I loved this pulpy throw back crime comic. For two reasons. 1.) Brubaker has created a very relatable protagonist 2.) Sean Phillip's art is phenomenal. Reckless focuses on Ethan Reckless. 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. Ethan is living a pretty boring existence when he gets a message from a woman, Rainy Livingston, with who he fell in love while being an undercover agent in the 1970s. Now, he has to confront his past, and figure out why Rainy is back in his life.

This is an AMAZING crime fiction story. If you're a fan of Joe Lansdale, Cormac McCarthy, or the Coen Brothers, check this one out.

Pure. Reckless. Bliss. ( )

If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire... Ethan Reckless.

"The A-Team" is reimagined with head writer Richard Stark putting a 1980s troubleshooter in situations whose solutions do not require a MacGyver device or a Magnum Ferrari. No, the only Equalizer here is a complete lack of conscience . . . and maybe a hatchet.

Reckless suffered a traumatic brain injury while involved with an offshoot of the Weather Underground in the 1970s that left him with memory gaps and distanced from feeling most emotions. A decade later he spends his time surfing the California waves, only working as an unlicensed private investigator, "Solving problems for people," when he runs out of money and the client interests him. Like the old girlfriend who just called.

Brubaker and Phillips deliver another gripping crime story -- the start of a new series -- stumbling only with an underwhelming and undercutting reveal in the final pages. ( )