This is The Human Target. It is Written by Tom King and Illustrated by Greg Smallwood. The Coloring is also done by Greg Smallwood and the Lettering is done by Clayton Cowles. This book has won two Eisner Awards which include Best Penciller/Inker (Greg Smallwood) and Best Limited Series. This book is a part of the DC Black Label imprint. This means it is for mature audiences only, specifically 17 years old or older. Trigger Warning: This book contains elements that one might consider disturbing such as poisoning, assassination attempts, stalking, and domestic abuse. Readers discretion is advised. This book follows Christopher Chance, AKA The Human Target. His job is to disguise himself as his clients to stop possible assassination attempts on their lives. But on one such mission, where he disguises himself as Lex Luthor, he is poisoned by an unknown figure. Now Christopher only has twelve days to find out whoever poisoned him before he succumbs to it. But does he have any chance, escpecially that the perpetrator is one of the Justice League International?
As of right now, this is my favorite book that I have read this year. Pretty much everything in this book is perfect. The story for this book is done in such a unique way. So basically, every issue of this book represents a different day in the plot, issue one starts with Chance’s poisoning, and issue twelve shows his death. It really adds a lot of unqiue perspective while also keeping the ticking time tension trope in the forefront. It is such an interesting and unique way to show a somewhat overused plotpoint. Another factor about this book is that Christopher Chance is an amazing protagonist. He is incredibly interesting and rather morally grey. At the start of the story he is so calm and collected. But as the story reaches its end, he becomes more and more panicked. He becomes borderline unhinged by the last couple issues as he runs out of time to find his killer. It is fascinating to see how people behave when they know they’re running out of time. And that is what makes Christopher so interesting of a character.
Now on to the suspects, which are members of the Justice League International. Only a couple members of the JLI get spotlight in this series. So the one’s that do are Ice, Booster Gold, Blue Beetle (Ted Kord), Martian Manhunter, Green Lantern (Guy Gardner), Fire, Rocket Red, Batman, and another Green Lantern, (G’nort). For each issue, one member of the JLI gets spotlighted. Some members share a more comedic role, such as Booster Gold and G’nort. Others also fall into a more informative role, such as Martian Manhunter, Ted Kord, and Fire. And then some character fall into an antagonistic role, such as Guy Gardner and Rocket Red. Then there is Ice, who is the most important member in this series. She is the co-lead and love interest to Christopher. At the beginning, she presents herself as just a sweet person trying to help Christopher solve the case. But she develops to possibly the most terrifying character in the book. She is such an interesting character and my personal favorite of the story.
Spoiler Alert: My favorite singular issue for this book is the ninth, titled And When I Have Stol’n Upon These Sons-In-Law. It is the issue that focuses on Batman. But here is the interesting thing, Batman doesn’t show up for a single panel. But the presence of Batman is felt within every section of that issue. Through how every character interacts with one another. To how Christopher Chance monolgue’s in his head that someone will catch him. It is honestly a perfect issue, which is extremely hard to do. Even though I talk about spoilers with these reviews, I refuse to tell you who did the poisoning. I wan’t you to find out by reading the story. I will say, the twist is somewhat obvious, but the reveal is so good that it makes up for that flaw.
Now on to the art by Greg Smallwood. It is some of the most beautiful artwork that I have ever seen in a graphic novel. The way that Greg Smallwood makes the artwork look realistic while still showing that silver age aesthetic is nothing short of masterful. I really love how vibrant and colorful that this book looks. Like I mentioned earlier, that detail really reminds me of the silver age of comic books. I also love how the designs bring in clothing that looks like it came out of the 1950s. Which also adds to the silver age aesthetic like I mentioned earlier. I also got to give credit to the letterer, Clayton Cowles. His lettering with actions like singing and sound effects are so cool looking. This lettering created one of my favorite moments in the entire book. Overall, the art for this book is phenomenal and Greg Smallwood definitely deserved his Eisner Award.
Overall, this book is one of the best that I have ever read. This book has so many strengths such as a fun story, interesting mystery, compelling characters, heartbreaking moments, a shocking reveal, beautiful artwork, and unique lettering. There is nothing in this book that I wouldn’t consider a masterclass. Everyone who worked on this book should be extremely proud of themselves. I would recommend this book to anyone who is looking to get into comics.