Grifter #13 (New 52) Review

Left: Grifter #13 Cover


"The EYE of the STORM"

Story:  Rob Liefeld

Dialog:  Frank Tieri

Pencils:  Marat Mychaels

Inks:  Dave Beaty

Colors:  Andrew Dalhouse

Letters:  Wes Abbott

Editor:  Brian Smith

ART

Even though I was saddened to lose Scott Clark on penciling duties on this title, we picked up the awesome Marat Mychaels. I really enjoyed the art in this issue, mostly because I love Mychaels’ rendition of Grifter. He really does the coolness of the character justice, and he has a great grasp of how to draw the mask and not make it look completely ridiculous (I’m looking at you Jesus Merino).

Of course, we continue with the super solid team of Beaty (inks) and Dalhouse (colors), who never disappoint and in reality, have kept this book to a consistent look throughout, which has been great.

The only downside to the art is that the backgrounds are very sparse and some of the scenes that were picked for the double-page spreads were not the scenes that I would have picked to showcase. Either way, if minimal backgrounds is going to allow Mychaels to keep putting a very high level of detail into his character work, I can deal with that.

STORY (SYNOPSIS) & DIRECTION

***BEGIN SPOILERS***

Hey, It's Warick--who the heck is he anyway?

This issue was a little hard to follow upon my initial read-through, due to the flashbacks and quick cuts between scenes, so that had a little bit of impact on my overall enjoyment of the issue’s actual story direction, but not that big of deal.

Side Note: In the future, if we are going to see any flashbacks or anything along those lines where we are taken out of the present and shown a different scene, a slight difference in the coloring (or maybe some kind of photoshop filter) or an art style tweak would go a long way to letting the readers know that we are looking at a different time and place. The backgrounds on the EOS and in STAR Labs looked so much alike that it was very hard to know that those were two different scenes (other than the cross-eyed Voodoo being only in the STAR Labs scene).

The story begins with Grifter meeting with the ever-mysterious Warick who is helping Cole plan an information-gathering mission. We don’t learn a lot from this initial scene, as far as who Warick really is and what his ultimate motivations are. We do see, because of some little red exposition boxes, that Grifter knows a little more than he is willing to tell Warick at this time…interesting. But this is totally in character for Grifter, as a good con-man always keeps his cards close to his vest, so to speak.

We flash forward to Grifter and Voodoo (really, Priscilla, the original non-clone character) breaking into STAR Labs and utilizing a teleporter to beam Grifter into the Bleed so he can infiltrate the Eye of the Storm (EOS - Stormwatch team headquarters) and retrieve some very important information on Amanda Waller, who in turn will have the information that Cole Cash ultimately wants. I know, it’s just a little bit convoluted.

Our protagonist makes his way into the hyperspace ship and is immediately detected by the ship’s AI, the Daemonite consciousness known as Charlie, lol. They have some funny dialog back and forth and then all of a sudden Grifter gets cold cocked out of nowhere by none other than…Apollo. Apparently, being the nice guy that he is, he was holding back on Grifter, but this was his first and only mistake as Cole takes his chance to produce a flamethrower on steroids (originally designed to take down Martian Manhunter, presumably designed by Team 7 tech guys) that briefly incapacitates Apollo long enough for Grifter to close ranks and hit him with a hopped up taser of sorts. This puts Apollo down for the count.

Side Note: A lot of the old-school Wildstorm fans are crying foul about how this should never happen and Grifter shouldn’t be able to hold his own at all in a fight with either Apollo or Midnighter. But I say to that…this a new comic universe and things have changed. DC has gone to pretty great lengths to establish how telepathically powerful and competent Grifter really is. He is vastly more powerful in the New52 than he ever was in the past. Now, this is a point of contention, but it’s what is happening, so we have to live with it. Or you don’t, I guess, if you choose not to read this comic…but then why would you be reading this review???

Grifter isn't bad, but Voodoo's cross-eyed!

Immediately after that brief scuffle, Grifter gets to a computer interface and pulls the information out of the EOS’s database and gets ready to make a quick exfiltration. But it’s not going to be that easy, because Midnighter appears on scene and attempts to subdue (or kill, more likely, because Midnighter is a giant douche like that) Cole. Grifter avoids his attacks and hits him with a powerful “TK punch” and that makes quick work of him as well.

