Ed Brubaker

Incognito

Maggie Gordon

To be fair, this book is more of a 2.5. Technically, it's great. The art is detailed, gritty, and gives a good foundation to the weighty atmosphere. The dark and grim mood is spot on. Overall, the book captures the noir genre very well. On the other hand, the story isn't particularly novel. The idea of a bad guy who turns good has been done many times before, particularly in the noir and superhero genres, and Incognito doesn't add anything new to these themes. Furthermore, there's a lot of gender-based violence in this book that I just can't buy into, even in the context of the plot. For example, there's a woman who was kidnapped by a super villain, and now she is supposedly drawn to danger and harm. Consequently, she arranges "fantasy rapes" with people on the internet. This is a vile, over-used, and socially harmful trope that I cannot stand, and these types of scenes lessened my enjoyment of the book immensely. 

In conclusion, Incognito is a solid graphic novel that, unfortunately, is mired in stereotypical and problematic story elements. There are undoubtedly many people who will love this piece because it does capture the noir genre very well, but it didn't excite me enough to get past the parts that I actively disliked.

Incognito

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