Jim Alexander and Rough Cut Comics brings us another volume to the widely praised Good Cop, Bad Cop. I wasn’t the biggest fan of the first Volume. I didn’t hate it, but I didn’t love it. I think if I reread it, I would find my mind has changed. So with the success of the first, it was hard to say no to the second. Coming in with an open mind was no problem. I just hope that I can stay on board. Much like the comic, let’s start with the good. I love the premise of this comic. Here we meet Brian Fisher working as a detective in Glasgow. He is admire and looked up to, but Fisher hides something very dark. Fisher has a bad side. This dude is scary too. He isn’t just ugly or gives you the creeps, but he down right makes you want to run in the other direction. I love the dynamic that this allows the comic to do. We not only see the good side of police work, but in Fisher’s case, we see the bad. I love how Alexander writes these two characters into the story. They aren’t just separate pieces that show up in different stories. Instead the two are one, and bring the moment into view for both. It is unlike anything I have seen.
I also love how the characters are drawn. Each one has a very distinctive face. Fisher is your typical cop, but his bad half always has deep dark circles under his eyes. He also usually looks like he has a hunchback. But what I love more than the characters are the scene set ups. The comic is in all black and white, so if you need color, this isn’t for you. I personally don’t. I love mood it puts me in. Anyway, the scenes usually don’t have much detail but focus in on the key players with each panel. I like this lot, I don’t like looking at all the background noise when I am really trying to dive deep into these characters. Honing in on that makes the reader solely face the demons in this story head on.
Jumping into the story, we first find Bruce Dreyfus dismembered in the river. Then we quickly jump to a grocery store being robbed by Wullie and Ricardo. Turns out these men are part of the team that used to consist of Bruce. We immediately see Fisher’s bad side come out, when he decides to stop these two knuckleheads with his crazy side. Turning back into the “real” Fisher, he know interrogates the two to find answers about Bruce’s death. Actually we see a lot of real Fisher in this comic. More than you would think. I understand the path that Fisher must take but it is my one negative about the volume. I wanted to see more bad cop! With that being said though, the comic was good. Even without seeing the bad cop as much as expected, the plot progressed and made complete sense as to why Fisher stays his normal self.
After some time in the interrogation room, we find out that it all leads to church. It always does right. Father Connor is there preaching, and you can feel a weird vibe between Fisher and Connor. I love how the comic does this. It is amazing how they can take two characters and make the readers foreshadow the events with them. So yeah some intense stuff happens between the two and the story unfolds into a complex murders with faith guiding the way.
Good Cop, Bad Cop really won me over with its second volume. I could see lots of avid comic book fans enjoying the complexity of Fisher and relating to him on some level. Rough Cut Comics picked a good story, so I can’t wait for Volume 3.
Score: 4/5
Writer: Jim Alexander Artist: Luke Cooper Publisher: Rough Cut Comics Price: $12.99 Website