Christopher Chance is The Human Target. Hired to be you, he takes the hit, dies, then gets up and takes out the killer. Except, after his latest job impersonating Lex Luthor, Chance discovers he’s been fatally poisoned and will die - for good - in 12 days. Can he find out who killed him in that time?
Tom King’s latest 12 issue series gets off to a rather unimpressive start with The Human Target #1. I don’t know anything about this character (it’s not like there’s been a plethora of books featuring him in recent years either) but from what I’ve seen in this opening chapter, he’s not that interesting.
So Chance is just a guy who wears armor and makeup - what’s special about him? Does he have any powers to help him recover from being hit? Can he disguise himself to be anyone or can he only take jobs for older white guys? I’m just wondering how he came to be in this line of work - there should be something to suggest why he took up this role. He just seems to be an ordinary dude who’s incongruously tangled up in the world of DC superheroes.
I’m a fan of Greg Smallwood and his art in this book is fun. He seems to be going for a ‘60s pop aesthetic with the colours and designs, maybe because Chance himself looks like a character you’d see in a ‘60s show. The tone and visuals reminded me of Darwyn Cooke’s Parker books - no bad thing.
King’s story didn’t grab me though. I don’t particularly care about whether Chance lives or dies and the mystery set up isn’t enough to make me want to keep up with the singles. Human Target looks like another dreary slow-burn like his Rorschach and, in that case, I can definitely wait for the trade. The Human Target #1 is an underwhelming beginning that’ll only really appeal to Tom King fanboys.
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