Whiteout is the first comic book written by (at the time) crime novelist Greg Rucka, published by Oni Press as a 4-issue miniseries from July to November 1998, and follows U.S. Marshal Carrie Stetko's investigation of a murder at McMurdo Station in Antarctica.
A sequel, Whiteout: Melt (September 1999 to February 2000), deals with the theft of hidden nuclear weapons from an ex-Soviet base. A film adaptation of the first book was released in 2009, directed by Dominic Sena and starring Kate Beckinsale, Tom Skerritt, Gabriel Macht, and Columbus Short.
Whiteout contains examples of:
- Almost Kiss: Carrie and Lily. Repeatedly.
- Butch Lesbian: Carrie, though she still wears her hair in a feminine style, and she was married to a man in the past. The second series revealed that she isn't purely lesbian.
- Coffin Contraband: This is how Dr. Furry tries to smuggle the gold out, though there’s still a real corpse involved — the canisters are stuffed in the ribcage of the only American victim, who is being returned to the US for burial on the same flight Furry is leaving on.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Carrie killed a crook whose testimony would have been integral to a major trial, but she wasn't fired because she killed him in the course of saving her superior, whom the perp had incapacitated. While suspended, her husband was diagnosed with cancer, which ultimately killed him just before their first anniversary.
- Empty Quiver: Whiteout: Melt.
- Eerie Arctic Research Station: The story follows U.S. Marshal Carrie Stetko's investigation of a murder at McMurdo Station in Antarctica. The sequel, Whiteout: Melt, deals with the theft of hidden nuclear weapons from an ex-Soviet base.
- Fingore: Carrie has to have her right index and middle fingers (left middle and ring fingers in the movie) amputated due to frostbite-induced gangrene.
- Flashback Nightmare: The incident that led to Carrie's assignment to Antarctica is presented in a hypothermia-induced hallucination.
- Human Shield: Gets done to Carrie. See below.
- Indy Ploy: When Lily encounters a hostage crisis. See below.
- It Works Better with Bullets: Lily taunts a killer using a Human Shield into pulling the trigger because she knows the extreme cold will prevent the pistol from firing. At least, she hopes it will.
- Lovely Angels: Carrie and Lily in the first Whiteout, but averted in the film adaptation.
- Rape as Backstory: Carrie was sent to Antarctica after she killed a suspect in her custody who had tried to rape her and had already nearly killed her boss.
- Reassigned to Antarctica: Literally, in Carrie's case.
- Shout-Out: Carrie drinks coffee out of a Dykes to Watch Out For mug.
- Shown Their Work: Greg Rucka did extremely detailed research into the nature of Antarctica before he began writing the first story. Details on the Antarctic environment, the operations of the research stations and international treaties concerning the continent are woven into the narrative.
- Unresolved Sexual Tension: Lily and Carrie have a lot of tension between them,
deliberately, to reflect the same tension that often arises in Buddy Cop Shows. Thoroughly resolved without Lily in Melt. - U.S. Marshal: Carrie.