Wow, I am tempted to give this five stars because I felt like Brubaker/Phillips have done something so outstanding and distinctive here. I think that for superhero/villain fiction lovers, you don't really get tired of the genre, but at the same time, you want something different. Seeing these concepts through a distinctive lens is vital and refreshing. That's definitely what Brubaker/Phillips are doing with this series. I'm not a huge fan of crime fiction, but there is something appetizing about seeing the viewpoint of a supervillain who essentially parted ways with his old life and has forged a new one, not exactly certain about who he is meant to be. However, he realizes he doesn’t want to be the man he used to be. He’s not comfortable in that skin at all anymore. He looks back at things and sees the horror evident on a daily basis in his past life, things that wouldn’t have bothered him in the least or pricked his moral compass. He’s developed a conscience and he cannot go back to being immured to the ugly deeds of his cohorts, which he finds out the hard way when asked to go undercover and retrieve an SOS operative who went native. But Zack faces the dilemma that I imagine many reformed criminals face. He isn’t allowed the clean slate he would hope for. People don’t give him a chance to be the new person, but the old cronies don’t want him back either. This graphic novel is really deep beneath all the obvious violent and off color content. It’s a character story wrapped in a fast-paced, superhero action-thriller. Zack still isn’t the nicest guy, but there is something very sympathetic about him in his journey from villain to would-be antihero. I had a horrible shock of realizing that there is no third volume in publication. I heartily hope that it’s in the works because I need to know there is more and things don’t end the way this volume ended. Zack’s journey is far from over, and this reader is not ready to disengage just yet. Overall rating: 4.5/5.0 stars. PS. If they make a movie, Jeremy Renner should play Zack.