Vindication

Vindication #1-4

by M.D. Marie, Carlos Miko (Contributor), Dema Jr. (Contributor)

In the turbulent times when cops are portrayed as the enemy of the people, Detective Chip Christopher is maneuvering on the blurred blue line between racism and due diligence in order to do his job of investigating Turn; a young black man, with a sketchy past, who was exonerated of a similar previous murder.

Turn is free, another victim is murdered, and Detective Christopher is determined to see him convicted again; but this time Turn is older, smarter, more cunning, and determined not to go back to prison.

Collects issues 1-4.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Fiction, Politics, Graphic Novels Comics, Comic Book

120 pages, Paperback

First published February 6, 2019

Reviews

[James DeSantis]

I'm not really sure what this story was trying to do. The idea of someone going to prison for no reason is horrible. So the idea for this story works. But then our main character is the cop who is so focused on putting that man back in jail. But then you get the big conspiracy of someone else setting everyone up. I just couldn't really get into ANY characters. I also didn't like the art too much. Overall, confusing, a bad ending, and a overall meh story.

[Quintin Zimmermann]

For me personally, as a South African, I felt discombobulated by the sinister racist undertones of a white cop hell bent on targeting a recently exonerated black man.

[Bárbara]

A very important story told in a disappointing way.

[Dan]

Bad dialogs. Bad story.

[Theediscerning]

I wanted to like this – let's face it, the horrid, horrid genre of "racist books from racist black people about how racist white cops can be" certainly needs a corrective. But this isn't it – and by the fourth issue I really was struggling with keeping up to speed with who was who, who was investivating/framing/shagging who, and it all got too messy to serve any purpose, either entertainment, redemption or indeed vindication.

[Monita Roy Mohan]

Vindication, a new series from Image Comics and Top Cow, should be a story about the consequences of bigotry. So, why is the central character a white cop?

Read my full review at BamSmackPow.

[Alex Sarll]

Abandoned after one scene of lifeless Top Cow house-style art, matched to a script that ticks off every leaden cliché of a man being released from gaol while the system still mostly thinks he's guilty.

(Edelweiss ARC)

[47Time]

This comic is reeking with accusations of racism. And it's the worst kind - systemic. The way it treats racism is the best thing about the story. Everything else is crap. The dialogue tries to sound like a serious police drama, but it just feels lifeless. Or it may be because the artwork is surprisingly bland. Often it doesn't match the feel of the dialogue. I just love it when artists cheat and copy the same panel just because more dialogue is needed in a scene. I might as well blame the letterer as well. These things, the bread and butter of the comic medium, do not work well together here.

Turn Washington was convicted to life in prison by an all-white jury. Ten years later he gets released and a juror from his case is found murdered. Detective Chip Christopher is convinced that Turn is the culprit, but he is taken off the case while under an IA investigation. He is suspected of having a personal - and obviously unprofessional and racist - stake against Turn. Everyone is looking for the former convict who is nowhere to be found.

When Chip ends up in Turn's hands, all cards are on the table - more accusations of racism, more violence, more retribution. It's a pretty good scene. Chip becomes convinced that someone is framing Turn, so he needs the evidence to prove it - an SD card. It proves that a couple of crooked cops framed Turn for the first murder. They force Chip to help them kill Turn. The latter's death would likely close the case with no focus on their illegal dealings. Instead Chip turns himself in and confesses to everything in favor of Turn who by this time finds the SD card that clears his name.

[Emma Gear]

Can't say I really thought this was a very good one. It has all the potential to be something interesting, as it taps into a very big news story still ongoing about law enforcement and black people, but the story being told just doesn't feel particularly strong.

To get into it, a woman is murdered and a black man is arrested, says he's innocent, and is found guilty. Ten years later evidence comes up to exonerate him and he is released, but the detective (who is white) who worked on the case is absolutely convinced that the man is guilty. So he sets about looking for more evidence to prove his assumptions correct.

An interesting enough setup sure, but it doesn't really go for much beyond this premise. Given the tone and everything the reader knows that the man is innocent, but there's not much playing with expectations beyond that. There is a bit of nice commentary where the detective does not view himself as racist, only as someone seeking to find the truth as so many racists often are, but those expectations don't get played with a whole lot. It ends without any real notable twists. There is a fun sequence where the cop gets interrogated by the man he's intent on sending back to prison, but beyond that it's just a lot of mediocrity in my opinion.

Cool premise, but deeply flawed execution.

[Stoffia]

Polar classique sur fond de racisme policier.

Un policier blanc dans un quartier noir est prêt à tout pour faire retourner un criminel fraîchement libéré en prison. Il est convaincu que le type a tué sa partenaire. Comme l'homme en question revient dans le quartier, les meurtres reprennent.

C'est un comic étrange, tellement lourd en dialogues qu'il aurait probablement dû être une novella.

Le thème est aussi drôlement abordé. Bourré de débats : "Est-ce que tous les policiers sont racistes ou seulement quelques-uns?" Sans que la réponse " Peut-être que c'est l'institution policière qui est raciste" soit soulevée. Comme si c'était un débat "quel pourcentage des policiers sont racistes?"

[Ezma]

A complete misfire. Clearly trying to say something about racist cops, but feels so lost when we have moments like a black woman saying there’s more good cops than bad. So simplistic in its views of systems of power that it’s hard to say there’s an actual stance here. The story is way too complicated, with too many characters and moving parts for a 4 issue series. The art is unexpressive, has notable errors (a character’s lazy eye swaps sides), and frequently uses copy-pasted panels. Pretty bad all around.

[Jonathan Roberts]

Could have been better. Decent story idea but poor execution. Artwork was clunky and hard to follow. Each page was jammed packed with too many word bubbles, making it hard at times to follow the conversations.

[Cody]

I enjoyed this a lot, I felt it had some more nuance than your typical copaganda story of "good cop vs. the bad cops" and so it didn't feel hackneyed. Very much a crime/murder mystery comic that I felt was done very well and was an entertaining read. I'll be on the lookout for volume 2.

[FIND ME ON STORYGRAPH]

review and rating to come

[Kyle]

Avoid this

[TJ]

Not sure what to make of this book

[Breanna]

It was really hard, the dialogue was not that good

[James Koppert]

This was really good right up to the end where it felt like they had to rush the ending instead of finishing the story properly

[Angelika Silva]

The story was a bit convoluted, totally lost track of who was who.

[Paul Allard]

A tale of corrupt police officers and unsolved murders in this comic series.

This serious comic series is about an overturned conviction and the consequences of this regarding the various police officers and victims involved. It’s revealing about all concerned and few of these characters come out of it looking good. The story moves along at a steady pace and all the characters are interesting and developed. The artwork is reasonable and clear. Quite good stuff.

[Kay ☾]

Bad artwork and cringe worthy dialogue. Won’t be continuing.