Red Team #1

Summary

When a high priority suspect eludes the criminal justice process once again, a small group of specialised police officers (Red Team) decide to kill him. They specialised training allows them to carry out the perfect crime, however – it may have been too perfect.

What I liked

· Characterisation: This is a Garth Ennis book, of course it has really well realised characters! Every character seems really human and the choices they come to in this issue seem plausible. Through the narrators opinions on his own actions, as well as his partners, with the additional scenes which aren’t narrated, we already have a pretty good picture of who the team are.

· Ethics: The whole premise of this series is built on several ethical dilemmas: is it right to kill to prevent further crimes? Can the law always provide “true justice”? What happens without police accountability? These issues are what turn a cool little story into something a lot more thought provoking and substantial.

· Detail: It is obvious that Ennis has done a lot of research for this project .The Red Team are all about details. They plan the murder perfectly, and Ennis lets us seen a lot of the thought processes and rationales for what they do. This gives the impression that the team are highly trained and professional. Moreover, as much detail is given to their proper policing as their vigilantism. This helps maintain that air of realism.

· It isn’t The Boys: Now, don’t get me wrong, The Boys is probably my second favourite comic book series of all time. I found it to be very humanising and it contained characters I will take with me to my grave. However, if Red Team had been about a group of foulmouthed, ultraviolent brutes, I would have had some reservations about Ennis’ writing ability. It is safe to say this is not the case. The Red Team dynamic is less extreme (in some regards) and the characters are less unstable. However, the humanising elements which made The Boys so successful, in my opinion, are still evident in this book.

· Narration: The story is partially told as a flashback from one of the Red Team’s members. He seems the most aware of the ethics involved in their actions, and having him explain the story and give his personal opinions was a good narrative choice.

What I didn’t like

· It’s a miniseries: I’m getting the nagging feeling that four issues aren’t going to be enough. A lot of the emotional punch of previous Ennis works has been due to the “journey” of the story. It is already obvious that this series is going to have a powerful ending; I just hope I am emotionally invested with the team before then, for the desired effect to work.

· Uneven characterisation: There are some members of the team which are given more detail than others. The character of George wasn’t really explored much at all. I hope this is something that is rectified in the next issue. I’m sure it will be.

Verdict

It is the end of issue #1 and I am already upset that this is just a mini-series. Garth Ennis has a way of making every character feel real, and puts across so much detail within even a single issue. We are already getting to know some of Red Team quite well which gives the actions and foreboding this issue contains some emotional resonance. This is, so far, a really controlled narrative and could potentially end up being a really tidy trade.

9/10 – Everything Garth Ennis touches is gold, sue me.