A Masterpiece Through and Through

Superhero noir at its best. Smallwood and King excel at this, breathing new life into both the JLI and Christopher Chance all while trying to solve a murder mystery that hasn't happened yet. I can't wait for volume 2.

I keep finding new favorites in this batch of Eisner Award winner! This first volume of the Human Target does not disappoint. Tom King takes the story of Christopher Chance - the titular human target - being accidentally, and ironically, poisoned in an attempt on Lex Luthor's life. What follows is a wonderful piece of noir detective fiction combined with a commentary on the place of superheroes. I am definitely looking forward to volume 2. ( )

Review is for the whole series. Read it all in one day and it was great. Noir story with excellent art. King once again makes me care about characters I didn't before (Target, Ice, Fire, etc). His knack seems to be doing that with these 12-issue runs. I think my main issue with this series are that the romance feels a bit early at first. I know people are complaining that the main character is a self-insert, but I feel like his past gives you more than that. Also, if it's a self-insert it's a pretty good one.

Marvel and DC should both just keep doing these series where they let good writers do out-of-continuity stuff, it makes for great stories without being tied to continuity

Edit: on a second read, i had less problems. this is really great stuff

Tom King mashes up crime noir and superheroes with a new spin on the classic movie D.O.A.. Christopher Chance fancies himself a "human target" because he impersonates people who fear they will be murdered, taking a bullet in their place -- like the one he just took playing Lex Luthor. But, uh-oh, that pesky bullet was really the chaser to a poison cup of joe "Lex" had for breakfast. With twelve days to live, Chance decides his most likely suspects are in the old "bwa-ha-ha" version of Justice League International and so he leisurely spends each day/chapter/issue interviewing or investigating just one of the heroes. Because why rush?

The heroes sort of fall into typical mystery stereotypes, with Ice being the icy femme fatale, Booster Gold the clueless doofus of a loser, Guy Gardner the rogue cop who keep crashing into the investigation to warn Chance off, Blue Beetle the rich guy who seems above it all, Martian Manhunter the creepy weasel trading in secrets, and Fire the fiery bombshell with a hair trigger.

It mostly stumbles along nicely, if slowly, through the genre tropes and cliches, though that death near the end threatens to derail everything and makes me wonder if this is canon or Elseworlds. Also, the silly use of grawlix (#*@%&) instead of actual swear words undercuts the atmosphere and the need for the Black Label and mature readers warnings.

This is just the first half of the mystery, so no matter what I think of it, the book really lives or dies in the second half with its resolution. I wish I had waited to read it all at once, but I'll definitely be back to see how it turns out. ( )