Sibling Rivalry

I may have read it wrong, but when Cole's brother came after him at the end of Grifter #2 I had the impression Cole was the older of the two. I suppose it was Cole's comment that he taught Max how to shoot, which seems like an older brother sort of thing.

If I'm right, it could switch things up from what I expected. When we learned in the first issue that it would be Cole's brother the military was sending after him, I figured Cole was almost certainly the younger brother. He'd tried to be like his big bro, followed him into the military and all, but he couldn't ever measure up. Probably heard a lot of "why can't you be more like your brother Max?" growing up, and while he was in the service. Got fed up with that, and after he was out of the military, put what he'd learned as a 'Delta operator' to use as a con man.

Instead, it looks like Cole might be the older sibling, and so perhaps Max followed him. Max did assure that colonel his loyalty was to the service and his country, not his brother, but talk is cheap, and family can exert a pull whether you want it to or not. It could be interesting. Max might have looked up to Cole in the past, but is disappointed by his more recent career choices. Which wouldn't preclude him from wanting to help or protect his brother, but might make him more likely to doubt his brother if Cole chooses to tell him what's going on. Or Max might secretly envy his brother, who lives by his own rules, rather than following orders. In that scenario, Max could be more inclined to listen to Cole, even try and help him. Which, if Max can use the team he was supposed to assemble (or at least keep them out of Cole's way), could be handy. Or, it could give the aliens one more lever to use against Cole, since it wouldn't surprise me at all if they have people in the military.

What could happen is Cole appears to confide in Max, to trust him, but in fact pulls the wool over his eyes. Could be because Cole is no longer sure who he can trust. Maybe before then he could meet some people who aren't disguised aliens, but are on the aliens side. Their allies or lackeys. Or it could be Cole wants to protect Max from reprisals by his superiors, so he burns that bridge. Or appears to burn that bridge, depending on how much he trusts Max and Max' ability to act. It wouldn't hurt for that colonel to believe the brothers are enemies, when they're secretly still allies.

Or maybe that's just who Cole is now. He's been conning people so long he can't help himself, he's always sizing people up for how he can use and discard them. I don't think it would hold up, Edmundson certainly hasn't played him as that callous. He didn't treat Gretchen as someone he was trying to fool, for example, but it's a possible direction, that Cole's really not a very nice person. He might mostly pull cons on crooked businessman, but that doesn't mean he's all sweetness and light. So even when his brother tries to help, because he cares, Cole can't help but abuse that trust.