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Breakneck #1-4
Breakneck
New countdown thriller by celebrated crime and comics author Duane Swierczynski (The Punisher, Deadpool).
When everyman Joe Hayward tries to confront the secret agent sleeping with his wife, he enters a terrorist plot that will destroy Philadelphia… in just two hours!
Collects Breakneck #1-4.
When everyman Joe Hayward tries to confront the secret agent sleeping with his wife, he enters a terrorist plot that will destroy Philadelphia… in just two hours!
Collects Breakneck #1-4.
128 pages, Paperback
First published April 30, 2019
2 people are currently reading
68 people want to read
About the author
Duane Swierczynski
523 books917 followersDuane Swierczynski is an American crime writer who has written a number of non-fiction books, novels and also writes for comic books.
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
December 2, 2024
Reads like an action movie.
The kind that's a bit over the top and snappy, and one in which you never feel the characters are in any real danger. I actually enjoy those sorts of movies, and the same thing goes for this comic.
I was kind of expecting something a little more hardboiled from the Hard Case line, but even so, this wasn't a disappointment.
Reading the foreword, Swierczynski talks about how this was originally an idea for a novel that he pounded a hundred or so pages out for, then a screenplay, and finally, it was turned into a graphic novel. It explains the tone of the story, at least.
A regular Joe finds out that his wife might be cheating on him and rushes out to kill the guy. Or maybe just beat him up. But he's definitely got violence on his mind.
So you're thinking that this is going to end with a body, one way or another, right?
No.
What ends up happening is these two guys have to save the city from a biological attack. Or maybe it's a bomb? Whatever. It's a government drill gone wrong and millions of people are going to lose their lives unless this odd couple can stop trying to kill each other long enough to work together.
The whys and hows are kind of spoilers, but it was a wacky and enjoyable ride.
As long as you know what you're getting into.
Do not hop on this train thinking you're getting some kind of Brubaker noir. You're getting a quippy Bruce Willis movie.
Recommended.
The kind that's a bit over the top and snappy, and one in which you never feel the characters are in any real danger. I actually enjoy those sorts of movies, and the same thing goes for this comic.
I was kind of expecting something a little more hardboiled from the Hard Case line, but even so, this wasn't a disappointment.
Reading the foreword, Swierczynski talks about how this was originally an idea for a novel that he pounded a hundred or so pages out for, then a screenplay, and finally, it was turned into a graphic novel. It explains the tone of the story, at least.
A regular Joe finds out that his wife might be cheating on him and rushes out to kill the guy. Or maybe just beat him up. But he's definitely got violence on his mind.
So you're thinking that this is going to end with a body, one way or another, right?
No.
What ends up happening is these two guys have to save the city from a biological attack. Or maybe it's a bomb? Whatever. It's a government drill gone wrong and millions of people are going to lose their lives unless this odd couple can stop trying to kill each other long enough to work together.
The whys and hows are kind of spoilers, but it was a wacky and enjoyable ride.
As long as you know what you're getting into.
Do not hop on this train thinking you're getting some kind of Brubaker noir. You're getting a quippy Bruce Willis movie.
Recommended.
September 30, 2019
It’s like the TV show 24. But with sex toys!
Joe Hayward is at a seedy motel to confront the man he believes is having an affair with his wife. Unfortunately, Joe walks into the middle of an elaborate covert operation to stop some kind of super weapon, and thanks to his interference the city of Philadelphia might be doomed in a matter of hours. Now Joe has to rush to save the city with the guy he fears his wife is sleeping with.
I had a lot of fun with this one. The ticking clock mixed with flashbacks telling how all these characters ended up in this situation works really well, and there’s a good sense of humor that capitalizes on the over-the-top nature of the entire plot. The art adds to the action and sense of increasing desperation. It’s also nice to be able and sit down a read a quick and complete four-issue comic story.
Joe Hayward is at a seedy motel to confront the man he believes is having an affair with his wife. Unfortunately, Joe walks into the middle of an elaborate covert operation to stop some kind of super weapon, and thanks to his interference the city of Philadelphia might be doomed in a matter of hours. Now Joe has to rush to save the city with the guy he fears his wife is sleeping with.
