District X Volume 1: Mr. M (Marvel)
Written by David Hine, drawn by David Yardin, Lan Medina & Mike Perkins
Collects District X #1-6

I have a weird relationship with cop-oriented superhero comics. The first few volumes of Powers didn’t do it for me, neither did the equivalent of Gotham Central trades. Top 10 blew my mind the first time I read it, but it don’t hold up nearly as well upon re-reading. These things were going through my mind when I read District X Volume 1, a book that followed Bishop teamed up with a regular cop in the Mutant Town section of New York City. I was once again intrigued by this concept, but wasn’t sure if I’d dig it.

As it turns out, I did. See, one of my problems with the cop, crime or espionage comics is that I can just as easily see these kinds of stories in a movie or TV show. I know comics are versatile, but if you’re dealing with something relatively low budget like a revenge story, I’d kind of rather see that on a screen, unless it’s something with a ton of style like Sin City. District X understands that, while it is “NYPD Blue meets X-Men,” that doesn’t mean you can’t go bonkers with what happens and David Hine does that in these pages.

I mean, this book has a scaly fish lady who swims at a strip club, a woman who can make you see whatever she wants you too (also a stripper or hooker or something), a toad boy who secretes a substance used to get high off of, regular people turning into these cray branch-y creatures and a dude who can rearrange matter. I don’t know if I’d say that District X is better than those books I mentioned above, that’s obviously subjective, but I found myself liking this one a lot better. Still, reading this volume did make me want to give Gotham Central another try.

Deadshot #1-5 (DC)
Written by Christos Gage, drawn by Steven Cummings
Not a collection

I also happened to read the Deadshot miniseries from 2005, which also features comic book superheroics in a neighborhood setting. To be clear, this was not a collection, but individual issues my pal Kiel sent me that I’ve been waiting to dive into. In this five issue series by Christos Gage and Steven Cummings with Jimmy Palmiotti on inks, Deadshot discovers that he has an illegitmate daughter he didn’t know about. He visits the former-prostitute mother who has cleaned up her act and tries giving her money to move out of the slum they’re living in, but she refuses. So, Deadshot sticks around, kills a bunch of gang members and does a pretty great job of cleaning up the neighborhood.

It’s kind of a smaller scale Punisher that actually works. There are ups and down, but the way Gage handles Deadshot is so clear and concise with a well thought out plan that seems like it would really work in the real world. Kill some gang members and they’d be afraid to come back. If the gangs are no longer interested and the inhabitants start cleaning things up, that might attract new homeowners. A well placed threat to a slumlord will also keep the people in the neighborhood in homes.

But it’s not a cake walk. Deadshot has to deal with Green Arrow (the story takes place in Star City), a bullet proof bruised named The Closer and a small army of assassins like Deadline, Javeline and a bunch of guys even this one-time, die hard DC fan couldn’t name. All in all, this is a great series that I’m surprised isn’t collected yet. Gage is a pretty big deal in the industry and Deadshot got new life with Villains United, Secret Six and then the New 52 Suicide Squad. Seems like this series would be prime for a reprint. Actually, I’m okay with it not being. I have plans for an epic Suicide Squad binding project that will include all of that series, the 80s Deadshot mini, possibly the Giffen Squad reboot and this mini. I’m pretty stoked about it actually, now I just need to get like 50 more issues of Suicide Squad.