Back To Brooklyn #1-5

Written by Jimmy Palmiotti and Garth Ennis
Art by Mihailo Vukelic

This ultra-violent mobster family squabble series is a pretty decent read.  Bob Saetta is pretty high in his brother Paul's criminal organization, and Paul owns pretty much all of Brooklyn.  Bob finds out something about Paul though, and decides to turn him in to the police.  The only problem is that Paul has Bob's wife and son, and so, inexplicably, the police and FBI turn Bob loose to go back into Brooklyn (hence the title), to find his family.

What follows is a ton of violence and bloodshed, as Bob gathers a couple of allies, and starts taking apart his brother's organization, while trying to stay ahead of Paul's in-house psycho, a guy named Churchill.

I found myself getting into the story pretty easily, despite the massive amounts of disbelief I had to suspend, and Vukelic's sometimes awkward art.  He's a competent artist, it's just that he seems to rely a little too much on photo references for people's expressions.

Strangely, the best part of the entire comic series was two of the text pieces by Jimmy Palmiotti, as he reminisced about his own Brooklyn upbringing and misadventures in and around the Catholic school he attended.  Some of his stories are very funny.  I imagine these are not included in the trade, which is a shame.  There is plenty here that could become an excellent graphic memoir, were he to mine it.