics
Review: I stumbled upon this comic by chance, a fellow Vespa rider recommending I pick up the "comic with scooters in it." Although I collect scooter-related stuff, I was surprised by how this story gained my interest. Not much violence, no super-heroes, but an engaging story with well-executed illustration. If you're looking for something that is an alternative to good-battling-evil and mindless sitcom stories, pick up this realistic story that is tempered with a bit of science fiction and mystery. If you like scooters, you'll find their plentiful inclusion a bonus. I would actually give it 3.5 stars. 4 stars if the whole 16 issues were collected here.
Rating:
Summary: Dead End Kids
Review: Twenty years after "the cataclysm", New Bedlam is a bleak metroplis divided by the authorities into fenced-off sectors dilineated by wealth and class, all policed by stormtrooper-type policemen. In the outer sectors, a post-cataclysm nuclear winter type phenomenon means 24 hour darkness, while in the wealthy areas, weather machines can generate sunlight and temperate climates. The story takes place mostly in an outer sector where a group of teenagers styled on the mod subculture run around on scooters and deal in amphetamines. One of these mods seems have visions of the past, and the authoroties are trying to find him in order to study him for some unxplained reason. In the meantime, he's trying to steal a weather generator to fulfill a friend's dying wish. Although the story is somewhat disjointed and has a number of grey areas, it's visually compelling, with a nice palate and good action art. The use of basic mod style touchstones, such as parkas, scooters, and arrows is kind of interesting, but that's about all. Of course, Chynna Clugston-Major's "Blue Monday" comic series also uses mod characters and stylings. For a pulp fiction treatment of the original mod subsulture, check out Howard Baker's novel "Sawdust Caesar". "The Sharper Word" anthology edited by Pablo Hewitt is another book to check out.
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