Night Raven: House of Cards

Written by Jamie Delano
Art by David Lloyd
Reviewed by That Guy

Today’s review is of a comic I found quite by chance at Jamil's, after it had fallen out of its box and was lying, gathering dust at the back of the shelf.
I'll be honest. I had no idea what or who Night Raven was when I started reading House of Cards. In my limited knowledge of comic books, I had some idea of who Jamie Delano was (for those of you who don't, he was handpicked by Alan Moore to be the first writer of Hellblazer, which actually makes him Vertigo's first writer). So, why not, I bought it.
Before going into the plot; a quick word on the hero Night Raven, an old Marvel UK stalwart that has had tales spun by luminaries including Alan Moore. The Bird of Night was based on 1930's pulp vigilantes. He never got a proper origin story; in House of Cards he remains as enigmatic as ever.
Set in one of those fabled gangster run cities (that is central to every pulp story), House of Cards is a complex tale of tragic love and futile vengeance. The city is run by two gangs divided by a neutral bridge, where both sets of gangsters go to dump bodies. Night Raven is fascinated (read: unhealthily obsessed) with Inez Pearl. In the Depression era big city, she's fallen in love with Soldier Jack, Tall Saul Konig's charismatic trigger-happy hitter. When corrupt Congressman Harvey Chase decides he wants her, Tall Saul tells Soldier to lend her for a while. This leads to a major blowout, a savage clash that destroys almost the entire mob, and the Night Raven is helpless to prevent it.
The plot is a bit slow to get off the ground but the last quarter of the book goes by in a flurry of gunshots and death. The dark, descriptive stylings of Jamie Delano fit in well with the grimy underworld setting and the pulp literature this story aspires to. It works well but the hero of the book is David Lloyd's painted artwork. Artwork was what convinced me to buy it and it's beautiful enough that you should go read it. The dreamy undertone of the story makes the events that occur all the more sad and all the more intense.
Rating : 7/10