Review by Ian Keogh

The Human Target was created by Len Wein as a back-up feature in 1972. Christopher Chance would, for a vast payment, take the place of someone in danger of being killed. It was therefore a very long, and by 2010 unlikely journey to TV screens, with Peter Millgan’s more psychologically complex version then lingering in the memory (see recommendations). However, when the TV show aired DC did right by Wein by commissioning another mystery involving Chance, and did even better by him in pairing him with the then little known Bruno Redondo as artist.

Chance takes on the seemingly impossible mission of extracting a potential high ranking Mafia informant, Morelli, from his highly guarded property in Paris and returning him to the USA to begin naming names and deeds.

The TV series unaccountably discarded Chance’s USP of passing himself off as the person fearing for their life, and Wein follows suit here. Chance wears disguises on occasion, but the note perfect masquerading as individuals plays no part. Instead we have a globe-trotting action thriller with the maguffin being Morelli having cached his evidence in remote places from which it has to be retrieved. Assassins turn up at each location, allowing Redondo to draw thrilling chase scenes through the canals of Venice, the peaks of the Swiss Alps and the streets of Hong Kong. Each of them is gloriously rendered, bringing home locations and costumes.

Seasoned mystery readers aren’t going to have too much trouble figuring out how it is killers wait at every location, but that’s not the point. They’ll also ask why it is that Morelli couldn’t be prioritised and his information later retrieved, but again, that’s not the point. The point is high octane chases making good use of every location with some well conceived action suitable to the place. It shows Chance as adaptable and thinking on his feet, and Redondo sells the deal every time.

Just when you’ll think it’s all over, there’s a back-up strip, ‘Scars’, which packs two writers and four artists into 36 pages. The conceit is a brief account of how Chance acquired a number of his scars, which allows for action-packed flashbacks around the world. The smartest of them is six pages by Robbie Thompson and Chris Sprouse where Chance’s dialogue is a series of phrases beginning with “not”. Nitpickers will note the shift of artists between Sprouse and Jean Paul Leon sees a shirt removed then restored, and it would have been better if the visual clues highlighted in the latter’s art had been shown by earlier artists. Otherwise Pete Johnson, then Thompson write serviceable action dramas in short sweet bursts. It seals an enjoyable romp.