Mystery Society

Nick Hammond and Anastasia Collins are rich, resourceful, refined — and completely unbothered by the law. Together they are the Mystery Society, an “underground cult” of do-gooder thieves who use their fortune and genius to right the wrongs that official authorities can’t touch, with a team of misfit sleuths, crime solvers, and geniuses at their side.

Mystery Society is the five-issue adventure series by horror legend Steve Niles and Fiona Staples, published by IDW Publishing in 2010. It’s a fun, sexy, globetrotting caper series that shows off both creators’ range — Niles trading his usual blood-soaked horror for a rollicking heist adventure, and Staples, just before Saga, delivering page after page of stylish, expressive art.

The Skullduggery Duo

The premise: Nick and Anastasia are a married couple of thrill-seeking billionaires who run a secret society dedicated to investigating the paranormal and the criminal underworld — funding their adventures through legal (and less legal) means. Their cases run the gamut from finding the missing skull of Edgar Allan Poe to breaking into Area 51 to plundering the ocean depths for eccentric collectors. Every issue is a self-contained caper: Ana defends the secret headquarters while Nick storms a government base; the team assembles for one outrageous mission after another.

The series was a showcase for Staples’ ability to draw both dynamic action and stylish character moments — and it was this book that led directly to the biggest creative partnership of the 2010s. Niles recommended Staples to Brian K. Vaughan, who was looking for an artist for a new project. The result was Saga — and the rest is history.

Mystery Society has been collected in multiple editions, including a Deluxe Hardcover and a Definitive Edition with an all-new Staples cover. For fans of Saga’s Fiona Staples, adventure comics, or just a good old-fashioned secret-society caper, this five-issue romp is a hidden gem worth hunting down.