Miami Vice: Remix

With the 30th anniversary of Miami Vice just past, a reappraisal of that once-iconic cop show is probably due. However, this hyperactive graphic novel revamp from writer Casey (Godland, Sex) and artist Mahfood (Grrl Scouts) is not the way to do it. As in the show, Sonny Crockett and Rico Tubbs are a couple of high-octane Miami narcotics detectives whose shades and high-style attitude are all part of their improbable undercover lifestyle: posing as the same club-hopping dealers they are trying to put away. The "Remix" component includes amped-up dialogue, stamped with all the exclamation marks and curses that the NBC prime-time show didn't include, and cramped, slashed artwork. Also included are a few major tweaks to the story: the normally somnolent Lt. Castillo goes mad looking for his lost daughter, and a new street drug called Miami bath salts turns users into rabid voodoo-controlled zombies. If all this chaos were played as satire, then there might have been something to hang on to; instead it's a Technicolor, ultra-violent fever dream that may make readers think they've taken the drugs from the story. (Nov.)