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| The Losers (Vol.1): Ante Up | 
 enlarge | Author: Andy Diggle
Creator: Jock
Publisher: Vertigo
Category: Book
List Price: $9.95
Buy Used: $2.00
You Save: $7.95 (80%)
New (31) Used (22) from $2.00
Avg. Customer Rating:  11 reviews
Sales Rank: 370242
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 160
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 10 x 6.5 x 0.3
ISBN: 1401201989
Dewey Decimal Number: 741.5941
EAN: 9781401201982
ASIN: 1401201989
Publication Date: March 1, 2004
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
In the hard-hitting tale of espionage and betrayal THE LOSERS: ANTE UP, an elite U.S. Special Forces unit is targeted for assassination when they unintentionally uncover the illegal and immoral practices of the C.I.A. Believed dead and with nothing to lose, the team of wet works operatives regroup and begin a mission of revenge against the organization that betrayed them. Only as the team goes after a corrupt oil conglomerate with ties to the C.I.A., do they truly begin to realize the depths of the conspiracy they have discovered and the impossible odds of survival that they face.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 6 more reviews...
 BETTER than Hollywood. May 4, 2004
8 out of 10 found this review helpful
Comparing The Losers to a Hollywood movie does it a great disservice. The dialogue in most movies doesn't even come close to what Andy Diggle serves up in this poignantly paranoid and timely series. He's Tarantino with talent. Scorcese with restraint. And Jock's bristling visuals absolutely jump off the page, bringing each character and location and emotion distinctively to life. Hollywood analogies fall short here. The Losers is a must-own, not just for fanboys and action-junkies, but for anybody that appreciates great graphic storytelling.
The Losers May 27, 2005
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
The Losers, once upon a time a Sgt. Rock-like DC imprint, has been resurrected in this vertigo published book but don't expect to find long lost friends in this particular incarnation. All that remains of them is the name. The new Losers are this generation's disenfranchised. "The Losers were a covert U.S. Special Forces unit seconded to the CIA" explains Diggle. "When they stumbled across one of the Agency's dirty little secrets and refused to play ball, the Agency had them assassinated. Except the Losers survived. Now they've gone rogue, and have declared war on the Agency which stabbed them in the back".
And while that may sound about as enticing and original as a Phil Collins ditty, Diggle proves that Mick Jagger was right - "it's the singer, not the song" because The Losers is loaded with the kind of snappy dialogue usually found in Ellis, Ennis and Bendis books or Tarantino movies.
And while you could say that Diggle's work is derivative, you could also say that he's quite good at capturing exactly what's interesting and attractive about the heist genre in the first place. His team consists of the typical characters - the tough as nails, one track mind, out for payback commander is there. The quiet, scarred, yet sure-handed and rock-solid sniper is there. The woman with a mysterious past is there. The nerdy, punky, computer hacker is there. The steady, straight man is there. The traitor is there. The ingenious planning and problem solving and the executions of the jobs that are never absent from caper movies... it's all there. And that's the book's strength. It is damned good at reinforcing the genre and it's damned good at telling the story with new voices. As a result, Diggle infuses new life into a teeming field of players and the once staid and stale is all of the sudden bright and tantalizing.
If you've read any other reviews of The Losers, you no doubt noticed that comparisons to caper movies abound. So please excuse my wholly unoriginal yet inevitable comparisons to the heist film genre but if something looks like an orange, smells like an orange and it taste like an orange, then goddammit, it's an orange. Or at least something that mimics an orange to a tee. The Losers manages to present itself in such a way as to provoke all kinds of comparisons to heist stalwarts "Three Kings", "Ocean's 11" and "Rififi". And there is really no other way to get around it - The Losers simply FEELS like a movie. As a matter of fact, it feels like a great movie. Like the sort of thing one expects, and usually gets from the likes of Soderbergh and Tarantino. And don't for a second think that this is my attempt at validating the black sheep of the entertainment world, comic books, through the use of another medium. The Losers has plenty of merit to stand on its own. The damned thing just feels like a great movie.
 Jerry Bruckheimer movie in Graphic Novel form December 30, 2004
3 out of 7 found this review helpful
I'm only a casual comic reader, but since I've start reading them again as an adult I look for intelligent and innovative story telling and great artwork. The artwork in this book was very good (in that heavy, dark inking kind of way). The story, however, was right out of a Bruckheimer film and for that reason it didn't live up to what I expect out of adult comics. All action and little substance.
I won't be picking up the next book in the Losers series. I much prefered the Sleeper series, which is in a similar genre.
 dont believe all the hype, read something else. March 7, 2005
3 out of 21 found this review helpful
This comic dissapoints all around. The characters are one dimensional, and the plot has been done a million times. The only reason this book gets so much praise is the hype generated by positive reviews in Entertainment Weekly and similar outlets. When you get right down to it, Diggle, a mediocre writer who got his start in the pages of 2000AD, manages to re-hash every bad action movie plot involving the CIA all while making the reader completely indifferent about the characters, who seem more like stock character stereotypes from every bad action movie ever. I cannot for the life of me understand why people think the dialogue in this series is good. You want good dialogue? go read ANY comic by Brian Michael Bendis.
Now, to deal with the "Hollywood Movie Jerry Bruckheimer" comparasons: does ANYONE out there REALLY think thats a good thing? If youre really looking for a horrible action movie told with awful pacing through a comic, by all means pick this up.
I wont delve into the art in this review, suffice to say that it is pretty decent, but it doesnt really matter when the story is this terrible.
If you want to read a great comic, pick up Preacher, The Invisibles, Planetary, Sin City, or one of the many good comics still published by Vertigo such as 100 Bullets and forget this stinker of a series.
A Gripping Read!!! September 8, 2005
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
I initially picked up the first volume of this series because of the dynamically posed woman on the cover. Flipping through the book, I noticed interesting use of shadow and rough, yet structured art. While reading the summary, however; I became sceptical of the story. My initial thought was that of a story which has been told many times before - good guys who refuse to do what is asked of them, and in turn, are believed to be assassinated, only to later seek revenge for being exiled. Who hasn't heard that one already?
But once I began reading The Losers, I could not believe the rush I got. The story was action-packed and suspenseful. The whole graphic novel plays like a full-featured film that has one climactic moment after another.
Andy Diggle did a fantastic job writing dialogue which adds mystery, suspense and a dose of complexity that adds realism. Most of the action is very cinematic, yet believable, because the panels flow smoothly and interestingly. This composition makes for a very fluid read.
No other book on the stands compares to this one, especially if you enjoy CIA and government mysteries or if you just like good comics in general. I definitely recommend this volume and the others as well!
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