By Jake Owens — There’s just something about pulpy crime comics, right? I was struck by that thought recently while reading Reckless Vol. 1, the first in a series of graphic novels from the veteran crime comics team of Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips. These books all star the same protagonist — Ethan Reckless. Now, I’m about as far removed from a guy like Ethan Reckless as someone can get, but for whatever reason I relished my time slipping into his shoes and exploring his bleak but somehow humane world. 

A damaged person who believes he’s living out the last days of mankind, Ethan Reckless is that amazing sort of pulp hero who has a “certain set of skills” that he makes available to the people that no one else will help. Have a problem that the police can’t or won’t solve? Need someone to cut through the red tape? Forget the A-Team, call Reckless. Ethan is everything we want in a protagonist; he’s broken down from his time working for the man, and is just trying to get through another day. He’ll take jobs to keep the lights on in his home (a functional but closed to the public movie theater), but deep down in his core is a heart of gold that can’t handle seeing the little guy get screwed.

One day Ethan takes a job from someone that he thinks he might recognize, and before long is thrown headfirst into a long trip through his own past that may or may not end with him confronting his personal demons. The journey is equal parts comfort food and breath of fresh air; somehow Brubaker’s writing makes this character both completely familiar and entirely new to us who have grown up on American pop-culture.

Time spent with Ethan flies because it’s so much fun. He alternatively tells us the story as it is happening and slips back into his own past to provide context. The character we get is horribly broken, but not in a Frank Castle, “Kill them all with fire” way. Reckless emerges from his own trauma convinced that the world is a ticking time bomb, and that the best he can do is ease some suffering before it blows. This humane nihilism is a fascinating play on tropes that we’ve all seen before, and it lands in a sweet spot. Ethan Reckless is as self-destructive as a pulp hero should be, but completely relatable and easy to root for.

Sean Phillips’ art, empowered and brought to life by the colors of his son Jacob Phillips, is a constant joy. Understated and subtle, I couldn’t help but keep comparing it to David Aja’s work on Hawkeye, a personal high point for me in comic book art. As Ethan Reckless tracks his prey and looks for answers we are shown a world that dwells in shades of gray. Ethan’s LA and beyond are not as simple as “good guy/bad guy,” or even “bad guy/worse guy,” but rather evokes a feeling of odd hopefulness, that perhaps the small acts of justice a guy like Ethan acts out might just one day bring some life to the almost-vibrant hills of this world. I seriously cannot overstate how much I loved the art, and how Phillips has quickly rocketed up my personal depth chart as an artist.

Yet to say that Reckless is “great crime fiction,” is somehow to miss the mark. Brubaker and Phillips have honed their crafts to the point that they produce masterpieces the way most of us produce CO2. Without the attention grabbing bombasticity of a Marvel or DC product, Reckless can easily get lost in the shuffle. Don’t let it. Make a point of reading this. Moreover, make a point of sharing it; do you have a friend who enjoys the books of Elmore Leonard? Ethan Reckless may fill a Raylan Givens-shaped hole in their heart.

Reckless showcases all that the comic book/graphic novel genre is capable of. Exquisite art and skillful dialogue meet in a display of subtlety that weaves together and makes something much larger than the sum of its parts. It is a stunning first book for a growing series that I cannot recommend highly enough.

Graphic Novel Review: Reckless

Reckless
Writer: Ed Brubaker
Artist: Sean Phillips
Colorist: Jacob Phillips
Publisher: Image Comics
Price: $24.99
Sex, drugs, and murder in 1980s Los Angeles, and the best new twist on paperback pulp heroes since The Punisher or Jack Reacher.
ED BRUBAKER and SEAN PHILLIPS, the modern masters of crime noir, bring us the last thing anyone expected from them—a good guy. A bold new series of original graphic novels, with three books releasing over the next year, each a full-length story that stands on its own.
Meet Ethan Reckless: Your trouble is his business, for the right price. But when a fugitive from his radical student days reaches out for help, Ethan must face the only thing he fears…his own past.
Publication Date: December 16, 2020

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Jake Owens is a humble non-profit executive by day, and a humble comic book aficionado by night! Based out of rural Nebraska, Jake loves all things geek: video games, comics, board/table top games, and even crunching numbers to figure out what his baseball team is doing wrong. Jake is happily married to his best friend and wife of 11 years, Elise, and is a father to two amazing children who are determined to make first contact one day. Jake is the second best cohost on the Watching Comics Podcast (@watchcomixpod) and can be reached on twitter at @thatjakeowens