Review by Woodrow Phoenix
Christopher Chance is a dead man. Risking his own life by taking a bullet meant for someone else is what he’s paid to do, and he’s very good at calculating all the odds to find the variable that will keep him alive, but far too many people want to kill his latest employer for him to anticipate them all.
While doubling for billionaire supervillain and supermogul Lex Luthor, a radioactive poison from another dimension meant for Luthor ends up in Chance’s cup of coffee. There is no cure for this alien substance and nothing anyone can do to reverse the effects. Dr Midnite, superhero medic to the Justice League and other heroes, confirms the bad news: Chance has twelve days left to live. He tells Chance something else too. The distinctive traces of radiation from his poison can be found on all the people on Earth who have been to the Ringbrak dimension, and there are only a handful of them. This is because they are no ordinary people. They are all superheroes: members of Justice League International. None of them would lose any sleep over the death of a man like Lex Luthor. The world would be a better place without him for sure, but which of them might actually cross the line to make that happen? By the end of The Human Target Volume One, Chance has questioned and eliminated Ice, Booster Gold, Blue Beetle, the Martian Manhunter, and Green Lantern Guy Gardner from his list of suspects, but he’s getting weaker with every day.
Film Noir fans might recognise this distinctive plot from the 1949 classic whodunnit D.O.A. Tom King’s riff on this ingeniously tense thriller idea has a similar urgency to it, given extra intensity by the way the information is delivered in competing scenes of past and present overlapping in ambiguous ways. Slices of Chance’s backstory are mixed in with the recollections of the people he questions in his attempt to find out who is responsible for his very certain, impending death, and Greg Smallwood’s beautifully retro-flavoured design and layouts are perfectly arranged to deliver stylish and surprising compositions that are strong on character and interpersonal relationships. He’s equally good at action scenes which showcase each hero’s fighting style in his expressive, film-poster mode of drawing.
The puzzle pieces of this mystery are shuffled continuously and ingeniously as Chance narrows down his list. The clues are all in plain sight so if you are counting down the days and remaining suspects with him you might figure out who Chance’s killer is before the big revelation. But even if you do there are some intriguing developments to wrap this story up that you probably won’t anticipate. The Human Target is an excellent read for fans of mysteries and/or the kind of character-based, sitcom storytelling that was a hallmark of 1990’s DC superhero comics with bags of style, witty dialogue and some great set-pieces, the Batman chapter in particular being a high point. The series won two Eisner Awards in 2023 for Best Limited Series, and Best Penciller/Inker for Greg Smallwood.
