To kick this off, I'm going to go right ahead and say it: Area 10 is the best Vertigo Crime book to date, by leaps and bounds. It successfully blends everything Vertigo Crime should be about. It's part police procedural, part science fiction, part noir and all mystery. Writer Christos N. Gage and artist Chris Samnee have crafted a remarkably enjoyable episode of a cop show that's got more balls than anything that's been on TV in years.
Area 10 follows NYPD Detective Adam Kamen, who is tracking a serial killer named Henry the Eighth, named after his trademark removal of the heads of his victims. After a seemingly random accident leaves him with a bizarre head injury, Adam's perceptions of reality are altered and he begins to realize that the act of trepanation - drilling holes in one's head to become enlightened - may tie into the case. Teetering on the brink of insanity, Adam makes it his mission to control his new found abilities to stop New York's latest madman.
Area 10, at its core, is a well constructed mystery not unlike CSI, except without ridiculous one-liners and predictability. Gage infuses the typical structure with healthy doses of character, creating Adam and his supporting cast from the ground up, tactically and economically. There is no sense of "here's your protagonist and why you should care about him" as there have been in past Vertigo Crime entries. Gage isn't concerned with getting the reader on Adam's side. Instead, pieces of Adam's history is revealed as the story moves along, which masterfully plays into the "whodunit" aspect of Area 10.
Even a character like Eileen, Adam's doctor and potential love interested, is fully fleshed out without the reader even realizing it. There's no overtly abusive exposition to be found in this book. Gage makes it look easy to create his characters out of thin air.
And wonderfully complementary to Gage's exciting script is Samnee's gritty and gorgeous artwork. Samnee is a master at using light and shadow to his advantage; Area 10 is stark in its contrast. His ability to emote his characters is equally uncanny, I don't recall being as utterly visually blown away by any other Vertigo Crime novel - Filthy Rich included - as I was by Area 10.
Essentially, Area 10 is what Vertigo Crime should be striving for. Between the terrific art and the twisting and turning plot, it's worth every penny of the $20 price tag, and will even elicit a desire to re-read it, something no other entry in this line can lay claim to. If you were on the fence about shelling out another twenty beans for yet another digest-sized hardcover, I urge you: do it.
