Set in the world of Rob Schrab's Scud, the Disposable Assassin, La Cosa Nostroid followed the rise of Tony Tastey as he used his computer know-how to climb the ranks of the mafia, until he was able to influence the outcome of presidential elections.
It's a lot like a lot of mob movies, where the guy starts out running numbers or something, shows an aptitude, gains power, and slowly reveals himself to be a monster that uses up and spits out all the people who helped him get where he is. It just happens to involve giant robots, clones of dead guys attacking weddings, and mind wipes.
Of the four characters that pilot the "macrobot" with Tony in this issue, he has one of them killed for showing more concern for his injured girlfriend than whatever fight they were in, and another for knowing too much. He has Alice, the girlfriend of the first victim, do the killing of the second, because after she survived her injuries, he had her upgraded with cybernetic parts and her mind fucked with to love him. Tony barely knows her, he and his wife were on the outs and he decided he wanted a replacement.
The credits page always includes, along with a suggested soundtrack, a list of who either Harmon or Schrab would pick to be the voice actors for the different characters. Besides being kind of sad how many of these guys are dead - James Caan as the Reagan-knockoff Governor, Tom Sizemore as Forehead, Robert Loggia for Doghouse - it's a little disturbing how good of a pick in 1997 Johnny Depp was for Tony Tastey. An outwardly charming guy, who is actually a relentlessly abusive and controlling psychopath.
Schrab does most of the panels with black gutters, creating a cinema frame feel to go with the high-contrast of the black-and-white art. I think it works better for the conversations than it does the giant robot fights or wedding shootouts, but for those he also tends to shake-up the page layouts. The mech fights involve a lot of small panels of each guy in their own cockpit, reacting to the action. Those can be grouped together to show unity, or scattered around the page like there were tossed haphazardly across it when things go wrong.
The book stopped after 2 years and 9 issues with no conclusive ending. You can see it building, as the two remaining guys, Doghouse and Meredino, are both on their way out with Tony, one way or the other. My fingers would have been crossed for Tony's head to get splattered across a wall, but who knows if it would go that way.
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