Cole isn’t here to hurt the members of Stormwatch, he just needed the information, so rather than continuing fighting with them he makes a quick jump through the teleporter, but Midnighter jumps through and…

that’s the end…

...a big cliffhanger that will presumably have another fight between Grifter and Midnighter. But I hope that’s not the case because the hero-fighting-hero schtick is getting a little played out in this series. I really hope that Grifter can use his smooth-talking skills to talk Midnighter down and avoid another brawl.

As for the overall direction of the series, it seems to be heading on the path of Grifter finally taking the fight to the individuals who allowed the Daemonites to exist on earth (possibly for their own gain). This group, or person, must be bastards, because they knowingly allowed the Daemonties to kidnap, experiment, and murder untold numbers of humans. We, as the readers, really don’t have a clue who the ultimate baddie is going to be, but we do know that Grifter is looking for Amanda Waller’s files (so there is most likely a Team 7 connection) and that Waller herself could be responsible for all or some of the horrible things that have befallen Grifter since the beginning of this series, but I’m pretty sure that is just a misdirection to keep the readers guessing and allow for a plot twist when the antagonist is finally revealed.

Only a breathing mask for the Bleed...crazy.

Last Side Note: We just found out that this series is being cancelled with issue #16, which leaves us three (3) more precious issues. I can’t describe how bummed out I am about this news, as I was always more excited about the monthly Grifter comic that every other comic I read, combined. What that says about me is that I’m a HUGE fan of the character and love it when he is featured in a monthly book, because this character’s appearances has been so few and far between over the last 5+ years. It seemed like sales on this book were stabilizing around the 13,000 mark, but apparently that wasn’t enough to keep it going.

Ultimately this book failed to find an audience, not because Grifter isn’t a great character, and not because the art wasn’t beautiful, but because Nathan Edmondson, the original writer failed to create any sort of cohesive direction for the book, and subsequently shed the vast majority of the readers during his run. Through the first 8 issues, there was virtually no character building, and no solid direction…it was merely a series of vaguely-connected action and fight scenes that were just not interesting enough to keep the readers’ attention. And to top it off, the dialog was atrocious (which is very hard to understand, because that is typically one of Edmondson’s strong points in his creator-owned books). I don’t want to place all the blame on him because it is also obvious that there was a significant amount of editorial involvement in this book from day 1 and that has potentially played a part in stifling some of the creativity that could have saved this book.

After issue #16 I will go a little more in-depth about how I think the overall alien-centric direction of this series was not the right decision for a character such as Grifter, and what I hope for in the future as far as what stories DC chooses to include Grifter in.

***END SPOILERS***

DIALOG

There were a number of laugh-out-loud moments for me in this issue (courtesy of the always-awesome Frank Tieri) when it came to Grifter’s dialog with the Daemonite ship AI and with his comments to Apollo and Midnighter. I thought it was pretty funny stuff, and really continue to like the light-hearted nature of Grifter’s internal thoughts and spoken quips alike. It offsets the darker nature of the overall story, a story that is essentially becoming a tale of revenge for the murder of everyone that the main character cared about and loved…pretty dark stuff.

IN CONCLUSION

This issue continued the action of the series that we know and love, but upped the ante on the espionage element, which was very cool. We saw Warick briefly (but I seriously want to know more about this guy), and some additional foreshadowing elements were introduced with mentions of Amanda Waller’s files and what her involvement in the conspiracy against Grifter could be. How much will Grifter’s story tie back to his Team 7 teammates?

The art continues to be a high point of this book, and I really want Marat Mychaels to maintain a high level of detail and consistency on his character work through the rest of this series’ short life. He has just three more issues to wrap up this story and I think he can knock it out of the park.

There is one more issue planned that has Liefeld influences, and then we get full-on Tieri doing the plot and scripting for the last two (2) issues, which I am very excited for. Frank, if you are reading this (and I hope you are), please do right by all the Grifter fans out there and bring his series to an awesome and proper end by writing for Mychael’s strengths and showing how much of a badass Cole Cash really is.

