THE POWER COMPANY MANHUNTER #1
"A Well-Respected Man..."
Neutral (3/10)
|
DC Comics
Writer: Kurt Busiek
Pencils: Dan Jurgens
Inks: Bob Layton
Colors: John Kalisz & Digital Chameleon
Letters: Comicraft
Editor: Peter Tomasi
Price: $2.50 US/$4.25 CAN |
Archie Goodwin and Walt Simonson's work in the 1970s on the Manhunter character is hailed as some of the best of their careers in the industry, and rightly so. Imagine my surprise to find that the Power Company one-shot to build on that solid foundation is the least appealing of the comics leading up to the new Kurt Busiek/Tom Grummett series.
Two years ago, Nightwing travelled to Kenya, tracking a shipment of plutonium that was stolen in order to produce weapons of mass destruction. His only lead is an arms merchant named Kirk DePaul, so he follows him through the streets of the Kenyan city. To Mightwing's surprise, though, there is more to the man than meets the eye. A martial-arts showdown between two costumed combatants may be all the delay needed for thieves to escape with their radioactive cargo.
The recent Captain America art team of Jurgens and Layton get some more work here, but like their work on that book, a lack of backgrounds, poor panel-to-panel flow and odd perspectives make for a distracting read. Given the nature of the plot, the colors are inappropriately bright.
This cookie-cutter plot did little to pique my interest in the title character. What is interesting is his history and the inherent inner conflict and potential identity crisis. Busiek barely touches upon those aspects here, though, focusing instead of establishing the character as a badass, only to reverse that position with a cliched ending.
There are too many aspects of the plot that just don't make sense. Nightwing's involvement in such a scenario doesn't really fit with the character. The new Manhunter's rationalization of how he does business left me scratching my head... and not in a good way. Despite my problems with this issue, though, I have no doubt that Busiek will explore Manhunter's deeper character potential in the regular Power Company series, beginning next month.
Email Don MacPherson comments about this review, or discuss it on the Fourth Rail message board.
|
