'Control' by Andy Diggle and Angela Cruickshank with art by Andrea Mutti is a crime story about a loner cop who stumbles across a conspiracy. Which is a similar plot to other cop stories.

Detective-Seargeant Kate Burnham is a cop in Washington D.C. She's not out to make friends, and when her decision to help a hanging man leaves her partner to die, they like her even less. She finds her allies along the way, though. Like the cop from another district who likes her instincts. Those instincts lead to more trouble for Kate though. Now she has to decide to pursue the case outside of the police force. It's a case of corruption and perversion that leads to the heights of government.

It's a pretty standard cop story. Rogue cop gets kicked off the force but can't let the case go. It's decent enough, and I liked the art for this story.

I received a review copy of this graphic novel from Dynamite Entertainment, Diamond Book Distributors, and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this graphic novel.

I have enjoyed everything this author has brought out. Super talented and this story was another edge of your seat tale that I greatly enjoyed.

Published by Dynamite Entertainment on March 28, 2017

Control is a graphic novel with a modern noir feel. The artists are Angela Cruickshank and Andrea Mutti.

Control feels like the storyboards from an episode of a television cop show. It combines action with a mystery, develops typical police characters who squabble with each other, and touches on the kind of themes that are familiar to cop show fans, including a vast conspiracy to control wealth and power.

Kate Burnham of Metro PD stars in Control. Her partner dies in the early pages as he and Kate are investigating a murder, so of course she wants to find his killer. She soon encounters a senator and a sex scandal. Naturally enough, her bosses order her to leave the senator out of her investigation. Naturally enough, her bosses also order her not to talk to anyone in the media. And naturally enough, Kate ignores those orders and does what needs to be done, because that’s how cop shows work.

The senator has been pushing a privacy bill, and the reader will quickly understand that his political efforts have something to do with the murder mystery. So Control gives us political intrigue, media intrigue, bickering-police-detectives intrigue, and other conventions that will be easily recognizable to cop show audiences.

The story takes Kate into some bad neighborhoods where she meets good and bad people. As one would expect from a cop show, the bad ones try to kill her and the good ones reluctantly do the right thing. Eventually she stumbles onto a plot that’s just a little over-the-top, but that’s also something viewers expect from cop shows. Cop shows like to have cops investigating crimes and conspiracies of powerful people that rarely happen because it would be too politically risky to focus on the crimes and conspiracies of powerful people that happen all the time.

Of course, Control is a graphic novel, not a cop show. The art is pleasant but uninspired. The story is almost all told in words rather than art, which is a waste of the graphic novel format. Given the limited amount of text and dialog that can be squeezed into a graphic novel, art needs to pick up the slack, conveying nuance that a reader would get from the extra words in a novel or story or from the expressions/gestures/backgrounds in a teleplay or film script. The art doesn’t do enough in Control to supplement a story that never transcends the ordinary.

Control isn’t badly done, but it doesnt do enough that's fresh or new. Familiarity, in this case, breeds indifference.

RECOMMENDED WITH RESERVATIONS

Detective -Sergeant Kate Burnham stumbled into a situation that cost her partner his life. So she started pulling what little strings she could find and managed to untangle a scandal that could cost her life. Powerful men were being manipulated by leverage held by a media mogul. So she bulls ahead and works on pulling down what she can. A gritty tale that rings true to life.

I really wanted to like this title, and I almost did. Many elements of it work very well. The art is enjoyable. The writing is strong. The characters are diverse, and the story is exciting. However, it just didn't manage to work for me. On one hand, there are a few plot points that don't quite make sense logically. But mainly, the problem is some of the content choices. The sexist treatment of the protagonist, while realistic, feels tacked on at times. The pacing at the end feels rushed. And the dark turn that the story takes in its final act never fully justifies itself. In conclusion, there is so much about this volume that works, but some of the plot elements feel like they are included more more grittiness and shock value than to actually be developed and worthwhile parts of the narrative.

Andy Diggle knows how to write crime thrillers. He doesn't disappoint here. A female detective come across a crime scene and her partner is murdered. Now she must uncover a crime that reaches the upper echelon of DC politics.

A strong four stars for this crime adventure, where a token ballsy woman cop gets in too deep with both her bosses and colleagues, and the bad guys. There are graphic novels you read quickly just to get it over and done with, and ones you read quickly as they're concise, intelligently told and just plain fun – this is definitely the latter. Would welcome more.

