The Human Target, Vol 2

Christopher Chance solves the mystery of who killed him. Posing as Lex Luthor, the Human Target ingested a slow acting poison. His fate is sealed. Chance is literally a member of the walking dead. With only 12 days left, he spends his remaining time trying to solve his murder while enjoying some fantastic scotch and time by the beach, his favorite place. But as his life comes to an end, Chance must confront his own demons.

This Tom King maxi-series from 2022-23 is very much a noir mystery with the Human Target providing the internal dialogue, heroes who are secretly villains and forbidden romance. As with just about any noir whodunnit, the solution is crystal clear while the motivations are the real enigma. For some reason, when the murderer confesses, they have no problem admitting their guilt and yet you need a thesaurus to understand what drove them to kill. 

That's okay however. I'm still a big fan of crime noir.

When I reviewed volume 1, I stated that Greg Smallwood's art looked familiar. I just couldn't put my finger on what it reminded me of. I managed to solve that mystery about a third into this book. With the sharp pencil angles and soft charcoal shading of the subjects, Smallwood's artwork reminds me of that set of Childcraft Encyclopedia books my mom ordered me sometime in the late70s. Published originally in the 1930s by W.F. Quarrie & Co, the volumes of 'the How and Why Library' I had had shiny modern covers. But the internal artwork hadn't been updated since the Kennedy administration. The artwork here gave the story the look of a more innocent time and yet there are no saints to be found.

A fantastic mystery with a great ending. It was awesome visiting some characters that I hadn't thought about in years. Thankfully, being a Black Label imprint work, this is not a canonical book. Yet I would not be surprised in the least to find out DC decided to make this story the official swan song of the Human Target.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.

The Human Target, Vol. 1

I like Tom King. But he's got this annoying little habit of taking those more obscure, fan favorite DC characters that I grew up reading from my dad's comic book collection and deconstructing them. Even to the point of killing off the character.

This time, Tom King decides to strip bare the character Christopher Chance, the Human Target. Trained to be a master mimic with skills in various martial arts and proficient in countless weapons, Chance becomes the target of people who have a death wish against them. All you have to do for the Human Target to take a bullet for you is to pay him his asking fee of 10% of your yearly income. So when multi-billionaire Lex Luthor approaches Chance to discover who's planning to kill him at an annual technology conference, the Human Target sees nothing but dollar signs. 

Christopher not only takes the bullet for Lex Luthor, he also drinks the hemlock. It seems that more than one person wanted to kill Luthor. An seemingly innocent cup of coffee was laced with a slow acting poison. Now with 12 days left to live, the Human Target will investigate his own murder. But it's not going to be easy because the prime suspect in the case is the entire lineup of the original Justice League International!

This maxi-series is a superhero populated version of the noir classic D.O.A.. Readers go into this work knowing that the Human Target will die by story's end. We just don't know who killed him and what was the motive. That's the mystery being solved. Christopher Chance's fate is sealed.

Thankfully, this is a Black Label story. Those stories aren't canon. Still, that doesn't mean that I'm not hoping for a happy ending here. Plus, it doesn't mean that this story might not actually happen later on in the future. A bunch of Marvel What If... stories have been made into canon and DC is no different. Several of their Elseworlds tales were made into official alternate Earths populating the multiverse. What's not to say that some future crisis that occurs in the DC universe will not someday make this story along with the rest of Tom King's Black Label works from becoming real; killing off a bunch of my favorite B-list characters for realsies? That prospect scares the DC fanatic in me!

The first half of the story has been near perfect. I did think that the chapter involving the Martian Manhunter was unnecessarily chaotic. But it's been an engrossing read and a visual delight. Generally,it doesn't feel like a legitimate Tom King story without the artwork of frequent collaborator Mitch Gerad's. However Greg Smallwood has this style that looks and feels quintessential 1950s and very early 60s corporate art. I can't quite put my finger on just what Smallwood's artwork reminds me of just yet. However, if you told me that the artist used to draw the storyboards for Don Draper's ad pitches, I would believe it.

I checked this out at the library and now I am kicking myself! for some reason, I decided to only pick up volume 1! I've gotta rush to the library and hope nobody snagged up the follow up before I did!

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.

Marvel

Many comic book collectors and fans consider Kingdom Come to be Alex Ross' best work. I like that possible future of the DC Universe. But it's not my favorite of his. I absolutely adore the Alex Ross/Kurt Busiek collaboration from 1994 known simply as Marvels. It follows the span of the Marvel Universe through the eyes of a human newspaper photographer trying to make sense of a world full of superheroes and villains.

So how in the world did I miss Ross' 2020-21 follow up, Marvel? 

