Back to Brooklyn

Bob Saetta is the number two man in Booklyn’s biggest mob family, and one day he walks into a police department and gives them everything they need to put said family away.  His one condition is protection for himself and his wife and child, and it goes out the window once his brother Paul “The Wall” Saetta finds out where they are and takes them hostage.  So a new deal is struck:  Bob gets until Sunday at midnight before the police come in and settle things their way.  It’s a great hook that gets you into this story and it has all the brutality and slick execution that you’d expect from something by Garth Ennis.  This isn’t entirely his project as it was co-written with Jimmy Palmiotti who gives the whole endeavor a welcome dose of local color and gleeful political incorrectness that also helps it to stand out.

The problem is that by the end of this, you’re likely to go “What was the point?”  While Bob’s journey was pretty compelling with its numerous twists and shocking deaths it also has a final twist that undermines his whole reason for doing this.  This twist isn’t exactly implausible, but it comes from so far out of left field that you wonder if Ennis and Palmiotti didn’t hit upon it until they sat down to write the issue.  I can’t say that it ruins what has come before, but it does severely temper my enthusiasm for the book.  It’s probably best enjoyed by Ennis completists.  That said, newcomer Mihailo Vukelic gives us some nice, gritty photorealistic art that really captures the feel of the title borough.