5 out of 5

So how do we feel about Tom King?  Initially gaining traction with an audience due to his unique adherence to a 9-panel grid in Omega Men, a similar method would prove useful – and the title gain similar acclaim – when he moved over to Marvel for The Vision.  Both of those books took hero properties and smeared them with a respectably philosophical and serious veneer, though I felt the latter was significantly better executed: Its characters and concepts were more effectively woven into the narrative – it wasn’t a story that just happened to feature its lead.  And now: Sheriff of Babylon, what I would consider Tom’s best writing to date.

Stepping from series to series some elements take shape that suggest why this might be: The grid, again appearing in Sheriff, might be a design decision, but it also appears to be how King “sees” his conversations taking place: Beat by beat.  Such pacing would be exhausting if applied by other writers, but I really seems to be Tom’s strength: Selecting the right words for his moments to pace his tale and the scene and to get his point across.  The natural patter of this is almost to a fault, employing stutters and repetitions that common in real speech.  This was way overused in Omega Men; here, thankfully, it is used sparingly and helps to define how a character presents themselves.  In the prior two series, there also existed an unfortunate need to punctuate things with “meaningful” statements; this shtick is happily completely invisible in SoB.  Perhaps no longer having to juggle the fantastic of comic fantasy with humanistic dialogue, Mr. King can just let his characters speak for themselves, as it were.  And so the impact is that much stronger, meaning between the panels, between the words.

The grounding of our story is, itself, the other element I feel serves Tom well: As his best moments are dialogue, his best moments lend themselves to… Conversation.  Or conversations lain atop action.  Which is pretty much all our Sheriff tale is, and not having to meet a Marvel / DC fight-per-issue quota means it can maintain that pace.

Sheriff of Babylon happens a few years after 9/11, centered around the neutral Green Zone in Iraq and an American – Chris – stationed there, training a local police force.  A dead body happens; murder.  An Iraqi-born, American-raised diplomat – or manipulator, as we’re shown in carefully arranged cutaways – assists Chris to connect with an Iraqi sheriff to investigate the murder, and soon enough bombs are going off and threats are being made.  And Vertigo can hype Tom King’s copper past to sell the real-world value of the title.

But I don’t care about the whodunnit.  And as this crime will be resolved but the book will go on, I’d suggest that neither, overall, does King.  King cares about character.  Identity.  What drives us, or what doesn’t.  Themes in Omega and Vision, but that much more involving in Sheriff, even for a dude like me who couldn’t care a bit about world politics.

Artist Mitch Gerads is the other magical ingredient here, working from photo reference a la Michael Lark but – I cautiously say, as I love Lark – sparing some of the excess linework that occasionally stiffens Lark’s panels.  So somewhere between Sean Phillips and Lark, and its awesome.  The majority of the book is in these bright desert yellows and browns, and you feel the mix of sun and dirt; fresh air and fumes.  The book looks great.

The crime is not yet solved.  This was to be an 8 issue miniseries, expanded to a 12 issue arc and made an ongoing.  These issues are being collected as a trade, so I’m reviewing them now.  But this story, this incredible study of humanity, captured in a clash of cultures, goes on.  Hopefully for a while.