In 1955 Los Angeles, California, Harvey Slater is a cop who works outside the law for the good of the city in Hit: 1955.
Slater is part of a hit squad who are taking out mobster Mickey Cohen’s associates while Cohen is in prison. The goal is when he gets out he will have no businesses or associates to continue his criminal ways with. This group is not sanctioned or commanded by the police captain, but he is fully aware of its existence and operations.
A past love comes back to town and has her eyes set on Slater. Her name is Bonnie Blair and she had to leave town for Chicago because she was facing prison time. Chicago turned out to be a no go too and she got in trouble with some mobsters there. Trouble always seemed to follow her around, but that is probably because she is trouble. Blair isn’t just any beautiful blonde. She happens to be the police captain’s daughter.
When Slater is walking Blair back to her place he sees she is not lying about being on the run from some bad people. They get a gun pointed at the back of their heads, but Slater quickly takes care of it.
Slater’s ex-partner gets killed and the circumstances are very fishy. When Slater investigates he sees things are not as they seem and maybe he got killed for knowing too much.
Hit: 1955 was written by Bryce Carlson with art by Vanesa R. Del Rey and Archie Van Buren. published the volume in 2014.
I really wanted to read a crime noir set back in the classic era. This story did not disappoint. It has a femme fatale, an anti-hero and a very complex story.
This is by far my favorite noir book I’ve read in the past few months. The tone is very cool and hip. Slater is bad-ass noir protagonist. Reading this makes me want to live in ‘50s LA. It just seems like a really exciting time to live and LA was so beautiful back then. I’ll just have to stay out of the way of Cohen and other mobsters.
The plot with Blair was very interesting and compelling. I really wondered why she was so wanted by the Chicago mob and what she could have done. It is always interesting to see a femme fatale like her do her stuff. She was playing Slater and it was very obvious to me but not to Slater and he got tangled up good and quickly.
Slater’s ex-partner’s death was also very well done. Seeing the mystery slowly unravel was fascinating. I loved the twists and turns and seeing how Blair was involved without even knowing.
This comic had me at the edge of my seat for most of the volume. I found the first issue underwhelming, but the rest of the volume picked up and I couldn’t get enough.
Rating:
5/5
