If you think you’re being targeted for assassination, call for Christopher Chance, aka the Human Target, to dress up like you and take the hit instead so you can find out who’s really gunning for you. Except Chris’ latest job as stand-in for Lex Luthor sees him accidentally poisoned - by someone from Justice League International! With just 12 issues, sorry “days”, to live, Chris has to interview everyone from the JLI to find out who’s killed him - but will he make it in time?
Tom King continues his pattern of writing 12 issue story arcs for some of DC’s less well-known characters, like he previously did with Omega Men, Mister Miracle and Adam Strange, with Human Target. This latest one though isn’t among his better efforts and the first six issues collected in this volume are really slow and dull to read.
It’s amazing Human Target was a thing at all. He’s got no superpowers and seems to rely entirely on Mission Impossible-style face masks. His one job we see in this book is Lex Luthor - ie. another white guy of the same height, age and build - and the one concession to looking like him is wearing a bald cap! He’s a “master of disguise”? How about doing something truly impressive like impersonating Harley or Black Lightning - or would black face be too controversial? And he’s just wearing a bullet-proof vest! So Chris Chance is… your average bodyguard. Fascinating. I can see why this character never took off for DC.
Everything about this book makes it feel like you’re reading classic noir fiction. There’s the first person voiceover, the office where femme fatales linger, the ever-present hip flask, the constant suit-wearing and drinking of whiskey, and Chris looks like Cary Grant. Greg Smallwood’s pop art-style underlines the feeling that this story is set in a different era, particularly those excellent covers. No idea why this was done though as I’ve never read any other Human Target books - maybe they’re all like this or it might even simply be that Tom King wanted to write a noir-ish comic?
The atmosphere is fine and Smallwood’s superb art is easily the best part of the book, but the story is so very plodding and uninteresting. Considering the clock is ticking the whole time, you never once feel any tension or urgency to the story. We just watch Chris methodically work his way through the list of suspects - Guy Gardner, cast here as the jealous ex of Ice; Booster Gold, who’s launched a bagel franchise for some reason; Ted Kord, blathering bore; Martian Manhunter, a man with a secret; and Ice, who’s always at Chris’ side because she’s his love interest - gradually learning things to put together some theories.
It’s a lot of talking that never really made for particularly compelling reading, unfortunately. Chris and Ice make a cute couple and the death at the end is a surprising twist (although, “death” in superhero comics, y’know…) but it’s nowhere close to what you’d call an enthralling narrative. It’s all style and dreary substance.
Not that King’s previous forays into DC’s depths has resurrected new or lasting interest in any of those characters, but I especially don’t think anyone’s gonna be clamouring for more Human Target comics after reading this one. We’ll have to wait for the second and final volume to find out whodunit and it’s a wait I can easily manage - perhaps indefinitely!
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