Friday, March 12, 2010

Greek Street (Peter Milligan & Davide Gianfelice)

I rarely just pick up a new comic book or trade paperback blind without knowing anything about the series. I like to at least get a positive review from someone first. I asked the girl behind the counter at my comic book store—yes, girl, it happens—about Greek Street and she said "No, I've never read it, let me know how it is," so I just bought it. It was cheap.

Synopsis

What if Oedipus lived in London and got caught up in a gang war? The end.

Well, I guess there's a little more to it than that, but not much. Peter Milligan takes ancient Greek myths and tragedies and inserts them into the modern-day London underworld. Oedipus is a young kid looking for his mother; Dedalus is a police constable trying to solve a case; the Fureys are a mob family that own a strip club. Throw in lots and lots and lots of boobies, and you have a pretty good idea of what's going on in the book. Sex, murder, extortion, more sex, more murder, classical themes and plot lines.

Greek Street is a Vertigo book, and Vertigo is usually fairly reliable. That doesn't change here. It's no Fables or 100 Bullets—although it kinda reads as if you meshed those two books together, the art is very Eduardo Risso—but it's a pretty solid read. I don't think it deserves any awards, but I actually did enjoy it. I'm interested to see where the books goes in future volumes, and it was only $9.99, so I'd say it was a sound investment. If you're into this kind of graphic sex and violence—see what I just did there? heh—then you'll probably get a kick out of Greek Street. If you're looking for a high concept, intellectual comic book to stimulate your brain, look elsewhere.

Rating

Greek Street
by Peter Milligan and Davide Gianfelice

Story—7.27
Ooh! Let's put the Greek gods and heroes somewhere other than Greece! That's never been done before! At least Milligan keeps the story interesting, even if the concept isn't all that original.

Style—6.77
Nothing to write home about. Again, if you like this kind of thing, you'll like it, but if you don't, you won't.

General—7.5
There's nothing groundbreaking happening here. It's a solid sex-and-violence comic that I'm sure is going to sell well, but won't be remembered very long.

Overall—7.11



Keep reading, Genoshans!

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