Story Synopsis: Breakneck
Joe Hayward catches his wife having an affair and will not stand for it. He is going to intercept their romantic rendezvous, but what if Hayward just took out the one man preventing a terrorist attack. Find out what Hayward must do to save Philadelphia in this week’s Comic Rewind, Breakneck.
Scott Majeski sent a text to Hayward’s wife asking her to meet at a motel, but Hayward intercepted the text. When he arrived he brought a brick and a baseball bat and he was going to dish out a beating.
The two got into a scuffle and as a last resort Hayward injected Majeski with what he thought was illegal drugs. However, it ended up being truth serum and muscle relaxant. Majeski ended up being Agent Majeski and he was the only person who knew about an immediate terrorist attack.
Hayward and Majeski now have to work together to save Philadelphia. However, can they work together? Can they stop the attack in time? What was going on between Majeski and Hayward’s wife?
Breakneck was written by Duane Swierczynksi with art by Simone Guglielmini and Raffaele Semeraro. Titan Comics published the comic in 2019.
Breakneck Relied Too Much On Humor At Times
It has been awhile since I’ve read any kind of noir. I wanted to dive into a short little noir comic. I enjoyed this comic a lot and it was a breath of fresh air compared to the noir I usually read.
A big change from other noir comics I like was the humor. This had a lot of comedic scenes which broke up the tension really nicely. Hayward and Majeski were on a tight deadline with only a few hours before a bomb went off. The next scene involved them beating rogue agents with “adult toys.”
Having these funny scenes added a lot to the story and gave it some spice I’ve never seen in a noir comic. However, the humor was a little too frequent and way too over-the-top. There are a lot of scenes involving “adult toys.” It was just too goofy at times and I didn’t like how much it distracted from the story.
A Different Type Of Noir
I thought for sure this would be a True Lies situation where Majeski was a fake agent and was lying to Hayward’s wife. However, I liked being surprised by it being 100 percent real and a real government agent.
Swierczynksi did a great job writing a little self-contained story. I didn’t have any lingering questions or any big plot holes. It was almost like a Twilight Zone episode but without the horror or sci-fi aspect. I could totally see this being in an anthology show or a short film.
I liked the story a lot and am glad I read it. It was very different in a pleasant and refreshing way. The amount of humor and how goofy it got were my only complaints, but it was a solid little comic.
Rating:
4/5
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