Graphic Novel Review: Reckless by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips.

Reckless by Ed Brubaker (writer), Sean Phillips (artist), and Jacob Phillips (color). Image, 2020. 9781534318519. 144pp. Publisher’s Rating: M / Mature.

Ethan Reckless helps people who need it. And he operates out of a classic movie theater — how cool is that? He solves problems big and small, and sometimes he even makes money doing it.

Years ago Reckless was a student informant for the FBI, undercover in a radical group. He almost died in an explosion that ended his “career,” and he can’t remember the events of that day. Back then he was in love with Rainy, who is still on the run, and who just made contact with him. She needs his help to get some money she’s owed; it will allow her to get out of the country and start over. Reckless remembers how he felt for her, but since the explosion his emotions, even in his memories, are flat. The only emotion he can feel anymore is anger. And there’s lots of that as he looks into getting Rainy’s money back and bad things happen. It all leads him to a drug smuggling operations, an armed compound, and a showdown with a guy wielding a machete.

Brubaker and Phillips have been making the best crime graphic novels out there for decades. If you know a Jack Reacher fan who thinks they don’t like comics, get them this one (and then the rest of the books in the series — I think there are supposed to be at least three published by the end of 2021).

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