This mammoth collection collects the remainder of the Losers comic run (issues 13 – 32) that were previously collected as three separate trade paperbacks. In this volume the reason for the kill order on the team is revealed; Max and his plan are uncovered and revenge is served up.
While the individual story lines that make up this volume are entertaining in themselves they only serve to slow the action on the main plot. Instead of being 20 issues long the volume could have been leaner at maybe 10 – 12 issues long and still told the same story in a pacier more satisfying fashion. The origin of Max, when we get to it, stretches the realms of possibility more than a little and the proliferation of nuclear devices is unfeasible. Also, by the end, there were not many characters that I cared about as we were given little insight into them - beyond their place in the team and their ongoing mission – and so when they were beginning to die off there was no sense of great loss.
As I thought, after reading the first book, the movie had to ditch a lot of material to make it fit into 2 hours. It also relocated some of the action from a military operation in Afghanistan to a CIA drugs bust in Bolivia. If you want to compare the comic to the movie then you will have to read both these books to see all the source material. If you can find the original trades then the majority of the story line used in the movie is in volumes 1 (Ante Up) and 3 (Trifecta).
First published on RevolutionSF on Sunday Oct 31, 2010
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