“The White Suits” made an impression on us when we first got ahold of it – a big, bloody impression. The last chapter of this noir miniseries is as violent as you’d expect; but underneath the action, there’s depth and a kind of poetry to this bloody conclusion.
Written by Frank J. Barbiere
Illustrated by Toby CypressThe final pieces of the bloodstained puzzle fall into place to reveal the awful truth behind the White Suits’ reign of terror. The truth is all former Suit Prizrak and FBI agent Sarah Anderson ever wanted . . . but it may be the last thing they ever get!
This is the issue where we get all the answers – and yes, it’s because the criminals concerned are going to stop and give them to us. That said, we’re offered a bit of a twist on the speechifying villain trope in that we switch, back and forth, between two speechifying villains. Prizrak and Anderson are being held separately on an airplane in flight, and each is getting a bit of a infodump before facing their likely demise. But if we know Prizrak and Anderson at all, they’re not going to be that easy to silence.
As for the backstory itself, it’s nothing too surprising, filling in the gaps that have been made conspicuous over the last few issues. Some of it is left a little unclear, with the exact political ramifications of the Suits’ crimes left to the imagination. This is, of course, a miniseries, and so it would be unfair to expect more detail, especially in an action-packed final issue like this one; but the amount of mythos built up around the Suits themselves feels like ample material for several more series, and it’s a little frustrating to have to see it end.
This said, one of the unique features of this series has been claustrophobic feel to the narrative. The story takes place entirely in the criminal underworld, a place that nobody seems to come out of uncorrupted, and this conclusion holds true to that theme. If we’re left wondering about the exact nature of the Suits’ deeds, at least the story they’re featured in here feels like something complete – almost too complete, since it’s hermetically sealed off from outside influence. Anderson is the closest thing we have to a “good guy” party, and the irreversible nature of her involvement with the organization is given great emphasis here. This is a series-in-a-bottle, and as nice as it would be to see more of it, it’s hard not to admire the terrarium-like compression of it all.
The exposition is delivered in bits and pieces as we switch back and forth between Prizrak and Anderson, and considering how much of it there is, it comes across quite clearly. Much of this is thanks to Toby Cypress’ complex and versatile art, which I’ll get to in a second; but so far as the dialogue itself goes, Barbiere does a remarkable job getting across the individual voices of the characters at the same time as plot-level information. I think that’s what sells the villain-tells-all trope in this case; we really feel as though these individual personalities need to let off some steam and settle some scores before any actual killing goes on.
Resplendent in its trademark limited palette, “White Suits” comes to a satisfactory close on the art front. Cypress’ unusual art style, wherein sketchy and cartoony elements meet and mingle, is as always a delight to look at. Because this style never quite settles down into a recognizable rhythm, every panel is a challenge and a surprise, a new, twisted look at this criminal underworld in all its shadiness. Over the past three issues, it’s occasionally been difficult to “read through” all the stylization to see what’s actually being portrayed; but considering the breadth of material that this issue spans, it exhibits some of the clearest and most effective storytelling so far.
Take, for example, an early page explaining the origins of the White Suits. The page itself is full of extraneous stuff – red “Classified” stamps, spatters of blood, and that’s not even to mention all the architectural details going on in the background. Cypress even manages to work in each of the Suits individually, in all their gritty glamour. Add a couple of paragraphs worth of captions and it sounds like a recipe for disaster; but the relatively simple layout, offset by a dose of black space, keeps it all organized, making for an intricate and complex piece.
Continued belowThis formula holds true for most of the issue; no matter how much is going on in a page, Cypress makes the surplus of detail feel like a treat instead of a distraction. And there are, of course, moments where it’s all scaled back; pages where the action relies on the interior environment of the airplane are mostly white space, lending a dire sense of isolation to the encounter.
Later on in the issue, things are shaken up a bit with a double page spread that you have to rotate sideways to read – and while the subject matter featured on this spread doesn’t benefit too too much from the shift, it still serves up a nice jolt, keeping us alert as this story spins to its conclusion.
All told, this ending is satisfying, lending a neat circularity to this tale and underscoring the lack of real “good guys” and “bad guys” in the series as a whole. We also get a few captions that draw out what happened to individual parties, and they fit together logically, presenting a coherent if somewhat unlikely concatenation of events. It’s not without a certain gothic frisson, either – the idea of retribution serving as corrupting influence does seem to come through here.
Anarchic and energetic, “White Suits” has certainly had a good run. It’s made the most of the miniseries format, keeping the story to its essential elements and coming up with a tale that feels mythic. At the same time, the variety and nuance of Cypress’ art has made this a visually compelling experience, full of bits of information to uncover on further rereads. “White Suits” is something more than a noir comic; it’s a kind of essay on what noir has come to be, laying out a red, white and black world that’s all the more poetic for its limitations.
Final Verdict: 9.0 – A fitting ending to an excellent, unusual miniseries.
