Red Team #2

After a successful, but risky first “hit”, detectives Trudy, Eddie, Duke and George meet up for a few drinks to discuss their new activities and lay out some very important & specific ground rules.
 

The Team

Written by Garth Ennis (The Boys, Crossed, Preacher) & illustrated by Craig Cermak (Voltron Year One TP). Published by Dynamite.
 

The Pros & Cons

Definitely an improvement from the first slow moving first issue, the characters are more fleshed out and you really start to feel the dynamics between them. The story is narrated by the members of Red Team, last issue was Eddie, now it’s Trudy. They spin their tale of illegal activities in what is obviously a police interrogation room, so at one point during the series, Red Team will get busted, that’s a given. Like the calm before the shit storm, the plot slowly unfolds as the characters reflect on their first mission, the mistakes they’ve made and make a set of rules to allow things to go smoothly on their next “mission”.
 
Fans of Garth Ennis might love this series or they may down right loath it. Don’t go looking for The Boys’ over the top violence and off colour humour or even Crossed’s shocking rape, blood & gore because you find it here. Now there are some moments of violence, but it’s just of fraction from what we’re used to. This is more of a vigilante style comic like The Punisher, except it’s more grounded with plausibility and character driven. The character’s actions and plans are more methodical, organized and with a zero risk factor (or so they think).
 
Craig Cermak’s illustrations aren’t too flashy, but with colourist Adriano Lucas, offers the players sombre shadows for a very shadowy group of individuals.
 

The Outcome

I think this series has huge potential and I’m curious enough to stick around for at least a few more issues to see how it unfolds.