Making a good sequel is no easy task, but if there's one creative duo that can succeed, it's
gonna be Brubaker and Phillips. WOOF WOOF! Hey guys, it's me, Marcus AKA The Maddogg and we're
back with another video! written by Ed Brubaker in illustrated by Sean Phillips Reckless Friend
of the Devil is an original graphic novel that was published by Image Comics in April of 2021 and
Ethan Reckless is having a pretty steady 1985. but when you're a private investigator steady doesn't
pay the bills yet when a missing woman shows up in a low budget horror movie it unravels a
conspiracy that stretches to the darkest pits of Hollywood but can Ethan discovered just How Deep
The Rabbit Hole goes or is he finally discovered a case that he can't solve they are now when it
comes to Sean Phillips there's a lot that I could say because he is really one of my favorites but
at the same time I don't want to sit here and repeat everything that I said when I reviewed
the face Volume last year instead I'd pretty much just recommend checking out that video but Sean
Phillips is a master of his craft and it really feels like he's just in his element with this
series perhaps it's because there's not as much of a time constraint as it would be if he was
working on a regular series but I feel like the line week was sharper here without ever losing
anything that I'm used to when Phillips is on the art and something that I noticed in this volume
that I wasn't really too aware of in the first one is that the panels just felt a lot wider and more
open and when I was reading through this volume I was disappointed that this wasn't available in a
bigger format especially because this is my Brew Baker and Philips Cube and for the longest amount
of time I was just missing sleeping but then that reprint came out so it's pretty much just
Reckless that are missing in the deluxe format but because of that I feel like I explored more
with the 80s Lac along with more locations like the suburbs and offices it felt a lot wider in
scope and it was fun seeing what Philips does with that opportunity in another area where I
feel like there was a drastic improvement over the first one was the coloring perhaps it was a
stylistic choice to reflect that Ethan had more recollection over this memory we just looked a
lot cleaner while still keeping that palette that I loved from the original book sure one
disappointing Factor was that there wasn't as many scenes at night which in the first volume is where
I felt like all facets of the art got chance to shine but I just felt like overall the coloring
was better on this one and a side effect of that was that you got to see more of the faces and the
way that Philips uses expression I remember in book one mostly to fit the tone characters would
be absolutely drenched in Shadow which did have its advantages but it meant that you missed out
on a lot of the detail that Philips could include and because his second volume felt like a more
personal story that really wanted to develop Ethan I think that was a great choice he's no longer a
mysterious character we don't just have to think of him as a stoic figure however though just so
not giving this glowing unanimous praise it was a handful of occasions where I noticed that the
figures in a panel just looked oh almost like they were all based off one of those wooden models that
you'd always have to use in high school or but then you'd never see anybody using them in the
real world which just made me realize that a favor Phillips when he's doing close-ups or Landscapes
and not really when he's doing wide shots unless of course it's action which there isn't as much
of in this volume as it was in the first one I do wish we could have had something to the equivalent
to that car chase because I really feel like there was a great showcase for his ability and who knows
maybe it's something that they plan on bringing back in a later volume but there's not really much
more I can say about Phillips without treading water from what I've said in the first Reckless
video will also me kill or be killed with you Sean Phillips just hasn't disappointed me so far and
that's not just me saying that with me British bias his style was one of the reasons why I was
excited to jump back into this series and why I always look forward to an upcoming volume and
because these don't cost that much it's very easy to catch up on them and if you wanted to pick them
up you could get them from the channel sponsor organic Price Books they've got great packaging
fast shipping and amazing customer services and if you use code you'll get two dollars off your
order and if you're ordering three or more books and you want them to be delivered together make
sure you use code woof woof ship it together for five percent off your entire order don't worry you
can just copy and paste them from the description down below and you can use these codes as many
times as you like jumping into the story section now and when I was writing up this review I was
trying hard to avoid comparing this volume to the first one since each Reckless entry can in theory
stand on its own but then I realized that there was just no point in having this weird arbitrary
rule why shouldn't it be comparing these two with each other they're part of the same series
and people have the exact same logic when it's a James Bond movie but yeah each one could be a good
entry point into that series but at the same time you're still always going to compare it to what's
come before and being honest I think a new Friend of the Devil a day serious if I don't compare it
to the first one because this works great as a sequel it doesn't waste any time catching you
up on what you might have missed in the first volume he's still got the cinema the characters
that were alive at the end of the phase volume is still alive in this one there's also a passing
reference to his injury and his former job but for the most part it just cracks on with the story so
for me it was great because I felt like I was just thrown back into it there was no need for
a previously on but I was already familiar enough with the relationships and the locations and to
play Devil's Advocate the only major problem that I have when I compare this volume to the
first one is that the formula is now very evident it opens with a flash forward to the third act in
the book it then goes back a bit and shows a bit of Ethan's daily life he encounters a woman he'll
then intercourse within a page that I always happen to be reading when somebody's looking
over my shoulder he'll then get wrapped up in a mystery because of the woman gets beaten up and
meets the goons of the enemy and then meets the main enemy and ends up solving everything and
let's not get twisted there's nothing wrong with having a framework especially if it was one that
entertained before but using the same one for two books in a row something about that just
feels lazy from a title that often provides such quality and it's a pattern that I've just noticed
with Brew bake on more than a handful of occasions he can get stuck in this rhythm in this flow that
he's used to and it was something that really hindered my enjoyment of killer be killed and sure
if that's a framework that he feels comfortable writing within then why wouldn't you stick with
it but at the same time I just feel like it wasn't trying to push the boat out as much when it came
to that struck chip and this might seem a bit unfair of me bringing it up in only the second
