I hadn't realized how much I had missed John Gaunt until I started paging through this return to form by his original creators, John Ostrander and Tim Truman. I was a little nervous... Ostrander had lost none of his steam in recent years, and Truman had actually gotten better with each new project, but still... how many creators have we seen trying to return to the site of old glories only to make us think maybe those old glories were, uh, not quite so glorious? I needn't have worried. Not only is Grimjack: Killer Instinct every bit as good as the older Grimjack stories, a return to form for the character and his creators, but it walks that exceptionally difficult line between being a project to welcome back the readers who have been pining for a return and remaining accessible to those who have at best only heard the name Grimjack bantered around as "one of those great series someone should bring back someday." Someday is today, someone is IDW and great still describes Grimjack.
For this new miniseries, Ostrander and Truman have chosen to focus on a period of John Gaunt's life that we haven't seen much of, his early days working with Cadre. When we first meet Gaunt in the Starslayer backups (reprinted in the excellent Legend of Grimjack trade this week), he's on the outs with Cadre and the Trans-Dimensional Police that he once worked for in Cynosure. Ostrander and Truman turn the clock back just a little bit to John's last mission with the TDP, against his longtime foe The Dancer (trust me, he's way more dangerous than the name sounds), and shows how that transitioned into his recruitment by super secret agency and interdimensional covert ops factory Cadre. Of course, Ostrander and Truman still skip over a fair amount of John's Cadre days to show us his last assignment, and that's probably a wise move, given that Gaunt's personality is such that he's at his best when he's rebelling against something, not working peacefully for them. But at any rate, for the duration of Killer Instinct, or at least it's first couple issues, John Gaunt a.k.a. Grimjack isn't a freelance mercenary but an older, wiser and still dangerous black op who is starting to question the things he does.
The story of John's last Cadre mission is of course going to be the focus of the miniseries, but Ostrander and Truman start off a little further back, with the story of how John left the TDP. This is a fantastic bit of writing for several reasons. Primarily, it's a really good action sequence that shows a lot about the personality of John, Roscoe and Blacjacmac (three of the main characters of Grimjack) and starts the whole book off with a bang. But it's also the first place that the balance between accessibility and catering to the fans starving for more Grimjack shows up. New readers will get that what happens to Roscoe is pretty bad, and that John rightfully feels some guilt about it, but for older readers, it's an "aha! That's how it happened!" moment. New readers will get the danger that Dancer presents, but for older readers, it's another reason for the deep hatred that Grimjack has for his rival. New readers will get the sense that the Colonel is maybe a little on the amoral side, while older readers may find themselves yelling at the page for Gaunt to not take the deal, wake up and realize where the path is leading him.
Then there's the actual Cadre mission, and again, if this doesn't give you a taste for Cynosure and the adventures therein, than Grimjack probably isn't the book for you. Some of the most bizarre protagonists and antagonists match up in a mission gone wrong, and though the youthful exuberance versus older experience is certainly a conflict we've seen before, it remains as true in science-fiction and fantasy as it is in real life. In grand Grimjack tradition, the story also allows John Gaunt a minor victory but dumps him further into trouble, playing nicely into the pulp roots that drove the creation of the book in the first place. This is a book that will be great in trade, but it ain't "written for the trade." By the time we've reached the end of the book, we've met a half-dozen fascinating characters, been introduced to the bizarre and intriguing setting of Cynosure, witnessed two kickass action sequences and been left with a cliffhanger that will have you flipping pages hoping that there's still more to come after the house ads. (There is, and it's a lettercol, and big ups to Chris Ryall for putting the book together and Mike Gold and John Ostrander for re-opening the doors on the Grimjack lettercol... it wouldn't have felt like a Grimjack book without it.)
So I've only hinted here at how integral Tim Truman's artwork is to Grimjack, but it is absolutely clear why Ostrander went back and rewrote the contract to give Truman co-creator credit. Truman's art style, a mixture of Heavy Metal technology fetishism, post-apocalyptic backdrops and tribal influences, is always a treat, but it's almost like it was created exclusively for Cynosure and the world of John Gaunt. The bloody, close-up violence that Gaunt often engages in has a nice, visceral impact, and you get a sense that those blades, claws and fangs are damn sharp in Grimjack's world. The characters are decked out in full regalia, whether it's Gaunt's patchwork merc outfit, the Colonel's fascistic military gear (complete with sinister monocle... never trust a secret agent with a monocle) or the Harlequins, a bizarre Halloween-themed street gang secretly working for Cadre. And the monsters... the wraiths are damn scary, and they needed to be to really sell the threat and to show off just how deep Gaunt and company have gotten themselves in, and when the wraiths manifest, they exude such horror, such power, such size that you instantly get it. One shouldn't underestimate the contribution of Lovern Kindzierski, either, as the deep red of flame and blood dominates the opening, or the eerie blue gives a spectral yet all-too-solid appearance to the wraiths. Cynosure is packed with detail and color, and that means that not only does Truman have to deliver, but his colorist has to keep up, and Kindzierski excels here.
I'll be completely honest, when this new miniseries was announced, it was really the cherry on the cake for me. All I wanted was reprint trades of the original Grimjack saga, preferably with nice production values. That would have made me happy. But an amazing Grimjack trade, starting with material I've never read, and a new miniseries that is just as good as I remember Grimjack being when I first discovered it? That made me ecstatic. 10/10
