The climactic fifth volume of Standal and artist Juan Romera’s Rebirth of the Gangster accomplished graphic novel series (collecting issues 19 through 24) offers more killer street-level crime storytelling, with sincere interest in the hard circumstances that lead to a criminal life and the complex and squalid mess that crime leads to, across generations. In Standal and Romera’s work, the bad choices someone makes right now—or that their parents made a generation ago—are likely to lead to worse ones tomorrow, spinning out into others’ lives. This edition opens with fallout from a death in the previous entry, with the criminal cohort of series protagonist Marcus, actually run by the unstable Hunter, now desperate for a fourth man to run a job targeting a bank … and Marcus’s own mother. Complicating all this, of course, is the mess they’ve already made, as Lorena Sanchez, a long-ago friend of Hunter’s and a cop on her last case, closes in on the plan. (The heist is planned by men, but it’s the many compelling women who often have the upper hand.) The storytelling is tense, taut, and emotionally resonant, the silent panels of characters going about their days, weighed down by worries, every bit as suspenseful as the action. The creators excel at depicting hard lives, addiction and desperation, at the thrill of plotting a heist but also the compounding tragedies that lead to such a crime—and that will follow. Romera’s layouts are clear, sometimes stark, the emphasis always on the people and gripping flow of action and feeling across a page.
The dialogue is pared to the bone, never wasting a word. Like all the best crime stories, this volume stirs a sinking in the pit of the stomach as the heist approaches, and the violence, when it comes, is wrenching but humane. The conclusion proves satisfying, though new readers are advised to start with the first collection.
Takeaway: The knockout conclusion of a smart and humane graphic novel crime series.
Great for fans of: David Lapham’s Stray Bullets, Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips’s Criminal.
Production grades
Cover: A
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A
