Reckless
by Ed Brubaker & Sean Phillips; colors by Jacob Phillips
Image Comics, 2020
The first of an ambitious trio of graphic novels--all scheduled for publication within a year--featuring Ethan Reckless, and the on-the-nose character name is the only weak thing about it. Ethan is a complex character: when we meet him in 1981 he has been making his living as a kind of private detective for about six years. It's far more than just tracking people down: he describes it as "solving problems for people," because he does whatever it takes to reach a resolution. So he's not averse to doing illegal things like theft or violent things like beating people up to get results.
After getting his first cases from personal referrals he established a toll-free telephone number where potential clients could tell their stories. He generally took the ones that interested him, but the potential for income is also a factor (especially if the money was running low). The current client in this story turns out to be an old lover named Rainy Livingston, and flashbacks to their past connection reveal almost everything about how Ethan came to leave the FBI and adopt his current profession.
The reason it's "almost everything" is due to the fact that Ethan was almost killed when a bomb being built by the underground cell he was infiltrating blew up unexpectedly. He survived the explosion, but at the expense of a long hospital stay, some missing memories, and a general emotional disconnection from his old self. These incomplete memories factor in to how he approaches the case: he has incomplete information, so he jumps to conclusions. It's a classic noir set up: the private eye believes his client, and follows the trail of evidence. Except the evidence is not what it appears.
A great start to what promises to be a great series of graphic novels. The creative team is once again in perfect harmony: unquestionably among the most consistent in all of comics.
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