Product Description

In the hard-hitting tale of espionage and betrayal THE LOSERS: ANTE UP, an elite U.S. Special Forces unit is targeted for assassination when they unintentionally uncover the illegal and immoral practices of the C.I.A. Believed dead and with nothing to lose, the team of wet works operatives regroup and begin a mission of revenge against the organization that betrayed them. Only as the team goes after a corrupt oil conglomerate with ties to the C.I.A., do they truly begin to realize the depths of the conspiracy they have discovered and the impossible odds of survival that they face.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #319570 in Books
• Published on: 2004-03-01
• Released on: 2004-03-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 160 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9781401201982
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From Publishers Weekly
After witnessing one too many covert atrocities, a CIA Special Forces Unit stops taking immoral orders, but it isn't long before their consciences get them killed in a helicopter "accident" far from home. At least that's what the CIA thinks. In fact, the unit survived, returned to the U.S., and is taking down the CIA's dirty operations one heist at a time. British comics veterans-and coauthors of 2000 AD-Diggle and Jock aim to bring the best parts of the 1980s action movie aesthetic to comics with this work, and they largely succeed. But in this first story arc, they rely too heavily on its tropes. Corrupt CIA? Check. Infiltration of a secure office building? Check. Speedboat chase climaxing with a jump off a conveniently placed ramp? Check. Diggle adds a number of fun new touches to his crew of misfits, particularly with some fresh takes on old action movie characters. For example, Jensen is the prototypical hacker, but also a barely repressed actor who patters through even the tensest scenes. Cougar, the strong, silent sniper type, epitomizes cool without saying a word. Jock's art-with its deceptively simple, shadowed figures-is atmospheric and dynamic and shows a flair for inventive layouts. His raw talent could use a little refinement though, as his depiction of action sequences sometimes sacrifices clarity for novelty. These are small quibbles, however. With this work, Diggle and Jock have made sure readers come out ahead on the classic bang-for-buck exchange.
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Customer Reviews

The Losers
The Losers, once upon a time a Sgt. Rock-like DC imprint, has been resurrected in this vertigo published book but don't expect to find long lost friends in this particular incarnation. All that remains of them is the name. The new Losers are this generation's disenfranchised. "The Losers were a covert U.S. Special Forces unit seconded to the CIA" explains Diggle. "When they stumbled across one of the Agency's dirty little secrets and refused to play ball, the Agency had them assassinated. Except the Losers survived. Now they've gone rogue, and have declared war on the Agency which stabbed them in the back".
And while that may sound about as enticing and original as a Phil Collins ditty, Diggle proves that Mick Jagger was right - "it's the singer, not the song" because The Losers is loaded with the kind of snappy dialogue usually found in Ellis, Ennis and Bendis books or Tarantino movies.

And while you could say that Diggle's work is derivative, you could also say that he's quite good at capturing exactly what's interesting and attractive about the heist genre in the first place. His team consists of the typical characters - the tough as nails, one track mind, out for payback commander is there. The quiet, scarred, yet sure-handed and rock-solid sniper is there. The woman with a mysterious past is there. The nerdy, punky, computer hacker is there. The steady, straight man is there. The traitor is there. The ingenious planning and problem solving and the executions of the jobs that are never absent from caper movies... it's all there. And that's the book's strength. It is damned good at reinforcing the genre and it's damned good at telling the story with new voices. As a result, Diggle infuses new life into a teeming field of players and the once staid and stale is all of the sudden bright and tantalizing.

If you've read any other reviews of The Losers, you no doubt noticed that comparisons to caper movies abound. So please excuse my wholly unoriginal yet inevitable comparisons to the heist film genre but if something looks like an orange, smells like an orange and it taste like an orange, then goddammit, it's an orange. Or at least something that mimics an orange to a tee. The Losers manages to present itself in such a way as to provoke all kinds of comparisons to heist stalwarts "Three Kings", "Ocean's 11" and "Rififi". And there is really no other way to get around it - The Losers simply FEELS like a movie. As a matter of fact, it feels like a great movie. Like the sort of thing one expects, and usually gets from the likes of Soderbergh and Tarantino. And don't for a second think that this is my attempt at validating the black sheep of the entertainment world, comic books, through the use of another medium. The Losers has plenty of merit to stand on its own. The damned thing just feels like a great movie.

BETTER than Hollywood.
Comparing The Losers to a Hollywood movie does it a great disservice. The dialogue in most movies doesn't even come close to what Andy Diggle serves up in this poignantly paranoid and timely series. He's Tarantino with talent. Scorcese with restraint. And Jock's bristling visuals absolutely jump off the page, bringing each character and location and emotion distinctively to life. Hollywood analogies fall short here. The Losers is a must-own, not just for fanboys and action-junkies, but for anybody that appreciates great graphic storytelling.

Hey, Hollywood, You Paying Attention?
The best way to summarize Ante Up is that it's a what a great action movie should be except on paper and with the extra goodness that comic books bring to you that movies can't (like an artist who's art can be described as stylish, cool (and not the MTV- forced cool), and original). It's a very good start to a series and immediately hooks you. At the same time, don't expect the next Watchmen or some other "classic" story. This is a good, solid story that will make you come back for more.