The Scorpion Volume 2: The Devil in the Vatican. Stephen Desberg (Writer), Enrico Marini (Artist), Jerome Saincantin (Translator) Cinebook Ltd (2009)

A wonderful swashbuckling adventure, this comic captures the spirit and the details of the genre with flair and the necessary light touch. The fearsome Cardinal Trebaldi is moving ever closer to his goal of becoming the next Pope, the most serious obstacle in his path is an outlaw known as the Scorpion. When the Scorpion makes his hatred very publicly known Trebaldi marshals his forces, warrior monks who are loyal only to him to track and kill the Scorpion. Leading the hunt is the gypsy Mejai who has been hired to find and deliver the Scorpion to the Cardinal's forces. At the same time the Scorpion is on his own quest to find the secret that Trebaldi is hiding. The story twists and turns with great action scenes and carefully set up flashbacks and reveals that mix up the plot nicely. When the action moves to Turkey with the beautiful and very dangerous Ansea Latal the Scorpion starts to edge closer to a very dangerous find and the pursuit by Trebaldi is never far behind.
There is a very difficult balance that has to be struck in this genre, a lighthearted approach to acrobatic heroics that never winks at the reader, that takes itself and the reader very seriously without ever loosing the glint of romance that gives it flavour. Stephen Desberg has all the right ingredients, the setting in Rome and the time frame, swords, wigs, tricorn hats and a world less traveled that offers adventure at the turn of the road. The plot is satisfying sweeping, a villain wants a powerful office and is happy to kill his way to getting there. A flawed hero stands between him and his prize, handsome and athletic he is every inch the leading man. The beautiful women are no puppets, they have energy and agendas of their own and need no permission from anyone to follow them. Nicely framing the close up action is a bigger plot that stretches across history and is revealed in carefully controlled amounts. The whole mix is potent and exhilariting.
The story is delivered with the astounding art of Enrico Marini who manages to provide a richly detailed context and a wonderful cast that feels right at home in it. The cast move with grace and force, there is a supple physicality about the art that is just what the story needs to push forward. This is a story that has action at its heart, it has to be bold and nimble, have an impact without every falling into outright brutality. All of this is done with page layouts that feel cinematic while having multiple panels, the angles and the cutting work to support the pace of the story. A thrilling pleasure to read.

I.R.$. Volume 3: Silicia, Inc. Stephen Desberg (Writer), Bernard Vrancken (Artist), Luke Spear (Translation), Imadjinn (Letters). Cinebook (Ltd. (2009)

An enjoyable and engaging crime story. Larry B. Max is an investigator for the IRS who finds a link in a public corruption  case he is pursuing with the death of a ex-president of an unnamed Asian country in France. The link starts with an ex-US Army officer and leads to a bank in Aruba, it also leads a very competent assassin to track Larry in parallel. The reveals are cleverly staged, the lines of the plot are drawn together well and the set up for the second half of the story well established.
Larry B. Max and the assassin are well matched, both excellent at their jobs and both very committed to doing them. The slightly unusual angle taken by Stephen Desberg to use the IRS as the agency and be following money trails pays off. It gives a nice sense of the pervasive nature of money laundering and gives Larry Max's action hero moments a nice, slightly unexpected twist. Larry is given a interesting personal life, which proves to be a useful route for an enemy to attack him. The assassin is mostly a cipher, simply ruthless and very competent, she is properly shadowy as she needs to be. 
One of the nice aspects to the story is the way the extra details are werapped around a very simple story and give it a greater depth and context. The US Senate hearings into ex-President Neruda Sumadayo's relations with the US and how that may have spilled out further into an Iran-Contra situation is nicely proposed.
Bernard Vracken's art is clean and forceful,  the panel lays out are varied and allow the different parts of the story to cross over each other without any confusion. The cast are given room to act and do so with vigor, the body language is expresive, the action is explosive or quiet exactly as required.
This is a low key story that works with quiet details that steadily move the story forward, packing more of a punch than it looks.

I.R.$. 1 Taxing Trails. Stephen Desberg (Writer), Bernard Vrancken (Artist). Cinebook. (2008)

A very satisfying crime story told from an unusual angle. Larry B. Max is special agent for the US Internal Revenue Service and he becomes involved in a enjoyably complex plot that is triggered by the murder of Swiss man in Los Angles, he had been under surveillance by the IRS and they are very curious as to why he was murdered. The trail leads to a female assassin and a man who is fighting with Swiss banks to recover assets deposited by Jews trying to keep it safe from the Nazis.

Larry Max has an professional encounter with the female assassin and the trail leads to a very wealthy man who also has roots in the Nazi concentration camps and who is supporting the work to recover the lost assets of the Jews who died there. The plot nicely avoids the obvious and takes an interesting turn into a bigger more widespread story. The conclusion is sharp and satisfying.

This art is clean and detailed, the action is dynamic and the cast is well drawn. The story packs a great deal of information into each page and the plot structure is logical, the various reveals are well timed and add to the force of the story. Larry Max is an excellent action hero, a hard professional able to respond quickly to trouble, with a nice shadow in his private life that humanises him. An excellent series.

The Scorpion: The Devil's Mark. Enrico Marini (Artist), Stephen Desberg (Writer). Cinebook (2008)

This is an exciting period swashbuckler that captures and updates nicely the best of the Erroll Flynn and Douglas Fairbanks. The Scorpion is a relic hunter among the catacombs of Rome, he sells the items he finds to rich patrons who desire holy and scarce items. He is handsome, fabulously athletic, happily sexually active, in short everything that he should be.

He is called the Scorpion because of a birthmark on his shoulder in the shape of the insect, his mother was burned at the stake for witchcraft and he is considered the devil's offspring in some circles. He becomes snared in a plot when he is marked for death by Cardinal Trebaldi, who hires an woman to kill him, she is an Egyptian, a Gypsy whose skill is poison and she is a very dangerous and determined enemy.

The Scorpion survives his first encounter with her in a entirely suitable way and sets out to find out why Trebaldi wants him dead. The reasons for this stretch back to the dying days of ancient Rome and a plot by a group of people to maintain their power under the cloak of the expanding Christian Church. At the time the story is set the autocratic rule of the Church is being questioned by the Pope as part of the changing political tides across Europe and there are move afoot in the Vatican to ensure that this change does not continue.

The story is well developed, the plot threads are cleverly interwoven and the reveals are nicely paced. The struggle between the Scorpion and the Egyptian is a battle of equals, each are determined capable people and they clash has real vigour. The rest of the cast are treated with care, they all have clear voices and identities, the swirls of intrigues among them are worth following.

The art is clear and vibrant, the city itself is drawn in detail and provides a great stage for the action, the costumes are properly detailed and distinct. The uniform of the group of warrior monks is reminiscent of the uniforms of the Inquisition in Rex Mundi, they actions are also somewhat similar. Solid storytelling, lovely art, rooftop chases, sword fights, the spirit of swashbuckling burns brightly.