The Losers Book 1 (2010)

The first thing to say, in regards to all these blog entries, is that the date quoted in the subject is the date of the edition of the book I am reading not the original date of publication of the comic. This is particularly noticeable for this volume of the Losers which collects issues 1 – 12 of the series which were originally released in 2003/4. These comics had also been collected previously in two trade paperbacks (Ante Up and Double Down) that are now compiled into one volume to tie in with the release of the movie.

I was looking forward to reading this series as Andy Diggle had a great run recently on Hellblazer where he rejuvenated the character and took him back to his roots. I have previously come across the artist Jock in his fairly recent Hellblazer graphic novel (Pandemonium) and another Vertigo series, Faker, that was written by Mike Carey.

The basic set up is that a five man team of mavericks are brought together for unconventional operations. Whilst in Afghanistan they see something that they shouldn’t (that has not been explored in detail yet) as a result of which a kill order is issued by someone within the CIA and the team is considered killed in action. Somehow they survive and hook up with an Afghan CIA operative and plan to expose the corruption within the CIA and remove themselves from the kill list.

This volume contains a number of ongoing storylines in their quest to expose the traitorous contact known only as Max. The first chapter introduces the team, their quest and confirms dirty dealings within the CIA. The next five chapters details their investigation of a large oil company for further evidence of CIA double dealing during which one of the team is exposed as a rogue element. The next two chapters follows each of the remaining team members separately as they have some downtime from the mission whilst they decode information from a stolen hard drive.  The final four chapters see the team liberate a safe from a buried hose in the Caribbean as they try to find further evidence that will lead them to Max and a credible expose of the corrupt element within  the CIA.

The story is a straight action/thriller and, to me at least, sort of plays like a cross between the Jason Bourne movies and the TV series Burn Notice. The action is good and the plot is stringing the reader along nicely without losing their interest – at the end of the book there is no resolution to the quest and I will be carrying on into the second book to learn more. This is a strength for the story but a weakness in marketing as the book would not be satisfying to me as a standalone volume if I didn’t have the second one to hand.

I have not seen the movie – though I have a copy on DVD – and it will be interesting to see how it plays once I have finished reading the book. It already feels like there is too much material for it all to be comfortably fitted into a two hour movie so it will be interesting to find out what has been kept (if anything) and what has been dropped.

First published on RevolutionSF on Thursday Oct 21, 2010