Reviewer: Adam Chapman
Quick Rating: Outstanding!
Collects: Brodie's Law #1-6

Jack Brodie finds himself betrayed after pulling a theft, and ends up using a compound that allows him to morph from one likeness to another, but with a heavy price...

Story & Art: David Bircham
Story & Design: Daley Osiyemi
Cover Illustration: Simon Bisley
Letters: Debo
Special Thanks To: Daerick Gross, Editor Studio G Publications
Publisher: Pulp Theatre Entertainment

Review: When I first started reading Brodie's Law in the single issues, I was hooked on just about everything the book had to offer. The gritty stories, the minimalist narration, which allowed Bircham to really push the art in fantastic directions, the balls-to-the-walls attitude of the protagonist, and the cinematic feeling of both the art and the story, blended together into a fantastic end product. The book had great cliffhangers, which always had me wanting more.

The collected edition manages to make it that much better. Reading all the issues at once in this handsome collection is a great joy. The artwork looks crisper than it did in the original books, that's for sure. As well as the story read broken up into episodic chunks, it's even better when read all the way through, from beginning to end, in this book. The cinematic feeling works to even greater effect, if possible, and I can't wait to see Brodie's Law made into a feature film, because there's so much potential in the idea, and plus the book was already laid out wonderfully like a storyboard.

The story focuses on Jack Brodie, a dirty dealin' mercenary, who takes the wrong job when he steals a secret disc from a company called P-Fact. He doesn't know what's on the disc, but realizes how important it is when suddenly he's betrayed, his ex-wife murdered, and his son kidnapped. From there, the series takes a breakneck pace, as Brodie finds himself pushed to the edge, and up against a wall, as he tries to find his son, and find out why he was set up, and how.

But the real hook of the series comes about midway into the collection, which works better here because it's pretty much the end of the first act, start of the second, the perfect place for it to be in a movie. In episodic format, it's a bit harder because it takes a while to get to the hook, and unlike an established book like Ultimate Spider-Man , it didn't necessarily have the legs to make it there. I always enjoyed it, but I know that there were some readers who were just waiting for the hook, and were getting restless. But here, in the collected edition, it just works much more smoothly and naturally, as it follows the flow of the story.

The hook is that the disc Brodie stole contains information on a secret new technology which allows someone to take the compound, and thereafter absorb other individual's likeness and mind for a short time. However, the compound isn't exactly stable, and the effect that it has on Brodie's self-conscious is fascinating, as he starts to lose himself a bit as he continues the quest to find his son. Grant keeps things interesting by having the main cop looking for Brodie also be his former best friend, who originally dated Brodie's ex before Brodie did. The main female lead is also an interesting character, because she doesn't let herself be a victim, when kidnapped by Brodie, and by the end becomes the nearest thing Brodie has to a support group and family. There's some great characters here, who really pop off the page, such as Tony T., assassin to the stars, and it's easier to follow all the character moments and plot moments in the collected edition, as there are some small cryptic hints dropped here and there which would be harder to remember and recall if you were reading this story over the course of six months, and not an afternoon.

The art has a fantastic cinematic feel to it, courtesy of Bircham . The characters really leap off the page, and the action feels extremely fluid and mobile. The one complaint I've heard is that the colouring is too minimalist and faded, but I thought that was a strength of the artwork. It's a seedy tale and doesn't worry about flushing it out with colour, instead keeping shades of grey, with some nice splotches of colour here and there.

Brodie's Law is a fantastic read, which really gets the adrenaline going, and maintains it with excellent pacing. It reads much better in the collected edition, which is saying something as it already worked extremely well in the monthly format. Read this today- you shant be disappointed.

Ratings:

Story:

Art:

Overall: