Garth Ennis has made a name for himself with his work on Punisher, Judge Dredd, and his own book, Preacher. If the debut of Red Team is a portent for the rest of the series, then it should rank up there with those legendary titles.
The book is about a special major crimes unit of the police force. We get right into the meat of the story on the first page with Detective Mellinger explaining to an unknown interviewer or interrogator that Red Team had decided to kill a murder suspect. The team has done their job of cleaning up their beat, all except for Clinton Day. They've swept away his competition but no matter how many times they take a run at him, they are never able to make a case stick against the suspected murderer/pimp/human trafficker/drug lord. Mellinger recounts the unit's discussions on how they get to the point where taking Day out is the only recourse.
The art by Craig Cermak is wonderfully gritty. Ennis's story is dark and cold. The whole book sort of reminds of The Shield, if you were telling the story of the origin of the Strike Team. An elite team of cops that start to take shortcuts and cross lines isn't exactly new but this is just the opening shot. What is going to be interesting is how Ennis treats these characters' evolutions. How will this new attitude pervade the members of Red Team and affect their jobs, in addition to their personal lives? It's going to be quite the ride to find out.
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