It's a real feat for an espionage comic (or any piece of media, for that matter) to feel fresh and original. It's even more amazing when you realize The Losers is now 14 years old. With a combination of hard action, explosive art, heist mechanics and international conspiracies, Andy Diggle and Jock managed to make something extremely unique that has really withstood the test of time.
This is the second time I've read this particular volume, the first time being about 7 years ago. I don't remember much from that first read beyond enjoying it, and reading it in advance of the (terrible) movie that was based on it. Having matured in my comics taste since then, I thought this might not quite hold up. I was so glad to be wrong! It's a page-turning, mystery-building, kinetic force of a book, and I blazed through it with just as much fervor as I did the first time.
The setup is pretty traditional: a team of absurdly skilled black ops soldiers has been "killed" for something they witnessed on a mission. Only turns out they escaped their deaths, and are now on a revenge spree to get back at the corrupt government officials who tried to off them. But the plotting and heist writing are so good, they more than elevate this series beyond that been-there-done-that premise. The book keeps you on the edge of your seat, and manages to surprise you constantly throughout.
Its one downfall is its character work. Diggle spends very little time differentiating the characters in this volume, seemingly saving all of that for the (much longer) volume 2. You get very little for each of them beyond their archetype: the stoic leader, the wisecracker, the "deadly woman" (which is another thing this book lacks: any diversity of female characters), the quiet one, the family man. That's about all we get of these guys, but luckily, this isn't really a book about people. It's about the unit and the jobs they pull off, so I'm willing to overlook the thin characterizations for the sheer frenetic pacing and twisty writing.
All in all, while this book is a great read, the series' quality will ultimately be tied to its ending. This volume ends on a pretty big cliffhanger, and with the plot being one of the most important elements of this book, it's hard to really judge it as a whole without having read the rest yet. With any luck, though, Diggle knows where he's going with this, and it will read like a solid spy novel. Fingers crossed.