Crime fighting comic books minus super heroes?

October 28, 2006 5:07 PM

Crime fighting comic books minus super heroes? I'd love recommendations for comic book equivalents of crime fighting/investigative television dramas.

I'm basically looking for the comic book equivalent of television shows that I enjoy - Bones, Law and Order (all various incarnations), X-Files. All of these shows feature a strong main character or duo investigating case after case in various interesting circumstances, no super heroes involved - I'd love to find a comic book series I could get into in the same way. Bonus points for pairs with fabulous unresolved sexual tension, though I'd be happy with just an interesting main character.

posted by aebaxter to media & arts (18 comments total)

Ms Tree by Max Allan Collins would be my recommendation.
posted by SPrintF at 5:16 PM on October 28, 2006

They're printing the Maze Agency again, but I don't know if the new series is good. It fits your criteria, though.
posted by interrobang at 5:28 PM on October 28, 2006

On the less Law & Order, and more X-Files side, there is the excellent Hellblazer series, made into the not-so-excellent movie Constantine.
posted by tjenks at 5:35 PM on October 28, 2006

Fell by Warren Ellis is excellent, and it gets bonus points for being cheap (only $1.99 and issue). Broken City is a Batman comic, but superpowers don't come into play at all. It's definitly Batman as The World's Greatest detective, so you might like that even though he wears a silly costume. Also, to address your sexual tension thing, Powers by Brian Michael Bendis is about two regular beat cops who investigate crimes involving superheroes. Once again, it breaks the guys in costumes rule, but the story really centers around the two plain ol' dectectives, and their relationship to each other. Those are the three that really jumped to mind, hope you like at least one of 'em.
posted by Doublewhiskeycokenoice at 5:42 PM on October 28, 2006

David Lloyd's Kickback is pretty brilliant, even if you can tell that Lloyd has developed his All-American noir drama through a British lens. All the same, it's great. For context, David Lloyd was the illustrator for Alan Moore's V for Vendetta series.
posted by grabbingsand at 5:48 PM on October 28, 2006

Also, you might dig on Warren Ellis's Global Frequency series. Imagine the X-Files or 24, only with many, many more agents, all of them pseudo-sleepers. Each is a subject-matter expert on a given phenomena. Each has a satellite phone. They might live their private lives for years without ever hearing it ring, but when it does ... off they go, because nobody else can do what they do.

For example, some fellow has taken a pod hostage on The London Eye. In only minutes, he'll blow it up. It will take too much time to arrange a crane or some other means of mass elimination, and besides that, we don't want to spook him. So who do you call? The best Parkour runner in London.

And off she goes ...
posted by grabbingsand at 5:56 PM on October 28, 2006

Top Ten is effectively NYPD Blue only in a city where everyone, including the cops are super heros.
posted by aladfar at 6:33 PM on October 28, 2006

Yeah, Global Frequency would be the perfect recommendation for somebody who liked The X-Files. Also for crime novels try Jinx and Torso by Brian Michael Bendis (who wrote the aforementioned Powers and also Alias, both of which are excellent detective comics that have superheros in them but are not superhero books).

100 Bullets by Brian Azarello is a fantastic crime series as well. Not so much a buddy investigator series, though.
posted by Hildago at 6:42 PM on October 28, 2006

How about Queen and Country, a British spy comic?

The site describes it as "An espionage drama, and ongoing series, set in the fictional British Secret Intelligence Service, focusing on a squad of three Special Operations Officers, codenamed "Minders", and in particular, focusing on the life of Minder Two (later to become Minder One), a woman named Tara Chace."
posted by bcwinters at 7:07 PM on October 28, 2006

I like Queen and Country a lot, and its one of my regular reads at my local shop (fwiw, I'm not a big tights-and-spandex fan, either ... though, if one is interested in X-Files' investigations, then Warren Ellis' Planetary is also worth a read) It

Anyway, while Q&C is an espionage book, it has a lot of the fascinating procedural aspects that add to the appeal of Law & Order, CSI, etc. The one thing it does lack, compared to conventional crime fiction is that it generally avoid whodunit/crime reconstructions. Their arcs are mostly cat-and-mouse hunts a la James Bond.

I haven't read it, but I have a friend who's recommended Gotham Central which is a police procedural set in Gotham City that just focused on the lives of copies living in the shadow of the Bat Signal. As I said, I haven't read it, but it's written by Greg Rucka, who's also written Q&C, and Ed Brubaker, who wrote Sleeper (which was an excellent two year series that can be best described as The Sopranos with supervillains) and based on those credentials alone, it should be pretty excellent.
posted by bl1nk at 7:53 PM on October 28, 2006

If you enjoy CSI (the original Las Vegas cast), there's a long-running series with original stories from IDG. A complete story is published over five issues. I'm not crazy about the art, but the stories aren't bad.
posted by lhauser at 8:05 PM on October 28, 2006

"Scene of the Crime" by Ed Brubaker.

"Sleeper" is a great series by Brubaker, but is more about espionage than crime fighting. He has also started a new series entitled "Criminal", which only has one issue out so far. (From, as you might guess, the criminal's PoV.)

"Gotham Central" was a fabulous series set in the Batman universe, but primarily involving only simple human cops. (by Brubaker & Rucka) It should never have been canceled, considering all the Bat-fluff they ~could~ have canceled.

I second "Powers" (There are superheros in it, but the two cops aren't.), as well as "Top Ten" (which has the bonus of being drawn by Gene Ha, one of world's absolute best pencillers, and is written by Alan Moore. 'nuff said.)

"Torso" (which is a retelling of a real crime, but in graphic novel format) This one is also by Bendis.

"Scars" by Warren Ellis

"Powers" and "Criminal" are the only ongoing series amongst the above, more's the pity. But they're all worth reading if you're looking for solid police-type comics.

And the SO reminds me that there is, indeed, a CSI comic book if one is inclined in that direction.
posted by Meep! Eek! at 8:10 PM on October 28, 2006

Yeah, second Torso, although it is not an ongoing series.
posted by Bookhouse at 8:22 PM on October 28, 2006

Paul Grist's Kane series is good, but you might have a hard time finding it. Man, that guy can draw.
posted by MegoSteve at 8:31 PM on October 28, 2006

I'd just like to warn the questioner that if what you're after is crime solving -- that is to say, detective stories -- most of the recommendations that have been made here will not meet your needs.
posted by jjg at 9:13 PM on October 28, 2006

I like Gotham Central. As M!E! said, it's part of Batman's Gotham, but it's all about the cops. I like the way it addresses the unusual problems human cops have to deal with when there's a superhero hanging around --- they've got to solve the crimes before Batman turns up and embarrasses them, but they've also got to deal with the nutcase super-baddies that Batman attracts.
posted by robcorr at 1:48 AM on October 29, 2006

A lot of great stuff here that might not totally meet your criteria.
I would recommend, if you don't mind historicity, the Victorian Murder series from Rick... Rick something. Geary? Not Veitch, who does Greyshirt, which is also noir-ish crime of a Shadow flavor. I don't have time to look it up right now, but he has a bunch of well-done books about assassinations, murders and unsolved crimes from the late 1800s through the early 1900s. Awesome stuff.
posted by klangklangston at 12:08 PM on October 29, 2006

klangklangston: I would recommend, if you don't mind historicity, the Victorian Murder series from Rick... Rick something. Geary? Not Veitch, who does Greyshirt, which is also noir-ish

Yup, Rick Geary. I own several, and they are very fun. Veitch.. didn't he take over Swamp Thing for a bit?
posted by Meep! Eek! at 7:10 PM on October 30, 2006