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The Darkness: Wanted Dead
2715920-the darkness wanted dead 1 2003
Writer(s):

Frank Tieri

Penciller(s):

Mark Texeira

Inker(s):

Chaz Riggs

Colorist(s):

Matt Milla

Letterer(s):
  • Robin Spehar
  • Dennis Heisler
  • Martin Barnes
Editor(s):

Renae Geerlings

Published:

August 1, 2003


The Darkness: Wanted Dead is a one-shot comic book issue published by Top Cow Productions.

Synopsis[]

Darkness bearer Jackie Estacado betrayed his Mafia roots and ratted out his bosses. So what happens when a grizzled mob veteran takes it upon himself to get revenge by placing a million-dollar bounty on Jackie's head? Find out in this special Darkness one- shot written by two-fisted goomba and underworld expert (don't ask) Frank Tieri (Wolverine)!

Characters[]

Plot Summary[]

After horrible massacre happens in a restaurant, two federal agents are called in by their boss to explain what happened there. Both agents begin to put blame on each other, until their frustrated boss interrupts them and wanting answers from the two about what happened to Jackie Estacado. The female agent proceeds to explain, that although their assignment was primary involved Estacado, the trouble started when Dominic "The Quiet Don" Alberto decided to not be quite any longer.

Somewhere in New York, Dominic Alberto meets up with his men. On the dinner table in front of them, a man's corpse is laying on it. He tells them about the time, he met with the one and only Charlie "Lucky" Luciano. Back then he was just an errand boy, but one morning Luciano gave him twenty bucks to get him a news paper one April morning. He then recalls how he killed him and took his place as the Don. Alberto then ponders what does Luciano think of them now. Alberto questions his men as to what happened to them since the golden age of mafia. He comes to the conclusion, that it was all "rats" fault. Nothing ever been the same since that very first day "Pigeon" Joe Valachi turned evidence to Feds back then. And since then things only got worse. Now being a "rat" isn't just an option, but a career choice, with them now appearing on TV, magazines and radio.

Because of this, they need to make an example out of somebody, so nobody else would dare to betray them. That somebody turns out to be Jackie Estacado and Alberto places a million-dollar bounty on his head as an incentive. It was right about this time, the two Federal agents entered the scene. News of the "Quite Don's" bounty spread like wildfire, bringing out both the most professional assassins and basic lowest of the low killers. Meanwhile, the two Federal agents went on a stakeout for Jackie, wanting to put him under witness protection. Although the male agent tries to get acquainted with his partner, the female agent isn't in the mood and solely focuses on her job. To her shock, she notices Jackie being accompanied by non other than China Minn, former geisha girl turned assassin, specialising in poison and associated with the Triads.

As the two share a dinner, noticing that Jackie is distracted, Minn puts poison into his soup. Knowing that they would never make it in time to save Jackie, the agents just watched, believing him a dead man. But before Jackie can take a sip of his soup, Minn is hit by a dagger in the back by Ruben "The Blade" Sanchez, the main hatchetman for East L.A.'s Latin King's. As Ruben prepares to kill Jackie, the Darklings steal his daggers and throw all of them into his back, killing him on the spot. When the agents get into the restaurant, they find Ruben's corpse. Jackie then approaches the two agents, noting that the two are horrible bodyguards. Before the three can be acquainted, Jackie is shot by Jimmy Fanelli, a freelance hitman with the Denunzio family out of Chicago. As Fanelli reloads his gun and prepares to shoot Jackie again, the Darklings materialize in his room, rip him apart and throw his decapitated head out the window.

The agents also realized that there's a lot more to Jackie than meets the eye. And that all became apparent particularly in the following weeks. Top notch killers went after Jackie and all of them ended up dead. Although Jackie ignore them at first, when the word really got out and amateurs went after him, not letting him even have a cup of coffee or even killing innocent bystanders, he realized he had to do something about this. Jackie then has a talk with the Darklings. Although they agree to help Jackie with goons working for the Don, they refuse to kill Alberto himself, believing that he had to dealt with him personally. After hearing this, he questions as to how he should do this, but the Darklings don't give him any suggestions.

Jackie then goes to the place where Alberto is staying, but before he can enter, the two federal agents stop him, telling him that they can't let him go in there. The male agent then searches Jackie, but only finds a magazine on him. Jackie reassures them that he wasn't planning to kill the Don and kisses the female agent, telling her that he's a lower, not a fighter. He then uses the Darkness to knock both agents out. When they finally recover, the two federal agents enter the restaurant, finding everybody inside dead and the Don himself, with a bullet in his head.

The agents still believe Jackie to be prime candidate, but their boss is sceptical about this. As for Estacado himself, after killing Alberto, he completely disappeared. After hearing their report, their boss suspends the two agents until further notice as somebody needs to take a fall for this mess. When their boss leaves, the female agent is frustrated with her partner, believing that they should have shown the "How to Build a Gun" magazine, that Jackie was carrying with himself. The male agent explains that if they showed this, they would have put them into asylum instead of being just suspended. He then throws out the magazine into a bin and offers to buy a drink for his partner, but she refuses.

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