Pretty by-the-numbers crime thriller; it's got the hard nosed cop, the inept and hypocritical brass, and a shadowy conspiracy effectuated by men in power. All together it's a solid C outing, buoyed by the potential of an interesting female friendship/collaboration between characters in the future.

I was excited to read this but was a bit disappointed. I just thought it could have better better than it turned out. It felt rushed at times. Decent story, gritty.

I think one of the reasons I don't much like thrillers, even when the characters refrain from doing dumb things to unnecessarily make their predicaments worse, is that there seems to be such a limited pool of dark secrets for the sinister establishment conspiracies to cover up, and I've seen them all. This is competent enough, but does not add to that list.

Typical crime mystery. This was entertaining but not great. The art was okay and the story felt rushed as it skipped scenes. I think this could have been better if it were more developed and filled out. The characters felt flat and didn't seem anything original either. An okay story.

Our review was on this episode: http://www.krayzcomix.solitairerose.com/?p=1071

A detective in DC is playing pool with her partner when around the corner two cops are shot while trying to save a kid from hanging. Great start. The assassin is so cool and collected he slips right past them without a problem. Being DC, politics gets in the way during the hunt, and there’s a big conspiracy involved.
There were some moments I really liked. For instance, I do enjoy when clichés are turned on their head or expanded, such as “I’m an open book. Big print, lots of pictures.” A senator is caught having sex with a tied-up woman while a dominatrix looks on, and he has the gall to say, “This isn’t what it looks like!”
But on the other hand, for being a smart detective sometimes she’s just dumb. For one, she makes the same mistake as her partner, going off after the bad guy without backup. There’s one page with a bunch of panels showing off rain and her walking in it, which seemed like too much.
Not at all sure how I feel about the ending. Her remarks at the ceremony were awesome, but what she did with the evidence and the new job offer doesn’t seem compatible. I really wanted to like this more, but in the end I realized it just wasn’t very original. The villain wasn’t that special either.

I wanted to like this book. A comic series about a badass female detective taking on a conspiracy? Sign me up!

And, don't get me wrong, it was okay. But it could have been better. The whole thing seemed kind of disjointed and quick. Scenes seemed to switch abruptly. There seemed to be a lot that happened behind the scenes. Almost like they left pages out...

The ending was especially quick to finish. I guess my biggest complaint is the lack of story.

But of what story there was, it was decent. It had promise. Maybe if it was twelve issues instead of six it wouldn't have felt so quick and disjointed? There would be been more room for backstories on Kate and the other characters.

I feel bad for complaining so much... But, the art was awesome! I really loved the look of the book!

i have always thought presentation in graphic novel format of crime stories is a perfect format: the ddrawings can be allusive and show emotion, commenting without interuppting the story line - and that is what happens here. our heroine is castigated and demeaned but she persists, and she's brave with it - after her partner is killed when he insists on going down alone to follow up on a killer while she tries to save the victim things seem stacked against her but she is determined to find it out. mistkane identities and secret pacts conspire against the investigation - a corrupt politician is involved . all the elements are here and yet it does not feel cliched or derivative - and it is partially the drawings that make it unique. really cool.

Control is an action filled thriller that leaps off the page so vividly that you can imagine you are seeing it at the cinema.  Between the edgy story filled with politics, police conspiracies, sex and murder and the brilliant illustrations, Control has all that is needed for success.

Detective Sergeant Kate Burnham is good at her job, but doesn't have many friends in the DC police department.  When a professional killer is interrupted and several officers are shot in the process, Kate’s decision to save 3 lives leads to her partner’s death.  A text to a phone discovered at the scene leads to her discovering a prominent senator in a scandalous poisiton.  Higher ups want her to stop investigating.  What Burham finds is a web of wealthly and prominent individuals being blackmailed by a powerful media mogul.  Those who don't toe the line are exposed.  Even police officials are entangled.  But Kate is not one to bow to pressure.  The truth is too important even if it means losing her career.

5/5

Control is a gorgeously illustrated, fast paced political crime thriller that is a pleasure to read.  Control is available for preorder and will be released March 21, 2017.

I received a copy of Control from the publisher and Netgalley.com in exchange for an honest review.

-Crittermom

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