I’m a Marvel guy. You probably wonder what that has to do with the latest Joe Ledger tale, RELENTLESS, from Jonathan Maberry. Stick with me, I will get there. Over the years, I have stretched and twisted and turned to many other comic book publishers, but I always came back to my favorite hero—Spider-Man. Even in his darkest days, there was humor and hope, and an overwhelming desire to do what was right—at least in the end. But I have a dark secret. It is the yang to my yin. The shadow that follows that optimism of Peter or Miles or whoever was wearing the webbing. The Dark Knight—Batman. Vengeance, pain, and the noirish sensibilities that bleed from the Dark Knight as he fought, in his own way, for what was right—often at significant cost. I think there is this duality in all of us—warring sides that fight for control. At least that is the way of my life. Batman—the ultimate anti-superhero. Yes, he wears spandex and a mask. And there’s that cape. It makes for great visuals and has saved his life more than a time or two, but in reality, it must cause more problems than it’s worth. And there’s the kernel. Reality. Batman is just a guy. Albeit an extremely rich guy, but he has no superpowers. He must rely upon his training and his tech and a lot of other people despite his innate ability to go it on his own. He is a detective and a vigilante. Over the many years, the writers have brutalized our poor hero in so many ways that I’m sure we have all lost count. He has been beaten, broken, and had to watch so many of his loved ones die horrible deaths. And THAT leads me back to Joe Ledger. He has been on a similar path.
Unlike Batman and his deontological convictions about means, Ledger has no problem killing. In fact, he has made an art of it. Just as we have certainly lost count of the ways the many writers have tortured Batman over the eighty-plus years he has lived (and died), keeping a ledger of all Joe’s kills would be impossible. This is the enormous difference between these two icons of pop culture, but they have much more in common than not. In RELENTLESS, Ledger’s reputation is more than enough to put a bowel-loosing scare into all but the scariest of Joe’s adversaries.
For those of you who are new to this series, you don’t have to have read RAGE, or even the first 10 Ledger books before reading this one. The author always skillfully gives the reader just enough so they are not lost. That said, I would highly recommend busting your piggy bank open and hitting your favorite indy bookstore to purchase all of them—including the anthologies. And if you want a signed copy, I think the good folks at one of Maberry’s favorite haunts, Mysterious Galaxy, might be able to coerce him into signing the whole shebang for you. If you really want a treat, buy the books AND the audiobooks. Ray Porter makes any Joe Ledger book a special treat. The series is a weird science, military thriller that brings to life many of the ghoulies and horrors of your most current nightmares. Be warned. There is a LOT of killing.
RELENTLESS smartly kicks off months after the heart-breaking, soul-crushing events of RAGE. It is dark. It is messy. And it is thrilling. If I had one complaint, it was that this book almost felt too big. At times, reading this one overwhelmed me. There was so much happening with so many characters out of Ledger’s past, present, and do I dare say, the future, that my head was reeling. It was like Maberry took everything bad that ever happened to Joe and everyone left that has done him wrong and told Bug to run them through his super-tech shredder and then did a Dr. Frankenstein on them all for poor Joe. Maberry has a knack for nearly destroying the world and somehow pulling us back from the edge, if only for a few more pages. And he always leaves us wondering dread is next, just as he always leaves us wanting more. This book is RELENTLESS.
