Parker: The Outfit - Book 4

By Darwyn Cooke and Donald Westlake
Jul 2009

Parker, with some help from Handy, hunts down and kills the head of the Outfit. At least half of Book 4 is consumed by the set piece wherein Parker and Handy break into the big boss man's home and deal with him and his bodyguards.

Unfortunately the final segment of this book failed to capture my interest any more than the previous ones. I definitely feel as though I am missing something here. I wonder how the prose novel reads. It is hard for me to know if the shortcomings in the story were also there in the original work.

I'm interested in reading some of Darwyn Cooke's other books that I haven't read before, like his run on Catwoman with Ed Brubaker. I don't have much interest in reading any more of the Parker books that he drew.

4/27

GCD: https://www.comics.org/issue/782993/

Parker: The Outfit - Book 3

By Darwyn Cooke and Donald Westlake
Jul 2009

This is by far the most interesting chapter of the book. The focus is on how Parker is giving the Outfit a hard time by hitting its various operations. For the most part it is presented as a series of pieces that appeared in a magazine. Each piece is formatted differently. The first is a straight up magazine article. It looks like something from a bygone era, very retro.

There is very little of Parker. Maybe that's a good thing.

One thing that I don't really get is that Parker at first seems like this maverick who works on his own but in this story he seems to be operating mostly by proxy. I'm not sure how to make sense of that other than to say that it seems out of character.

4/20

GCD: https://www.comics.org/issue/782993/

Parker: The Outfit - Book 2

By Darwyn Cooke and Donald Westlake
Jul 2009

Parker starts his assault on the Outfit. First, he visits Grofeld, a friend, an actor, and borrows a makeup kit from him. Using the kit he disguises himself and makes a deal with one member of the Outfit to double cross the boss man, the head of the Outfit.

I'm still not feeling it. There isn't enough depth to this story for it to really interest me. The art is good but the blue wash gets old fast. I don't know if it is just me or there is something about that color.

4/13

GCD: https://my.comics.org/issue/782993/

Parker: The Outfit - Book 1

By Darwyn Cooke and Donald Westlake
Jul 2009

Someone tries to kill Parker. After filling in Bett, his bed mate, on some of the details of his past, Parker deals with his would-be assassin. He gets a name from him, a name he didn't expect to get, Skim. He returns to the hotel room to find Bett and his gun missing.

Sixteen months ago, Parker, fresh off getting plastic surgery, hooked up with Skim who was looking for muscle. Skim had a plan to rob an armored truck of payroll money. Parker wasn't crazy about the plan but he needed the money. He convinced Skim to alter the plan but he had his doubts about Slim's partner, Alma. She reeked of trouble.

The robbery went off without a hitch but afterwords Alma double crossed Skim just like Parker thought she would. Parker and Handy, the other member of the team, dealt with Alma. Parker and Handy then split the money and went their separate ways.

Back in the present, Parker locates Skim and deals with him. He leaves a note for Skim's bosses, the Outfit.

Not as much fun as I had hoped it would be, possibly because I don't feel hooked by any one element of the story let alone the story as a whole. It all feels a little too serious to me although I wonder if that's just my read of the book.

I like the little panels and the wordless storytelling. The blue wash gets old, fast. Darwyn Cooke can draw and tell one hell of a story but this doesn't feel like his best work to me.

4/6

GCD: https://my.comics.org/issue/782993/