Parker The Score

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Average customer rating 3.7 (3 comments)

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Darwyn Cooke is one of the best things happening in comics today. His take on the new Before Watchmen series ��" The Minutemen, as well as Catwoman, and the first two ‘Parker’ novels are nothing short of brilliant! That’s why it pains me to say that the Score is good, but not great. To be fair, I don’t think this is Cooke's fault. His two-color, noir artwork is glorious again. But the story itself is a bit ponderous. With a 12-man team, and five or six locals, and five or six others, there are simply too many characters. The Hunter moved at a brisk pace, in part because of the smallish world it inhabited. In ‘The Score’ the voluminous characters bogs things down, and this is true of the original novel as well. Not enough time is afforded to the Edgars character, for example, to make much of an impact before the conclusion. That being said, this is still on a higher level than quite a bit of what’s coming out today. If you don’t already have the first two, I suggest you get ‘Parker: The Martini Edition’ instead. It has the first two graphic novels ��" The Hunter and The Outfit, and also the in-between, stand-alone story The Man With the Getaway Face.

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Darwyn Cooke is one of the best things happening in comics today. His take on the new Before Watchmen series ��" The Minutemen, as well as Catwoman, and the first two ‘Parker’ novels are nothing short of brilliant! That’s why it pains me to say that the Score is good, but not great. To be fair, I don’t think this is Cooke's fault. His two-color, noir artwork is glorious again. But the story itself is a bit ponderous. With a 12-man team, and five or six locals, and five or six others, there are simply too many characters. The Hunter moved at a brisk pace, in part because of the smallish world it inhabited. In ‘The Score’ the voluminous characters bogs things down, and this is true of the original novel as well. Not enough time is afforded to the Edgars character, for example, to make much of an impact before the conclusion. That being said, this is still on a higher level than quite a bit of what’s coming out today. If you don’t already have the first two, I suggest you get ‘Parker: The Martini Edition’ instead. It has the first two graphic novels ��" The Hunter and The Outfit, and also the in-between, stand-alone story The Man With the Getaway Face.

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As a Richard Stark (aka Donald Westlake) fan, I am really excited about Darwyn Cooke's graphic novel adaptation of The Score. Fans of the original crime novels will not be disappointed by Cooke's take on Parker. Fans of Cooke (who probably read the first two--The Hunter and The Outfit) will be glad to see Parker back in action. Both camps should be excited to hear that more are in the works! Cold and ruthless, charismatic and thuggish, Parker is only likeable in that he's usually up against something or some one even worse than he is. In The Score, Parker joins up with a crew whose plan seems at first sight too flawed and too outlandish. Parker fans will know this isn't the type of heist to send Parker packing.