Reckless: Friend of the Devil Is a Pulpy Delight from Brubaker and Phillips
- WRITER
- Ed Brubaker
- Artist
- Sean Phillips
- Letterer
- Sean Phillips
- Cover Artist
- Sean Phillips
- Publisher
- Image Comics
- Price
- 24.99
- Release Date
- 2021-04-28
- Colorist
- Jacob Phillips
Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips might be the most prolific creative team working in comics today. The dynamic duo released Pulp, Cruel Summer and Reckless all in 2020. That final release, Reckless is just the first in a series of original graphic novels starring the titular Ethan Reckless, a pseudo private eye pulp hero in the vein of Lee Child’s Jack Reacher or The Equalizer.
Now, the second installment of the Reckless series; Friend of the Devil, has been released. The story begins at the Santa Monica Library in 1985, as Ethan is searching old newspapers for leads on a man who faked his own death when he meets Linh Tran, a fiery librarian. After wrapping up the case, Ethan reconnects with Linh and the two begin a relationship that gets complicated when Linh sees her long-lost step-sister, Maggie, in an old B-movie the two are watching together.
Reckless' search for Maggie takes him on a tour of the seedy underbelly of Hollywood and gives him an education in the dark side of the ‘70’s counterculture, from movie producers to shady landlords and homicide detectives as the truth about Linh's sister starts to seem stranger and stranger.
On the surface, it would be possible to mistake Friend of the Devil for a fairly standard damsel-in-distress mystery with plenty of action, and Brubaker and Phillips clearly enjoy hitting those classic notes. Ethan Reckless is definitely a very particular archetype. In lesser hands, the story might risk feeling derivative or predictable, but Brubaker’s writing is good enough to make this love letter to a tried and true genre feel fresh and exciting. Rather than quickly diving into a testosterone-fueled blood bath, as so many crime fiction writers do, Brubaker spends time exploring the emotional lives of his characters. Linh’s backstory is particularly touching and provides real emotional stakes for the rest of the narrative. There is a hard-boiled poetry in the brooding narration, and the snappy dialogue is captivating enough to obscure the surprises lurking around every corner.
As always, Phillips brings these menacing corners to life perfectly. Phillips and his son Jacob, who colors the book, depict a gritty, foreboding West Coast landscape where even the sunlight is tinged with menace. Whether it's a close-up portrait or a city street seen from afar; a crashing wave or whisky splashing in a glass, every panel is brilliantly composed. It is rare for a book that revolves primarily around conversations to be this visually exciting, but cinematic angles and splashes of marvelous color bring a great deal to the table. Phillips’ art is so easy to read that it risks being overlooked, but his compositions merit comparisons to the likes of Frank Miller, Jack Kirby and Edward Hopper. When the action turns more violent, the sequences of violence are lightning-quick, well-choreographed and remarkably brutal exclamation points punctuating an already thrilling story.
packs a punch that will leave readers reeling. Though it is the second in a series, it reads like a stand-alone graphic novel. The context of the first Reckless adds a great deal to the depth of the world but isn’t necessary to appreciate this story. Both of the Reckless books certainly reward rereading. Brubaker and Phillips live up to their reputation and their hero is starting to build a reputation of his own. Quite simply., Reckless is an icon in the making.