Blackjack

May 7, 2012
Having appeared in short stories and comics, Cross, the “ultra-pragmatic man-for-hire,” makes his full-length fiction debut in this lively cartoon in prose from Anthony Award–finalist Vachss (Batman: The Ultimate Evil). Cross and his unusual crew (Buddha, Ace, Princess, and Rhino) operate from a Chicago subterranean poolroom known as Red 71. Another group of similarly unusual characters (Percy, Tiger, Tracker, Wanda, and “the blond man”) want to hire Cross to find a live “specimen” of a creature that removes the spinal cords of its victims as trophies. Such a creature, described as a “blotchy mass” or “shadowy blob,” flows down the sides of an abandoned gas station in one chilling scene. The devastating climax comes at one creature’s chosen killing field—a federal prison divided among hostile groups of whites, blacks, and Latinos. Vachss effectively channels Predator and Rambo in this heated blend of fantasy and machismo in the urban jungle. Agent: Lou Bank, Ten Angry Pitbulls.

June 1, 2012
Cross is a mercenary. If you don't hold up your end of a deal, he and his scary little troupe will kill you. And he only accepts certain jobs: business ethics, if you will. Observing Cross is a group of government spooks, and they finally convince Team Cross to plan and execute an extraction. The tricky part is the target. At different points across the globe, different groups of people have been slaughtered: limbs hacked off and spines removed. Initially, the episodes were thought to be the work of a brutally efficient band of renegade mercenaries, but now the spooks feel it may be something elsebut exactly what, they're not sure. That's why they need Cross to capture one of the culpritshuman or otherwise. Vachss, best known for his effectively creepy Burke series, just misses the target here. Combining the urban-crime milieu he knows so well with a horror-based plot is an awkward pairing that doesn't quite work. Vachss has always been able to pit his protagonists against the darkness of the human heart to great effect. Unfortunately, amorphous evil isn't as compelling as a human villain.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)