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"Human Target" Issues 1 - 5
By Andy - 06.03.04
 "Human Target" features a protagonist who is at times both a merciless vigilante and an entirely selfless and noble protector. The premise is simple: Christopher Chance is a bodyguard who, instead of merely hanging around his employer, becomes a decoy of the employer and exploits the threat, hence the title. Peter Milligan manages to use this foundation as a springboard for a combination of thrilling suspense as well as insights into various notions of identity and delusion. Christopher Chance finds that in order to be successful at what he does, he must fully convince himself that he is this person.
Without giving too much away, the first issue in this five-issue graphic novel centers around Frank White, a movie director who has survived a near-fatal house fire. With his successful movies, he's able to pay for up-to-the-minute reconstructive surgery in order to become himself again. He picks up where his life left off and continues to make his signature brand of ultra-violent movies. One man, known only as Mr. Smith, finds the violence in Frank White's movies appalling, not because they're gruesome and grotesque, but on account of the fact that Frank White is pushing this violence as entertainment. These movies push Mr. Smith to act out against Frank White, and the result is stunning.
The next two issues focus on John Matthews, an accountant who was pressured into falsifying and destroying financial documents for the corporation Marlin, Shuster & Ley Holdings. Once the IRS and SEC began an investigation, he was forced to fake his own death on 9/11 in order to escape shame and to provide insurance money for his wife and children. He hides out and lives low for a year, but is found out by his previous employers. His previous employers kidnap his wife and force him to sacrifice his own life in order to save his wife's. He then hires Christopher Chance to step in and help him out.
Ruben Valdez has been the New Yorkers' MVP ever since he joined the team. One day he hits a two-run homer and wins the game 3-2. He then goes home to his twenty-third floor apartment and throws himself out of the window. Christopher Chance is then hired by the team's manager to find out what happened.
"Human Target" was originally created by Len Wein and Carmine Infantino back in the 1970s and was a short lived TV series starring Rick Springfield (yes, of "Jessie's Girl" fame) in 1992. Peter Milligan then picked it up in the mid 90's for two 4-issue bursts. The response in both the industry and the public was slow-building, but what response was there was almost unanimously positive. Vertigo, the edgier and more adult-oriented wing of DC Comics, then decided to pick it up as a full-fledged series. Javier Pulido's drawing style is old-fashioned, but it's fitting for the crime-thriller genre. The drawings are simplistic with regard to color like older comics, but the drawings themselves are detailed and expressive. The strong yet subtle panel layout also helps set the tone. Milligan's writing and story archs are impressive; he is able to blend the incredible with the believable. The actions of all of the characters are real; you can imagine choosing the same paths these characters take if you were placed in these compromising circumstances. The dialogue is also sharp and well-written. In Christopher Chance's ability to become someone else, he is capable of learning things about his subjects that even the subjects might not know. As a result, the exchanges between Christopher Chance and his employers are revealing in a way not dissimilar from the therapy sessions that Tony Soprano has with Dr. Melfi in "The Sopranos."
Brilliant writing that is both engaging and intelligent coupled with a great premise provides a strong foundation for what I hope to be a long-lasting and prosperous comic.
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