The Stop Button

I’m not sure I understand anything in this first issue of Brother Lono except the titular character has been in the town jail for a while and he gets out. He’s on a mission to escort a visiting nun–of course she doesn’t look like a nun–to the parish. I think.

Brian Azzarello fills the rest of the issue with drug cartel guys torturing people for information, threatening priests, implying police corruption. Then there’s this meticulously crafted finale outside the bus station. The bad guys are looking for a DEA agent, Azzarello hasn’t revealed the nun yet and there are like three other guys doing shady things. It’s a beautiful sequence, even if it doesn’t make any sense.

Or maybe it all does and I’m just really tired, but I don’t think it does.

Eduardo Risso’s art is excellent. He gets bloody, but still implies even more.

“Fun” stuff.

CREDITS

!El Hombre Respira!; writer, Brian Azzarello; artist, Eduardo Risso; colorist, Trish Mulvihill; letterer, Clem Robins; editor, Will Dennis; publisher, Vertigo.