With the recent release of the new Human Target series and the second graphic novel, now seemed as good a time as any to revisit my review of the original Human Target mini-series, which many Fourth Rail readers have probably never read. In 1999, Vertigo released some fantastic crime mini-series related to their DC characters, updated and given a more adult twist. One of the best of those was Human Target, by Peter Milligan and Edvin Biukovic, a bodyguard/assassin tale that centered around the theme of identities, appropriately enough for a character whose main ability was impersonating others to serve as a target for assassins.
DC has had a hit and miss record of translating their super-hero universe characters into the Vertigo universe. Their best efforts come in taking fairly obscure characters, especially ones with very unusual concepts (such as Shade the Changing Man or Prez or Swamp Thing) and reinventing them with an eye toward what reality would do to such characters. That's the case with Christopher Chance, who, prior to this mini, reached his highest point when he was depicted in a made-for-TV movie by Rick Springfield.
The story focuses on an anti-gang preacher named Earl, a young drug lord named Dee Noyz, a female assassin named Emerald, Christopher Chance (the Human Target) and another man claiming to be Christopher Chance. When the drug lord gets evidence of an indiscretion in the preacher's past, it is quickly brought to light, forcing Chance to take the preacher's place, even as Chance (both of them) questions their own identities. There are further complications with the female assassin, a deadly adversary who hides a secret identity of her own.
As you can tell from that vague and probably confusing (in the interest of not spoiling the story) synopsis, this is a story with a variety of twists and turns. There are plenty of plot twists throughout, many of them having to do with the overriding theme of identity.
It's fitting that in a story about a man whose job it is to so perfectly impersonate someone else, the theme that runs throughout is identity. The question is, what makes someone who they are? We're all familiar with showing a different facet of our personality to different people who know us, and Milligan's narrative just takes that to the ultimate extremes. The second Human Target was so good as impersonating others that he has lost his own identity, and can only define himself by the identities he has studied and mastered... failing to perfectly adopt a target identity could be deadly, but failing to successfully adopt his own could destroy him even more, while leaving him alive.
The brilliance of Milligan's script is that he explores the depths of everyone's persona, whether they be protagonist, antagonist or supporting player. Emerald is a deadly assassin bent on destroying Chance, yet she lives another secret life, a more mundane version of life that she obviously feels more connected to, and it gives her a tragic and human touch, even though she is the antagonist of the book. Dee Noyz is humanized by a connection to a girl he once dated and her extreme actions lead him to a surprising redemption in the end. And Chance himself comes across as callous and arrogant, while the other Chance is portrayed as close to insane, struggling to deal with a multiple personality disorder borne of his work.
If this all sounds like a cerebral exercise... it is. But it's cerebral like a good John Woo film, exploring themes through action as well as interaction. The gunfights and set pieces of this story are gorgeous, with two sequences set in a church that equal the best of what Woo has put on film. The rest of the story is equally impressive, depicting the decadence of Chance's life, the gritty reality of Earl's neighborhood or even the normalcy of Emerald's secret life. Biukovic died shortly after this series was published, but if he hadn't, his name would certainly have graced a number of projects in coming years, as he proved himself a master of shadows and atmosphere, action and subtlety.