Well, for one thing, I'm sure it had something to do with the pandemic. As much 'free time' as I supposedly had as a teacher having to go virtual, I did very little reading. I did even much less comic book shopping. During the pandemic, I had to attend so many useless Zoom meetings that should have been emails because the high ups in my district were terrified of being accused of not doing anything by political detractors. Plus, my anxiety was at such an all-time high, I had trouble focusing on reading. 

But once the pandemic was over and we all started exiting our homes like Punxsutawney Phil looking for his shadow, how did it still take me 4 years to discover this book? A very recent chance trip to Ollie's helped me to find this trade paperback for a very good deal. (If you're in the Durham NC area, there's still a couple dozen volumes of this book if you like to save money like I do.)

Marvel is what Alex Ross originally envisioned Marvels to be. It's an anthology unencumbered by the scope of current Marvel canon. An assortment of creators were to craft stories of their favorite characters in situations as realistic or far fetched as the imagination could reach. No timeline was off limits. Past, present, future or even alternate timeline was a possibility for the tales to be contained. Ultimately, Marvel Comics passed on this project, citing it to be an idea just too lofty for a relative newcomer in the comic book industry to tackle. So Ross put the idea back on the shelf, teamed up with Kurt Busiek and Marvel Comics history was made! (Made ironically by exploring Marvel Comics history.)

Jump forward to the approach of the 25th anniversary of Marvels. The House of Ideas approached Ross for a follow-up to the ground breaking mini. A couple of sequels, including a dark timeline 2-parter had already been done. Ross didn't really want to go back to that storyline. So he pulled deep into his portfolio and dusted off his original plans for Marvels. This time the editors whole-heartedly agreed to the miniseries.

The various stories that make up Marvel is framed with a Doctor Strange epic throughout the 6 issues of the mini. The demon Nightmare has placed the entire Marvel Universe into a deep sleep. His plan is to become the most powerful entity in the universe by drawing upon the hopes, fears and dreams of the heroes, villains and deities of the 616 Universe!

There's a ton of adventures in this book. Too many to give proper attention to. So I'll focus on just a trio of my favs. 

Alan Weiss explores an early adventure of Prince Namor set in the early days of the second World War. He's asked to infiltrate a new underwater mega-structure to determine if its a refuge for the wealthy hoping to avoid the coming global holocaust or is secretly an Axis underwater base. It's a story that shows a much more swashbuckling Sub-Mariner as opposed to the snobbish ruler of Atlantis that we know of today. Very thrilling and completely unexpected.

Speaking of unexpected, in a futuristic story set after 'The War of the Worlds', we see the apocalyptic gladiator games that Killraven was forced to compete in would be like if they were populated by super-heroic survivors of the alien invasion of Earth. I won't spoil the surprise of who makes it to the games. But it's an idea that if Marvel ever decided to expand on, I would making it a part of my pull list in a heartbeat. Featuring dynamic story and artwork by Daniel Acuna.

My choice for third is a tie. That's because we get a pair of stories starring my favorite non-superhero member of the Marvel Universe: Nick Fury. Adam Hughes crafts a Sgt. Fury story set at the very tail end of WW2. Greg Smallwood designed a whirlwind look at the Steranko era of Nick Fury: Agent of SHIELD. Both were bookend looks at a fantastic character that to choose one over the other would be like a father picking a favorite child. 

This collection was tons of fun. The unexpected ending was both bizarre and yet perfectly fitting. Marvel might have supposed to have been a celebration of 1994's Marvels but by story's end, it wound up being a love story to Timely, Atlas and Marvel Comics and the influence it has made on American pop culture history!

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

Moon Knight, Volume 1: Lunatic

Marc Spector awakens in a mental hospital. It seems that his life as the vigilante Moon Knight has been just a delusion of decades of psychosis. Yet no matter how hard Spector tries to see life through the eyes of a sane person, the man keeps running into fellow inmates who seem just like those who have fought along side him in his mission against evil and injustice. 

I think after numerous tries, I can say without a doubt, I am just not a Moon Knight fan. There's too many alter egos and confusing Egyptian gods. Oh, and violence. Lots and lots of mindless violence. 

I won this book, along with 3 other books, in a drawing during a comic book event. That's why I read this. I figured free is free. Plus, it has the great Jeff Lemire (Black Hammer) as the writer. So I thought that I would be in for a treat. 

This volume contains the first 5 issues of the 2016-17 Moon Knight series. The first 3 issues were pretty good. But the concluding pair of chapters were just a hot mess. Now the artwork overall was superior. It's a mix of different art styles by Star Wars: Vader's Greg Smallwood with help by Francesco Francavilla (Archie Horror), Michael Garland (King Thor) and others. And I just loved those covers. I'n not sure who did them. But they really were awesome. 

I know that Moon Knight has a cult following. He's just not my cup of tea. Someone might be a huge fan of this book. But that person isn't me.

 Hey- at least it was a free book!

Rating: 6 out of 10 stars.