I had a lot of fun with this one. The ticking clock mixed with flashbacks telling how all these characters ended up in this situation works really well, and there’s a good sense of humor that capitalizes on the over-the-top nature of the entire plot. The art adds to the action and sense of increasing desperation. It’s also nice to be able and sit down a read a quick and complete four-issue comic story.
June 28, 2019
Joe Hayward thinks he’s confronting the man having an affair with his wife but he’s really stumbled into the middle of a plot that’ll blow up Philadelphia in just under two hours – what a day, eh Joe?
Breakneck sounds like a fun, exciting story but the corny action and bad jokes (the sex toys and truth serum gags were so unfunny) only made me feel like I was watching a bad ‘90s action movie unfold. Because it’s so fast-paced the threat is never explained well and remains nebulous throughout (a bomb – for reasons?) making it hard to care much about what was happening and, with all the forced humour, the effect was more farcical than exciting.
I guess I was invested enough to want to know what was going to happen in the end, and its pacing meant that it was never that boring but it’s still a very rushed, muddled and unmemorable narrative. I can see why this nonsense got rejected as a movie in the first place!
Breakneck sounds like a fun, exciting story but the corny action and bad jokes (the sex toys and truth serum gags were so unfunny) only made me feel like I was watching a bad ‘90s action movie unfold. Because it’s so fast-paced the threat is never explained well and remains nebulous throughout (a bomb – for reasons?) making it hard to care much about what was happening and, with all the forced humour, the effect was more farcical than exciting.
I guess I was invested enough to want to know what was going to happen in the end, and its pacing meant that it was never that boring but it’s still a very rushed, muddled and unmemorable narrative. I can see why this nonsense got rejected as a movie in the first place!
November 20, 2019
Duane Swierczynski is definitely one of the best thriller writers out there today, not only writing respected novels but also finding success writing comics for Marvel and DC. He has a great knack for pacing, action, and noir elements so he's the perfect fit for Hard Case Crime's graphic novel line. This book started out as an unfinished novel but he decided to make it a comic and it's tons of fun. It follows an Everyman Joe cuckold, who's decision to go to a motel to beat the shit out of the man banging his wife, leads to him getting embroiled in a fast-paced conspiracy and a plot to detonate a bomb in a Philadelphia square in 90 minutes.
It's a wacky, real-time story involving sex toys, secret agents, and a dose of truth serum, and it was an entertaining way to spend an afternoon reading, pushed along by a suspenseful countdown clock. Although the book includes an excerpt from the unfinished novel manuscript that makes me wish we had the finished story with Swierczynski's great prose, I still enjoyed this one. Another great notch in Swierczynski's diverse body of work.
It's a wacky, real-time story involving sex toys, secret agents, and a dose of truth serum, and it was an entertaining way to spend an afternoon reading, pushed along by a suspenseful countdown clock. Although the book includes an excerpt from the unfinished novel manuscript that makes me wish we had the finished story with Swierczynski's great prose, I still enjoyed this one. Another great notch in Swierczynski's diverse body of work.
January 16, 2024
(Zero spoiler review)
I would say that trying to read this directly after finishing the pretty fantastic Burlesque Noir didn't do this book any favours, although this is just that dang awful that it really wouldn't have mattered what I read before it. It was always going to disappoint and slightly annoy. Breakneck is something approaching an action thriller, although the action is average at best and the thrills are nearly non-existent. Throw into the mix a moderately interesting premise, executed with all the panache and aplomb of a 12 year old who watched Pulp Fiction and fancied himself the next Tarantino. The art was serviceable, although a far cry from being able to elevate this book above it's writing and it's bafflingly terrible execution. Perhaps a talented screenwriter could turn this into an interesting movie, although it would need a major facelift from this sad and sorry state of affairs in order to make it anything you might be interested in. I really like the Hard Crime imprint, but I don't like this. 2/5
OmniBen.