volume of the series but it's something that I'm going to be looking out for in the later volumes
as well unless of course no one watches this video however when it comes to Reckless I can sort of
appreciate the format because it is trying to be one of those crime Noir pulp Thrillers so maybe
that was an archetype that Brubaker really liked when he was reading other books or movies from
this genre and he wanted to replicate it here and it's something that I'm not nearly educated
enough to comment on the only real crime Noir that I've ever watched is Double Indemnity went
out to study for film studies which in case you couldn't gather really did not help me when I was
trying to decide on a career but despite the few homages that I am still able to pick up on and
the fact that Ethan is just a perfect protagonist for this type of story I loved how it still felt
modernized despite being set in 1985 and not so stuck in its ways that you can only really
enjoy this if you enjoyed that genre in the first place if you've got no experience with crime Noir
or pulp stories you can still just jump into this and have a great time and so that I'm not being so
much of an [ __ ] about it because this wasn't a longer story that repeated format wasn't as much
much of a problem as it was when it was happening regularly in a monthly series and additionally
because of that familiarity with book one it did mean that this got started a bit quicker which
weirdly meant that you could slow itself down and give it more Breathing Room later on and that's
one particular aspect a Friend of the Devil that I really enjoyed it was just watching Ethan doing a
lot more detective work now I feel like in volume one he was doing a lot more the sneaky tricks like
when he did that thing with the car brake light but here we got to see him do investigating and
looking through articles and some of the stuff that you might actually find to be quite boring
but because of brubaker's skill it's still entertaining to see him building up leads
following up on them meeting dead ends and then having to retrace his steps and I think because
it had all that good will from book one and it knew that you'd already been quite entertained
by that one it had that composure to give itself that time to really develop these elements of the
plot and a good side effect to that is that if I like overall this had a much better Supporting
Cast I don't think there was as much development on Ethan which I was a bit disappointed about but
at least it didn't radically change his character and besides him and his friend at the cinema whose
name eludes me at this point point there isn't really a lot of characters that I remember from
the Facebook whereas with this one I really enjoyed the dialogue that was going on with
the cult leaders and the directors and even Len and that was another aspect where I feel
like Brubaker got more of a chance to Showcase his skills without spoiling too much the love interest
in the Facebook isn't really in it for long we did have the benefit of them having history before the
book started which he could catch us up on yet here we got to see Ethan and Len meet for the
first time and go on dates and him have some form of normal life but this meant that the second book
had more of a genuine emotional call again without spoiling too much the girl in book one already had
a connection with Ethan and his motivation was mostly just told to us because we couldn't see
them fall in love or hardly broke up but what Ethan and Lynn had felt more real additionally
I just loved the backstory that they gave to it but who'd have thought I'd be okay listening to
the story of her parents immigrating when the main character is a tactical badass and it's another
reason why I feel like these longer one and done type stories are so great it's almost like being
able to binge a series on Netflix rather than having to wait week to week because had this being
a monthly title either the linback story would have taken up an entire issue or she would have
got her own mini-series or one shot or spin-off I don't know maybe you could call it a linoff
nope sorry however I don't feel like Friend of the Devil was as well paced as the first one
had this been the second Arc of a book that had all been reading in one go it would have
felt like a nice little bit of a break but if I am comparing these two with Standalone stories
which I'm often told that you can I would have to give the edge to the original Reckless and
maybe it's as a result of some of that praise that have just been giving it where said they
had a bit more time to flesh out some elements of the plot but in comparison the first volume
just felt non-stop from start to finish whereas there were a couple of occasions where it could
get a bit tiring just following Ethan going on these trails and some of them just ended up being
nothing and sure it's fun to add elements like that for realism similar to that mission in GTA
5 where you had to mop up that floor but exactly like that example it's not really gonna do any
favors for your enjoyment or your pace and I'm not knocking the book I still had a great time with it
overall I just think it's something worth noting if you're going into this straight from volume one
but the sense that I got throughout Friend of the Devil was that this was a story that Brubaker and
Phillips really wanted to tell it's called the first book as a Revenge story which is really
fun with something that's not difficult to pull off and keep people engaged with this had the
ambition to do something a bit different to not just retrace the exact same steps that the first
one went over even if the formula did but at the same time it doesn't feel completely out of touch
with the world that the first book set up and if anything this felt more like a real chapter
in Ethan's life more so than the first book ever did while still keeping me engaged guessing and
entertained throughout does this work great as a standalone story yes but it's the next installment
for a very promising series I think it works just that bit better this is my final verdict
and sequels aren't easy it's either too much like the original or just a radical change for
the worst but with Reckless Friend of the Devil Ed boo Baker and Sean Phillips proved that good
sequels aren't impossible and when done well can expand the world and the characters so new
and interesting ways this Duo just represents quality to me and in this second chapter in
Ethan reckless's life they take me on a fun and intriguing journey through 1985. personally I
don't think it bested its predecessor but that doesn't mean that you should write it off sure
yeah the formula was a bit more obvious this time round and it does focus more on Ethan's
detective work than he does on action which may hinder the enjoyment for some but the Arts still
stellar and the change of pace made it feel like it wasn't just trying to tread water this
second volume didn't ruin the excitement for this series and I'm still looking forward to
all the upcoming volumes because anytime that I see Ed and Sean's name on a book it's like
seeing my favorite meal on a menu for the price of admission you won't find many better crime
Noir stories within the graphic novel landscape and because of that I'm going to give it a very
decent score of 80 percent woof work so that's a video hopefully you've enjoyed it until next
time just make sure that you stay safe and stay mad all you dogs we're roof see the next video