Posted in: Comics | Tagged: Ande Parks, Comics, dynamite, entertainment, Esteve Polls, Seduction of the Innocent

Seduction Of The Innocent Is Dark, Gritty And Enthralling

Spoiler Warning

The title Seduction of the Innocent has a dark history in the comic industry. It was the title of the book by Dr. Fredrick Wertham that started the congressional hearings, led to the start of the Comics Code Authority and the demise of many comic publishers like EC Comics. So there is a certain amount of irony when Dynamite launches a new noir crime series by Ande Parks and Esteve Polls in the style of the old EC Comics and calls it Seduction of the Innocent.

The book reads like classic noir fiction, the kind we see brought to the big screen in L.A. Confidential, the Black Dahlia and Mulholland Falls. A new agent transfer into the FBI office in San Francisco from Cleveland. He is known for his ability to shoot and the fact he looks young. He has a wife and a child on the way and he is stressing about becoming a father. The bureau is dealing with six missing mob bosses that vanished without a trace. But the killers clean streak comes to an end when to children escape and call the FBI, who arrive before the scene could be wiped down, giving them their first clues. We follow the killers back to their place and learn that they are working from a list of people to kill… and like to have dinner under a framed picture of Adolf Hitler.

It's hard to set up a world like this and the mood to go with it in just 22 pages. But Parks script does a good job at establishing the world efficiently without it feeling rushed and creating a threat that feels powerful enough to take on the mob. Polls art is really strong here. It feels noir and even a bit like the old EC comics without feeling dated. And the Francesco Francavilla cover looks like it was once adorning an EC comic.

It's dark, gritty and enthralling…

For more on Seduction of the Innocent #1, click here.

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