Art = 6.5 / 10

Dialog = 7.5 / 10
Story = 5.0 / 10

Overall = 63% --> This book still remains a solid action book, the the quality trend is on the decline...so let's hope it takes some steps forward next issue in the art (mostly the addition of backgrounds) and story direction.

Grifter #0 (New 52) Review

Left: Grifter #0 Cover (no logo)


"DEPROGRAMMED"

Story:  Rob Liefeld

Dialog:  Frank Tieri

Pencils:  Scott Clark

Inks:  Dave Beaty

Colors:  Andrew Dalhouse

Letters:  Wes Abbott

Editor:  Brian Smith

ART

The art in this issue was great, as usual for the Clark/Beaty penciler/inker team. Once again, we had some really cool and inventive stuff in this issue compared to what has come before. I really liked the short action scene at the beginning of the issue, and this is just the BEST rendition of Grifter that I’ve seen in a long time. Then we get some very detailed and cool scenes that show our main character in a stasis tube, attached to one umbilical that keeps him alive, and another that presumably mainlines the augmented reality program that the antagonists have created for Grifter, directly into his brain. There was so much amazing detail on these pages, that sometimes when I see Clark's work, I wonder why he’s not a top tier artist. Hopefully it's only a matter of time. Did I mention how awesome the stasis tube scenes were...lol, moving on!

A man on a mission!

One little nitpick with this issue is that on a few (one in particular, really stands out) of the supporting character face close-ups, some of the cross-hatching gets a little out of control and thick and makes the characters face look pretty funky. But that is really my only negative about the art this month.

I say all this with a heavy heart though, as this issue is the swan song for the Clark/Beaty art team. It appears from comments made on twitter a few weeks ago by Liefeld that Clark will be moving over to Deathstroke as regular artist. I will definitely still be pulling that book, if for nothing other than his art. Looking to the future of this comic, Marat Mychaels will be coming on board, joining Dave Beaty and Andrew Dalhouse. I’m excited about this art team, because while I didn’t love the art for issue #11 (the only other issue that Mychaels has done so far) as much as the others, it was still well above-average in my book and we will still have the constants of the same inker and colorist, so it should be awesome. Also, it should be stated that the story for issue #11 was pretty much a stinker, so with a better plot/supporting characters/story setting, Mychaels should be able to really break out and hopefully do the best work of his career.

Dude, that's your brother...

STORY (SYNOPSIS) & DIRECTION

I’m going to do a slightly shorter story synopsis with all of my reviews going forward, and focus a little more on some of the best and most interesting moments and questions that are raised during each issue (of which there are a ton this month).

***BEGIN SPOILERS***

This is that great scene I was talking about.  Look at the detail, it's ridiculous!

This story is set 2 years ago, which in my calculation must put it somewhere in continuity between the end of Team 7 (new DC book that debuted this month—chronicles the early adventures of a lot of the group that will be known as Team 7, which is made up of John Lynch, Dinah Drake – Black Canary (future), Kurt Lance, Slade Wilson – Deathstroke (future), Alex Fairchild – father of Caitlin Fairchild, James Bronson, Summer Ramos, Amanda Waller – leader of Suicide Squad (future), Dean Higgins, and Cole Cash – Grifter (future)) and around the time that Grifter has had his first few run-ins with the earth Daemonites (which are different than the space Daemonites that are led by Helspont). This also means that this story is 2 years prior to the events shown in Grifter #1.

Question #1: It is unclear if the group of Daemonites that has experimented on and augmented Grifter is the older, more established earth faction that was referenced in the 2012 Superman Annual, and if this was the faction that was chasing Grifter at the beginning of this series. My inkling, based on reveals in this issue, is that the Deamonties (earth faction) started a program of kidnapping humans (most likely all or most of the subjects were ex-military) that had the potential to react well to gene-splicing and other augmentations and eventually got to Cole and started the process. The reason for this was to create a telepathic super-soldier that could stand against Helspont (leader of the space faction of the Daemonites) when the time came. For more information on the civil war between the Daemonites, read Superman Annual, which somewhat describes the strife between the two warring factions. What is most unclear is at what point in the story does Grifter stop fighting the earth faction and start fighting the space faction? I think the answer is pretty simple if you look at the facts – as soon as Liefeld came on board with issue #9 is when the factions changed (evidence of this is the upgraded Daemonites and the Resistance team being introduced that had the mole on it, the superpowered villains suddenly being thrown at Cole, and the increased focus on Helspont in the story itself).

