Plot: Supercop Bill Orlowski has been framed. Since things aren’t pretty for a cop in the big house--much less for a supercop--Bill busts out. Changing his name to “Rex,” our hero seeks revenge on those who’ve wronged him.

Comments: I wanted to like this book. I really wanted to like it. Moody black-and-white artwork, an incredibly violent hero, tasteful nudity: that’s a recipe for kickass.

Plus Rex is a crime comic. I’ve been waiting for a real resurrection of the crime comic all my life. Sure we’ve got Sin City. Then there was Hard Looks for a minute. And Stray Bullets is supposed to return. And Vertigo has given us a fair does of criminality. . . . Okay, so there have been a number of crime books over the last few years, and some real good ones at that.

Anyway, I had high hopes for Danijel Zezelj’s Rex. Unfortunately, the book let me down.

The problem isn’t the art. Zezelj’s work is some of the best out there. His art is the perfect amalgam of Tim Bradstreet’s dark realism and Ted McKeever’s frantic schizophrenia. His use of gray tones demonstrates a mastery of the black-and-white comic form. At times, however, the detailed inking was overwhelming. With so many black lines of varying degrees of thickness clashing on the page, it was difficult to tell who was getting pummeled with what. Overall, though, the artwork worked.

Rex’s problem lies in its story, or lack thereof. First, the clichéd premise: Framed cop goes to jail were the guys he busted beat the living crap out of him. Tango & Cash, anybody?

Of course there’s a jailbreak, and (naturally) he needs to get revenge on those who framed him. At least Rex didn’t do so in order to clear his “good name.” No sir, our hero just wants to kill the bad guys.

Another problem is the pacing. It was simply too damn slow. Initially, I thought, “It sure is nice to see a book taking its time.” However, by page 24 of not much happening, I was bored. By page 70, I was pissed.

Zezelj took what was at best a 24-pager and stretched it way beyond its limits. Perhaps Rex needed a rewrite. Hey, Brian Azzarello, rather than wasting my time with the pointless introduction to the book, how about giving the author some points on writing a good story!

I should note that some poor bastard in the comic did get strangled with barbed wire. That warrants an extra half-point in my book.

My Recommendation: Maybe trade two copies of Archie Digest for Rex.

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