I would say that trying to read this directly after finishing the pretty fantastic Burlesque Noir didn't do this book any favours, although this is just that dang awful that it really wouldn't have mattered what I read before it. It was always going to disappoint and slightly annoy. Breakneck is something approaching an action thriller, although the action is average at best and the thrills are nearly non-existent. Throw into the mix a moderately interesting premise, executed with all the panache and aplomb of a 12 year old who watched Pulp Fiction and fancied himself the next Tarantino. The art was serviceable, although a far cry from being able to elevate this book above it's writing and it's bafflingly terrible execution. Perhaps a talented screenwriter could turn this into an interesting movie, although it would need a major facelift from this sad and sorry state of affairs in order to make it anything you might be interested in. I really like the Hard Crime imprint, but I don't like this. 2/5
OmniBen.
November 25, 2025
A bomb is going to go off and kill countless civilians. Jon Heyward must go and squash this.
This was something of a disappointment. The story was a bit disjointed and it was never explained what was the motivation behind the bomb. Add in misplaced humor, or rather humor that just didn't fit and the story just didn't resonate. The artistry was just okay, at best.
Hard Case Crime (graphic novel division) has done much better than this. I guess they can't all be winners.
This was something of a disappointment. The story was a bit disjointed and it was never explained what was the motivation behind the bomb. Add in misplaced humor, or rather humor that just didn't fit and the story just didn't resonate. The artistry was just okay, at best.
Hard Case Crime (graphic novel division) has done much better than this. I guess they can't all be winners.
August 18, 2022
Toda una sorpresa.
Una historia pulp centrada en siglo XXI y con una calidad de guión excelente acompañada de un dibujo bastante más que correcto en unos tiempos donde este tipo de comic USA no abunda precisamente.
Una historia pulp centrada en siglo XXI y con una calidad de guión excelente acompañada de un dibujo bastante más que correcto en unos tiempos donde este tipo de comic USA no abunda precisamente.
Read
January 8, 2021Starts off at a breakneck pace, and never lets up. Generic terrorist plot, with some quippy dialogue.
August 18, 2019
Normally mild-mannered Joe Hayward arrives in the pre-dawn hours at a two-bit motel outside Philadelphia, armed with a bat and a brick, ready to "beat the living f**k" out of the man who has been sleeping with his wife.
What he doesn't know, however, is the man who cuckolded him is a highly trained government spy. Joe finds not a romantic love nest, but a safe house with a corpse strewn on the floor, a beautiful but deadly lady handcuffed to the bed, and a syringe filled with potent truth serum on the bedside table.
Through a rather ingenious flashback sequence, the reader soon learns that everything Joe thought he knew is wrong. He has wandered into the thick of a government espionage training drill gone very wrong. What follows is a funny, high octane thriller as Joe must race to stop a terrorist plot aimed at destroying Philly.
This story works for a couple of reasons. It is exciting but never takes itself too seriously. An omniscient snarky narrator provides running commentary on all Joe's misunderstandings, missteps and mistakes. The spy Scott Majeski is trained with James Bond-like skills, but he is also a relentlessly pompous, irritating cad. In one scene, while Joe is trying to subdue a bad guy with a seatbelt, the incapacitated Scott heckles him from the back: "Are you trying to strangle him or give him a neck message?"
The artwork is serviceable but generally unremarkable. Most of the scenes occur in out-of-the-way pedestrian places like subway trains, parking lots, parks, and motels. There is not much chance for the artist to explore exotic locales or add a lot of unique flair.
In his introduction, the author tells the story of how Breakneck was intended to be a novel, then adapted into a screenplay, before finally finding a publisher as a graphic novel. The characters and situations could certainly make the backbone of a good film, but there needs to be more meat to the plot to make it work.
Recommended.
What he doesn't know, however, is the man who cuckolded him is a highly trained government spy. Joe finds not a romantic love nest, but a safe house with a corpse strewn on the floor, a beautiful but deadly lady handcuffed to the bed, and a syringe filled with potent truth serum on the bedside table.
Through a rather ingenious flashback sequence, the reader soon learns that everything Joe thought he knew is wrong. He has wandered into the thick of a government espionage training drill gone very wrong. What follows is a funny, high octane thriller as Joe must race to stop a terrorist plot aimed at destroying Philly.
