What is a “Hot Pants” pick? Quite simply, it’s a book that all four reviewers on this site believe is worthy of your time. It may or may not be one of our favorite books, but it’s that rare breed of comic that struck all four of us, with our different tastes, as a good read. Sleeper is our latest “Hot Pants” pick.

We’ve got mad love for the new Ed Brubaker/Sean Phillips book Criminal around here, but Sleeper was their first collaboration, and it was also an excellent read. Sleeper is the story of an undercover fed, but this fed happens to have superpowers, and happens to have infiltrated an organization much more dangerous than the mob. He’s working for the super-intelligent, charismatic manipulator Tao (an Alan Moore creation) inside a criminal conspiracy that secretly runs much of the Wildstorm universe.

When his handler is put into a coma by Tao’s manipulations (in the prologue book Point Blank), deep cover operative Holden Carver is stuck, and starts questioning whether he’s still a cop if nobody knows his real reason for joining Tao’s crew. We see him having troubling questions of loyalty with his friends on the inside, including hilariously homicidal best friend Genocide and the sultry, sociopathic Miss Misery, as well as trying to evade those in the organization looking for the undercover operative they know is there. Holden’s story evolves throughout the series, with romantic complications, shadows of his former life interfering at the worst possible times and constant questions of loyalty and morality.

Sleeper is true noir, with murky morality and a lot of no-win situations, and the tone of the book is brought to life with Sean Phillips’ stylish artwork. Whether he’s covering the emotional and intellectual struggles playing out across Holden’s face, serving up dark comedy with Genocide or handling any number of very memorable action scenes, Phillips never falters. Sleeper is a four-volume graphic novel series from Wildstorm, and it should be on the bookshelf of any fan with a taste for noir, crime or mature superheroes.