Graphic Novel Review: Whiteout: Melt

After the success I had with Whiteout, I thought it would be nice to jump right back into Greg Rucka's frozen, crime riddled antarctic world.  Whiteout: Melt begins with a little history lesson on how Antarctica came to be divvied up by various countries, then dives right into the action as a unit of soldiers storms a Russian research station, kills everyone around, then blows the whole thing sky high, but not before making off with something valuable.


Enter our hero, Carrie Stetko, who is enjoying some sunshine and green grass on her vacation in New Zealand.  Her brief period of R&R is shattered when her boss calls her in for a briefing.  It turns out the Russian research base that got blow'd up was likely also an arms depot, and the US government wants Carrie to go in and assess the situation. Carrie is initially unwilling, the job is out of her jurisdiction, and none of her business, but the G-Men ply her with promises of reassignment to a warm, sunny climate, and Carrie accepts the task.  Before 48 hours have gone by Carrie finds herself back on the ice and once again in over her head.

Whiteout: Melt is more of a cat and mouse espionage thriller than a mystery this time around.  The reason I say that is this one had that familiar "Cold Warrior" espionage feel that you often see in spy novels.  Which wasn't a bad thing, but this definitely felt like a very different story from Whiteout except that it featured the same lead character.  The antarctic setting was almost a character  itself this time around as it played a big role in the story.

Once again, Rucka delivered a story that was face paced, tense, and even had a couple of nice twists, with some cliffhangers thrown in for good measure.  All in all, pretty thrilling stuff, but in my opinion, Whiteout: Melt lacked a bit of the magic of it's predecessor.  The reason being that in Whiteout the characters drove the story along whereas in Whiteout: Melt the story is what drives the characters.  A small difference, but one that delivers a very different feel to the story.

Lieber's art is very consistent with the first volume, but I will say that this time around his action sequences look better, and flow across the panels a lot better.  I said it before, but it is worth mentioning again, the black and white art here only makes the world of the antarctic feel all the more frigid and realistic.  There are some scenes that are sure to give even the most warm blooded reader the chills.

Once again, Rucka delivers a strong story, but for my money Whiteout: Melt was my weakest Rucka reading experience so far.  That said, it was still pretty damn good.  Whiteout: Melt might not be essential Greg Rucka reading, but it's still worth checking out, and proves to be another solid chapter in the adventures of Carrie Stetko.

Grade: B-

Graphic Novel Review: Whiteout

Whiteout by Greg Rucka is a story about hitting bottom.  When you are a US Marshall, and you're posted in Antarctica, it literally doesn't get any lower than that.  But when you're sent there because it'll keep you from screwing up again, you hit bottom in more than one way.  That's the life for Carrie Stetko, a US Marshall in one of the most desolate places on Earth.

In the vast desolation, Carrie has been trying to make peace with her past. However, when there's a murder committed on her turf, her chances at peaceful resolutions are past.

The dead body is that of a scientist who is part of a research team and had been doing some deep ice core drilling.  At the murder site, Carrie finds that several deep ice samples have been taken nearby, which points to some sort of notable discovery.  Before she can hardly begin her investigation, Lily Sharpe, a British Intelligence agent, turns up asking questions.  With her boss breathing down her back, storms setting in, and a thin trail of clues, Carrie and Lily must hustle to find the killer.

Hoping to build off the strength of my Batwoman and Stumptown reads I decided to give another Greg Rucka penned graphic novel a go.  As it turns out, my instincts are occasionally quite accurate.  Though written much earlier in his career, Whiteout has many of the hallmarks I've come to expect from the works of Greg Rucka.

For one, it features a wonderful female protagonist that is remarkably real, and someone who is incredibly interesting to read about.  I was pretty much immediately taken by Carrie, and wanted to know more about her.  She's smart, tough, resourceful, and clever which makes for an interesting protagonist on any given day,  but Rucka has an uncanny knack for instilling his women with these qualities and still making them remain feminine.  There's none of that "strong female characters" bullshit here, which is a wonderful thing to see.

The other thing Rucka does quite well here is write a hum-dinger of a crime-mystery-drama.  I will say that the mystery elements in Whiteout aren't as polished as they are in his more recent works, but this is still some very good crime writing, and I as I mentioned earlier, I was very intrigued by the events in that take place in the story.

The art by Steve Lieber is pretty solid here too.  Whiteout, appropriately, is done in black and white, which instills the antarctic setting with a strong sense of desolation and frostiness.  Lieber's art in Whiteout can deliver some chills.  My one gripe would be that his action sequences were at times a bit fuzzy and hard to interpret.  This led to some confusing moments for me with the narrative, which meant I had to go back and re-examine the artwork for clarification, something I'm not a fan of doing.

All told, this was another positive Rucka reading experience, and I'm happy to say I have more of his stuff sitting on my shelf waiting to be read.  I'll be diving in soon enough.

Grade: B+