This story works for a couple of reasons. It is exciting but never takes itself too seriously. An omniscient snarky narrator provides running commentary on all Joe's misunderstandings, missteps and mistakes. The spy Scott Majeski is trained with James Bond-like skills, but he is also a relentlessly pompous, irritating cad. In one scene, while Joe is trying to subdue a bad guy with a seatbelt, the incapacitated Scott heckles him from the back: "Are you trying to strangle him or give him a neck message?"
The artwork is serviceable but generally unremarkable. Most of the scenes occur in out-of-the-way pedestrian places like subway trains, parking lots, parks, and motels. There is not much chance for the artist to explore exotic locales or add a lot of unique flair.
In his introduction, the author tells the story of how Breakneck was intended to be a novel, then adapted into a screenplay, before finally finding a publisher as a graphic novel. The characters and situations could certainly make the backbone of a good film, but there needs to be more meat to the plot to make it work.
Recommended.
February 27, 2025
This was a silly amount of fun and right up my alley. It’s probably a 4-star read but I’ll give it 5-stars for sheer entertainment value.
An action film brought to life, this begins with a mild mannered man heading to a motel to beat someone up for sleeping with with his wife. But that guy is some sort of secret agent, idiocy goes down (in a hilarious manner) and there’s only ninety minutes to stop a bomb from exploding downtown.
Big on action, the story is relentless throughout and though you’ll have to just go with it at times, it’s entertaining on every page. Ridiculous and imaginative, Breakneck delivers a whole lot of enjoyment.
An action film brought to life, this begins with a mild mannered man heading to a motel to beat someone up for sleeping with with his wife. But that guy is some sort of secret agent, idiocy goes down (in a hilarious manner) and there’s only ninety minutes to stop a bomb from exploding downtown.
Big on action, the story is relentless throughout and though you’ll have to just go with it at times, it’s entertaining on every page. Ridiculous and imaginative, Breakneck delivers a whole lot of enjoyment.
March 27, 2025
This story is less noir and more like Die Hard 3 meets the TV show 24. It is set in modern times, but definitely has a 1970s feel to it. The story is simple and the dialogue between Joe and Scott gets a little grating at times. Like a great action movie the puzzle at the end is conveniently placed. But for some strange reason this story works.
The art is fine with good perspectives and the color tones work well with conveying the atmosphere.
Not the best story from the Hard Case Crime series, but an enjoyable read.
The art is fine with good perspectives and the color tones work well with conveying the atmosphere.
Not the best story from the Hard Case Crime series, but an enjoyable read.
October 8, 2019
Not this author's best work. It's told a little haphazardly,
skipping around by indicating how many minutes it
is before "everyone dies". And the plot involves a
novice and an FBI agent, but it's the newbie who
does all the work. Not convincingly either.
skipping around by indicating how many minutes it
is before "everyone dies". And the plot involves a
novice and an FBI agent, but it's the newbie who
does all the work. Not convincingly either.
September 17, 2024
I've been reading a lot of Hardcase stuff lately and the graphic novels are, by and large, worse than the books but this one was fun without getting creepy and the Philadelphia setting felt really lived in and real to me.
February 17, 2022
Huge fan of Hard Case Crime novels and GNs and this was a fine addition to the imprint :)
March 1, 2022
A bit in the "Crank" mold in that it moves fast to thunk over plotholes. And the art is perhaps too soft and generic. Still, a fun dumb thriller.
August 8, 2022
What a fun ride.
November 12, 2022
Toda una sorpresa en cuanto al talante de comedia que le dan. Te vas a echar unas risas seguro, muy lejos de la seriedad de Brubaker
February 18, 2023
Interesting comic series. Definitely not for the kids. Worth a library checkout if you need a time kill read waiting for an appointment or something like that.
March 31, 2023
The best thing about this book about a guy who accidentally gets involved in trying to stop death in Philly is that it was free. Since I read it through Hoopla.
This was annoying.
This was annoying.
November 3, 2024
Highly entertaining, funny slapstick spy story with likeable characters. It's goofy fun.
February 25, 2025
Bonkers, but too much bonkers. It felt like a Wilder/Pryor film from the 80's but combining slapstick with action just didn't work here.
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews