Criminal #4

Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips kick off "Bad Night Part One" with a cover that radiates hard-boiled tension — a wary man in glasses crouches in the foreground while a confident, red-haired woman stands behind him holding a pistol, both rendered against a moody, neon-drenched city street. Sean Phillips's linework, colored with rich purples and ambers, gives the whole image the feel of a noir film still from 2008 that never got made — which is exactly the point. If you've been following Criminal, this new four-part arc looks set to deliver exactly the kind of cool, dangerous atmosphere the series does so well.