Grifter #1 - Cole Cash is a professional con man, or grifter. Cole rips off some guy who thought he was ripping off Cole, but Cole is abducted before he can enjoy his spoils. He wakes up on a table, wires running from him to a weird creature floating in a tube. Cole escapes, killing Charles Xavier in the process, and hearing voices in his head the whole time. He tries to catch a flight to San Juan, where he'll meet with his con-partner, Gretchen. On the plane he's attacked by what looks like a regular lady, but is apparently one of the weird creatures in disguise. Cole kills her, jumps out of the plane, and winds up branded a terrorist, with the Pentagon planning to send his own brother after him. Also, Cole's partner is none too happy, because Cole had been missing 17 days, and she thinks he double-crossed her. Well he is a con man, honey.My primary feeling on finishing this was indifference. I don't think it's a bad comic, but I found myself not terribly concerned with Cole. I think maybe Edmondson didn't give us enough story. He seems to have started a lot of balls rolling, but they moved so little I can't be sure I'm right. We don't know what the creatures' plans are. Is Gretchen planning to rat him out to the cops? That guy he scammed initially, will he pop up, because it would make sense for a con man to have problems related to past jobs, but maybe he's only a one-time character.
Cafu's art reminds me of Sean Chen. Which isn't a bad thing, I generally like Sean Chen's work, but I wouldn't say it seriously improves the comic.
Resurrection Man #1 - Mitch Shelley wakes up in a morgue, which has to be getting old for him. He tries to board a plane for Portland, and is talked to by a strange woman. Said strange woman then morphs into a 4-armed, winged monster, who says she's here for Mitch's soul. Mitch kills her, but the plane crashes killing everyone, including Mitch. Mitch doesn't stay dead, and he flees, as it appears both Heaven and Hell are after him. I suppose a soul that can't die might be useful in an eternal struggle. I liked this more than Grifter. Part of that is that I'm more familiar with the character, so perhaps Abnett and Lanning don't need to explain as much to me. I don't know how a new reader would take to it, necessarily. Actually, I liked this better than most of the original Resurrection Man series that I've read. I find the idea of his soul being a prize sought by various forces more interesting than a stereotypical shadowy government group trying to track down what they believe is one of their successful experiments. That may still wind up being part of it, given the presence of the two ladies interrogating the coroner about a vanished "John Doe", if those are the Body Doubles, after Mitch again.
When he was announced as artist, I looked up Fernando Dagnino online to see what his art looked like. I wonder if what I found was actually drawn by him, or if someone attributed art to him someone else drew, because this looks quite different. It reminds me a little of Guice's artwork from the first series, and someone online mentioned Gene Colan, which yeah, with the heavy use of shadows at occasional odd angles in the panels, I can see that. I wasn't a huge fan of Guice's work, more on a personal taste level than any failure of the art to do the job. I think the shadows and odd angles really help make thing seem strange and terrifying, so I'm liking Dagnino's work even more than I thought I would.
Suicide Squad #1 - As I recall, in the original version of the cover, the smoke from Deadshot's gun drifted through Harley's smile, which kept throwing me off because I thought she had some piece of string or wire held in her teeth. Now the smoke's drifting across her chest.The issue is split. Half of it is a torture sequence, which bag wearers torturing the Squad for information about who they are, and who they work for. There are three one-page interludes focusing on how Deadshot, Harley, and El Diablo wound up in prison. Savant eventually spills the beans, which gets him dragged off and. . . killed? We didn't see it, but he was screaming a lot. Then it all turns out to have been a test, and the six members who didn't crack are now the Suicide Squad. Their first mission is to be air-dropped into a stadium, and kill everyone. In six hours. Why? Well, the solicitation for issue 2 told us, but this issue doesn't.
This is the comic of the three I'm having the most trouble with, because it's the one where how the characters are presented is most at odds with how I think of them. Which puts me in that situation of wanting to be fair, and not simply dismiss these versions as wrong. And there are certain things that felt right. Deadshot's dialogue sounded mostly right, the bit about it being better to aim at the base of the skull, especially. Harley's face when their first mission turned out to be a fake. Killer Shark is sort of what I think of. He's crazy, likes meat, but doesn't seem crazy in the same way. Closer to a mindless animal.
The torture scene bugs me. It wasn't pleasant, and from a story perspective, it's idiotic. You torture these folks, then 8 hours later dump them in a stadium to kill everyone, without providing medical attention. Deadshot had his torso gnawed open by rats! How is it smart to tear up the people you expect to do your dirty work, before they even have a chance to do it? Is this what Waller has to resort to when she can't get any heroes to go along to ride herd on her crooks?
I don't know what happened to Marco Rudy, who was originally the artist listed. Federico Dallocchio drew all the torture sequences, which look suitably unpleasant, and Ransom Getty drew the other half of the book. I prefer Getty's work, but it's a matter of taste than any flaw in Dallocchio's art.
I don't know about Suicide Squad. The series has such a promising concept, but I don't the execution is going to be to my taste. Grifter didn't do anything bad, really, but it also didn't grab hold of me and leave me desperately wanting to see the next issue. Of the three Resurrection Man was the clear winner. I've already sent in my orders through December, though, so the other two have three more months to convince me I've misjudged them. It's happened before. Not often, but it has happened.
Tomorrow, I'll be looking at three mini-series from Marvel that wrapped up, and Darkwing Duck.
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