Brubaker and Phillips could have done things the easy way in Criminal, with a linear timeline and just showing the exploits of the criminals from wherever in the US criminal happens (never been there so I actually have no clue where that may be), but instead they create layer after layer of extra details that end up making this series extra good.

In this volume we have two issues that merge the stories and characters from the world of Criminal with the comics they read. The issues are a mix of the "actual" issues of Savage Sword and Deadly Hands and criminal issues. Very original and quite well thought indeed.

On the other hand we also have long novellas like All My Heroes Have Always Been Junkies, that is both artistically and thematically quite distinct and Bad Weekend, where we see the insides of a comic con from the point of view of an old author.

Criminal is great and, with these issues, it has shown that it will be in constant evolution so I am looking forward to the next volume!