Back to Brooklyn - A Review

I received an advance copy of Back to Brooklyn #2 a couple days back. Unfortunately, it was so close to its shipping date that I was unable to get it out before today, however it should still be on shelves when this review is published (the day after its release):

Back to Brooklyn is a Sopranos-style 4-issue mini-series from Image/Shadowline. The solicitation says, "Bob Saetta and his old flame, Maggie Mahoney, travel back to the old neighborhood in Bensonhurst to shake up the unshakable - and realize that home sweet home has now become a hostile, blood-spattered environment." That's about as good as I could do, because that does more than just sum it up: that's what Back to Brooklyn #2 is all about!

That's not to say there is no story - actually, a single panel flashback is enough establishment to carry it solidly. Unfortunately, it is also the extent of character development. But it really is enough to carry it.

Back to Brooklyn's failure on the high-end lay in the art and dialogue, because when it comes down to it, it is a simple revenge tale - and not a bad one, at that. The dialogue wouldn't be so bad, were it not for the wholesale vulgarity and crudity of the conversation. Yes, these are thugs; yes, they are the Mob; yes, they curse. A lot... a whole, whole lot. Unfortunately, it's with all the grace and experience of your average 6^th-grader. It's not so much the language itself that jars you as the overwhelming amount of it.

In-between the juvenile swearing and puerile dick jokes, there is some real exchange and the story development is actually fairly deft; Back to Brooklyn eschews the lame comic book narrative and allows the characters and action to tell the story. Like I said: it's not a bad revenge tale, and I think it actually succeeds on the level of pure escapism. Granted, there is not much story to impart, but Ennis manages to eke a little something out of it.

The art, on quite the other hand, is pretty shoddy.

I understand what they were going for by taking photo-realism to the N^th-degree in that Timothy Bradstreet style (well, Bradstreet used a projector; I'm pretty sure Mihailio Vukelic used a computer), but the problem I have with this style is that the strengths and weaknesses are all the same, no matter how or where it is used nor who uses it. The close-ups and impact points look great; everything else... doesn't. It is stiff and actionless, as evidenced by this interior sequence of our main character breaking-out the headlights on several cars.

Or maybe... gently nudging them back into place?

Overall, Back to Brooklyn is an intense (though blatantly manufactured to be so) romp of pure, street-level escapism tailor-made for Mobster movie fans. It does not succeed as noir, but I would say it passes for (what passes for) modern-day pulp.

© C Harris Lynn, 2008