Reckless is another proud addition, inspired by the paperback “heroes” like MacDonald’s Travis McGee and Westlake/Stark’s Parker. The creative team have become a reliable source of “crime comics”, releasing tales about retired gunslingers ( Pulp), romantic drug addicts ( My Heroes Have Always Been Junkies) and lifelong low-lives ( Criminal).

Although the formula becomes troubled when Rainy is the one who calls him up.Īn old flame returning to recruit a “professional outlaw” is straight from an old-fashioned pulp paperback, which is exactly the tone Ed Brubaker, Sean Phillips and Jacob Phillips are going for with Reckless. So perhaps his newfound career is him vicariously reexperiencing passion, a one-way method of engaging with other people. Ethan cannot remember the details, and his emotions have been dulled, creating a disconnect from his old double-life. But not only did he fall in love with the leader’s sister Rainy, but he got injured during a bomb explosion. For in the ‘70s Ethan used to be an undercover FBI Agent, living with radical left-wing revolutionaries. Perhaps Ethan wants compensation, and not just financially. Although not exactly a private investigator, Ethan has a phone number ( Reckless being set in the early 1980s) where clients call up and pitch what they cannot go to the police for.

The El Ricardo is a temple,” Ethan explains to his handler Anna, “I can’t have it being ruined by other people.” It’s somewhat ironic coming from someone making their living by interfering in other people’s business. Despite his current shortage of funds, he is not eager to rent it out. Ethan Reckless, freelance enforcer, operates out of an abandoned cinema.

Reckless by ed brubaker