Eddie Mellinger, Trudy Giroux, Duke Wylie and George Winburn are Red Team: the NYPD’s elite anti-narcotics unit. They’ve taken down one drug lord after another with a careful blend of meticulous surveillance and applied violence, but their latest case has even them stumped. Their frustration leads them to take extreme measures setting them on a path from which there can be no coming back. As they’re about to discover, doing the wrong thing can be very, very seductive.

That’s the set up of Garth Ennis‘ new series from Dynamite. Red Team #1 starts off like the best of hard boiled gritty cop shows you might see on television. It’s good, really good. In fact it’s one of the best comics I’ve read so far this year.

The comic starts in the interrogation room, immediately giving you a sense that something has gone wrong. Here’s a cop, being grilled for something and you see it unfold in one issue. That’s right, what could have been an entire series, or at least a very long story arc plays out in one issue.

We already know something has gone wrong and we get to see how cops can become corrupted and take the law into their own hands. Some of the motivations don’t go too deep, but it’s the act here that matters. This first issue is about the act and fall itself, not the characters perpetrating the act.

We do get a sense of the characters though. We generally know their standing and their personalities. We get motivation and we see how the decision for these cops to act plays out.

This first issue blew me away. It’s so good, words can’t do it justice. If you’re a fan of cop shows or noir, this is an absolute must buy.

Story: Garth Ennis Art: Craig Cermak

Story: 8.75 Art: 8 Overall: 8.75 Recommendation: Buy

Dynamite provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review