TITLE: Thief of Thieves
AUTHOR: Robert Kirkman, Nick Spencer
PENCILLER: Shawn Martinbrough
PUBLISHER: Image Comics
PRICE: $2.99
RELEASED: February 8, 2012

By Rob Siebert
Editor, Fanboy Wonder

This is one of only two debut issues I’ve ever read in which the little essay the creator writes after the presentation is more interesting than the presentation.

After the last page of Thief of Thieves, Robert Kirkman dedicates a page to an essay (for lack of a better term) called “I believe in comic books.” He talks about how comic books are so much more than just superheroes and “muscle-y dues or muscle-y ladies slamming each other into buildings of punching a battleship.” He says that while he loves this kind of material, 60-70 percent of the comics on the market feature “old superheroes, stale musty ideas from the middle of the century or later.” He plays up the importance of the industry offering non-superhero titles, so that comics can appeal to a larger audience, and eventually become as widely received as movies and TV.

“You’d never describe someone as a movie fan — everyone watches movies. THAT should be our goal for comics, as retailers, fans and creators.”

While Kirkman is absolutely right with his notion that the industry needs to expand in order to thrive, I actually found myself getting a little defensive reading his words about superhero books. I’m positive he didn’t mean what he said to offend anyone. But as someone who really loves superhero books, I couldn’t help but be a bit taken aback by what he said, specifically the “stale, musty” comment. I’ve always considered many of the major superhero books on the market today as products of characters and ideas that have continuously evolved over the course of their existence. Some more than others obviously, and I won’t deny that some of them could use a healthy overhaul. But I can’t help but take it a bit to heart when someone calls something I love, and has been loved by many for decades, stale or outdated.

That’s all I’ve got on that front, really. I’m not slamming Kirkman. I just needed to get that off my chest.

That being said, Thief of Thieves is alright. It’s a Kirkman idea, scripted by Nick Spencer. Our main character, Redmond, is a thief extraordinaire. In this issue, we see he and his apprentice/assistant Celia pull a heist, then we see how the duo met for the first time, and at the end of the issue we get a big swerve to pull us back in for next time.

The only major problem I had with this issue is the fact that I wasn’t sold on the idea that Redmond is this amazing thief that all the other characters say he is. I was looking for something impressive to pique my interest in this debut issue. The  ”How Celia and Redmond Met” scene (the scenes all have title cards, which is kind of cool) consists mostly of Redmond finding Celia trying to steal his car, and then showing her how it should be done, as well as how to find a car worth stealing in the first place. That’s all well and good, but this is supposed to be a heist comic, isn’t it? Yes, we see a heist at the beginning, but it seems to show the strength of a group of thieves, rather than one special thief.

On the plus side, I enjoyed Redmond’s interactions with Celia, as well as Martinbrough’s art (Celia’s face in the third panel on the page at left is adorable). There seems to be a problem with the placement of Redmond’s arm on the final page, but that had to be pointed out to me before I noticed it.

I’m not suggesting Thief of Thieves doesn’t have the potential to be good, or even great. I certainly appreciate the art of the slow buildup, but the strongest investment I have in this story after reading this issue is the relationship between Redmond and Celia. Thus, when we get our big swerve at the end involving Redmond, it’s not as impactful as it could be because I don’t have a sense of how he does his job, or how good a thief he is. If I’m writing a book called Thief of Thieves, those are my first priorities. Just sayin’.

All images from newsarama.com.