The excellent Marvels mini-series looked at the superheroes of the Marvel Universe through the eyes of the common citizens unaccustomed to seeing or dealing with such things. Chuck Dixon's Code of Honor goes a step further, examining the world of superheroes as seen by an average, everyday street cop.

Jeff Piper is a rookie New York City policeman who starts his career with unflinching optimism. But on his first day on the job, he encounters his first costumed adventurer, the musclebound Luke Cage. Already, the officer feels "a little bit useless" on the job. Later that year, he ends up on crowd control while Namor and the Thing handle the baddies. Soon, he's run afoul of the Punisher and seen Spider-Man and the Black Panther on the prowl. It's a busy city, New York.

This four-part series is a revealing look at how one person might respond in Piper's situation. He handles the grunt work and the scorn of angry crowds while costumed gloryhounds get the headlines and adulation. Then NYC's crimelord, the Kingpin, tries to buy him off and, while Piper doesn't accept, he doesn't really refuse, either. That indecision will haunt him for the rest of his career. It affects his work, his family, his self-perception. And he resents the ones who rise above it all and fail to recognize the people stuck on the ground.

Dixon's story covers several years, during which Piper evolves into a very different person. The heroes are the subplot here; the story is Piper, his development and changes over that time. It's a fascinating read.

Each chapter in the four-part story has different teams of artists at work: Tristan Shane, Brad Parker, Terese Nielsen, Vincent Evans, Bob Wakelin, Derick Gross and Paul Lee. Although their styles are distinct, the similarities are enough that there's no jarring transition from chapter to chapter -- just slight changes to mark the passing of time. The art is uniformly excellent, nearly photo-realistic, throughout.

If you like a diet of smash-'em-ups in your life, buy The Hulk and The X-Men and leave it at that. If you'd like a more human perspective on the world, pick up Code of Honor. It's a riveting, powerful story.