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The Winter Men #1 
A tough drunk of a cop with a moral streak fallen on hard times.
A morally ambiguous ex-government cloak-and-dagger man with a secret.
Formerly glorious superheroes brought down by the weight of the world in a no-longer-shiny world.
Jesus, we've seen this stuff a million times, haven't we?
That doesn't mean it can't be done well. The Winter Men seems to be the story of Kalenov. Kalenov was once an armored supersoldier for the Soviet Union. Now he's a Moscow cop with a drinking problem. These are the cliched parts of the story. Dealing with other people like him, the hardboiled superspy/soldier/detective stuff. Pulp comics done well. But two things set this work apart from the rest.
First, the setting. Lewis and Leon clearly took pains to research today's Russia. You get a feeling of reality that most pulp comics don't give you for places you even already know about. You get the feeling of day-to-day life for the average Russian, and, in particular, for Kalenov. His marital and drinking troubles, how he goes about being a policeman in such a corrupt world, and how politics affect him. It's a level of detail and verisimilitude rarely seen these days, and it's appreciated.
Second is John Paul Leon himself. God, this is a beautiful book. Representational without becoming stodgy or boring. Abstracted without losing an eye for detail. It's strong stuff from a strong artist from whom we've seen too little.
It's just the first issue, and its filled with things we've seen before. But it gives a palpable feeling that's hard to ignore. It's good to be reminded that genre work, even when a bit rote, doesn't have to be crap. This is solid stuff worth reading by those who are interested. Grade: 3.5/5
-- Joe Rice
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