Scarlet #4

I hate to admit defeat, but Scarlet has beaten me.

I like the creative team so much, I assumed that I'd enjoy this title - but I was wrong.

It's not that it's not well crafted. The story by Brian Bendis is well constructed with great dialogue, and the art by Alex Maleev is fantastic - rough and raw and realistic all at the same time. Some of the pages are just amazing in their detail.

But I'm dropping this comic, and it's because I'm just not enjoying the story at all.

The idea is that this young woman sees the man she loves gunned down by a crooked police officer (she is also nearly killed). When she recovers, she vows revenge, and she does that by killing crooked police officers.

I know, the story of revenge is one of the cornerstones of comic books, and Scarlet's call on everyone to get involved and change the world is laudable - but I can't get enthused about a lead character who deliberately kills three police officers.

People certainly need to stand up and be counted when evil gets the upper hand - but going on a public murder rampage doesn't seem like the best way to bring order.

Maybe I'm just old-fashioned, but as a friend once said, I prefer to read stories about real heroes - not criminals who pretend to be good guys.

It's well crafted but distasteful, so I'll pass on the rest of this series and look forward to this team's next project, whatever it may be.

Grade: C+

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