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HUMAN TARGET #12
"Crossing the Border Part One: Suffer the Children"
Highly Recommended (9/10)
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DC Comics/Vertigo imprint
Writer: Peter Milligan
Artist: Javier Pulido
Colors: Javier Rodriguez
Letters: Clem Robins
Editor: Karen Berger
Price: $2.95 US/$4.50 CAN |
I've gotta be honest, I didn't really expect Mary, Christopher Chance's wife (sort of... it's complicated, like everything with Chance) to be the driving point of one of the plots, at least not in this way. I shouldn't be surprised, though, because the revelation of Mary's extra-curricular activities is just another layer of the exploration of identity that Milligan has been doing with this character since day one. What I've finally sort of recognized and warmed up to is that the Human Target series isn't just about action and identity, but that Milligan has also decided to use it as a vehicle to explore certain social injustices, giving the book an added layer of depth. The result is that the stories often hit very close to home, making me uncomfortable with their degree of realism, but they also make me think, and that's what elevates Human Target above being just an action book. Although thanks to Milligan and his artists, in this case Javier Pulido, there tends to be plenty of action as well.
Milligan and Pulido's opening scene in this book is one that will stay with me for a while. It's not unlike the sequence in Brad Meltzer's Identity Crisis #2, except that here, the depravity of it seems more fitting, and while the scene will hold a degree of horror for anyone, it will hold even more for anyone who is a parent. This immediately gives a time issue to the story, as we see the likely fate of Mrs. Centeno's daughter if Chance and his wife can't save her, and given that Mary White has been through with her own son, that makes it personal for her as well. Also, given the way the Human Target stories have unfolded in the past, we're not guaranteed a happy ending here, and that makes it all the more tense.
To be honest, the intensity of viciousness and cruelty in the bad guys almost puts me off the book, not because I don't believe it, but because it's somewhat uncomfortable to read. Fortunately, however, Milligan has not lost touch with the notion that in fiction, we want to see the bad guys get their comeuppance, and so we get some key scenes in this issue where Chance gears up for battle, or where Mary shows a defiance that is admirable in some regards. Oh, sure, in some other regards, and in reality, it would be less heroic and more foolish, as it does arguably get someone killed, but the anger and defiance, something these gangsters don't see a lot of, is heroic in this light.
While my favorite penciller on this book is Cliff Chiang, Javier Pulido is an excellent artist, and I'm warming to his take on the book. Unlike his more stylized, pastel take in the last issue, he goes with a more straightforward style here, and it works. The use of tiny inset panels reminds me of the work of Darwyn Cooke and Cameron Stewart on Catwoman, and it's an approach I really like, as it focuses the eye on small moments and in so doing expands the bigger picture. There's also some lovely understated anger and strength from Mary, particularly in the scene where she takes the call from Alejandro, and a sense of a growing storm when Chance is gearing up. These are subtle things, hard to pin down exactly what it is in the art that gets the feeling across, but Pulido absolutely accomplishes the setting of tone and place required, and even if his action sequences aren't as expressive as Chiang's, the rest of his work doesn't really suffer for it.
The first Human Target miniseries, although serious and even dark, read to me very much like escapist action fare. With the ongoing series, Milligan has taken things up a notch, daring the reader not just to get involved in the mysteries of identity or the excitement of gunfire but the anger, frustration and sadness that comes when exploring difficult societal issues like corporate malfeasance, organized crime and kidnapping. The result is a book that is a compelling and often disturbing read.
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