Cross-hatching...lots of cross-hatching.

The action starts straight away in the initial 3-4 pages of the story, with Cole attempting a daring night-time raid on an undisclosed location in order to obtain some powerful and unknown artifact. John Lynch and Max Cash (Grifter’s brother) are with him on this particular mission...but that cannot right…because Cole realizes that his brother shouldn’t have been on this mission with him, and Lynch never actually saw action, he was the mission designer and the team mastermind.

We then see a few pages of the captors discussing the difficulties they have been having keeping Grifter’s mind reigned in, so to speak. One of them poses the question whether or not he is worth it, and the head scientist refers to him as the “Chosen One” again and basically says what we have already heard before, that Cole Cash is the only one (possibly prophesied) that can stop Helspont.

Jumping ahead, it is quickly revealed that Grifter is in a Matrix-like alternate reality, and the bad guys, who are also revealed to be Daemonites, are attempting to change his memories, and make him think/believe what they want, and not what really happened. Next, we see Cole suddenly pointing his guns at his teammates and shooting both of them…this is unbelievable!

Who's the Jedi Badass now?

Question #2: Does this fake betrayal happen because the Daemonites want to pit Cole against his brother and Lynch? If so, why? It seems to me that the Daemonites have a reason for inserting programming into Grifter’s mind to make him see Max and Lynch as enemies, but I can’t guess why. Maybe divide and conquer is their best plan…

Grifter sees an apparition (or more accurately, a morphing of Max into someone else) of another character that we have never seen on the pages of this comic (or anywhere actually) up until now. This is apparently a good guy and possible mentor to Grifter by the name of Warick, who has come to Grifter’s aid in the real world and was desperately calling out to him to resist the programming. The side effect of this was that he actually appeared to Grifter in the midst of the programming/fake mission.

Question #3: Who really is Warick? We are not given enough details to make any kind of accurate guess. I noticed a few things about him, both aesthetically and from his dialog:

1. He slightly resembles Jacob Marlowe (Lord Emp), who was the original benefactor and creator of the old Wildstorm WildC.A.T.s team. But not exactly like him appearance-wise, because Emp was a midget (or whatever the correct term is) and this character isn’t shown that way, but is a LOT smaller than the Daemonite security guards (he looks to be almost 2’ shorter and much slighter built than them).
2. In one panel, Warick pulls off his hood, and his face is completely revealed, and it looks like his ears are pointy, like an alien or something…not sure if this means anything at all, but you never know.
3. Some of Warick’s dialog to Grifter is what I would call personal, as in he says “You rest boy, you deserve it” at one point, and generally seems to know a lot more about Grifter than the reader does. This leads me to believe that either he could be related to Cole (possibly his father) or just familiar with him because they’ve been through a lot together or known each other for awhile.
4. Warick is an excellent hand-to-hand fighter, despite his diminutive size. My prediction is that it will be revealed that he is part of the real Resistance force, possibly its leader.

Naked dumpster fighting...AWESOME!

Question #4: If Warick is part of a true Resistance team, how do they know about, and why are they standing against, the Daemonites? Is the Resistance completely made up of past subjects who have been experimented on by the aliens? How did Grifter become involved with this group? Obviously from the future stories (started in issue #9), Grifter doesn’t know anything about (or his memory of them has been erased) the Resistance or that he is the “Chosen One”. So it seems like Warick saves Cole on behalf of the Resistance, and then sets him up with tools/documents to move on, and Grifter is left with only fleeting memories of what happened. Why won’t Warick simply stay with Cole until he wakes up and fully explain what is happening to him? Wouldn’t that be a smarter thing to do than simply allowing Cole to stumble along, not really knowing what is going on around him?

Basically the rest of the issue is Warick retrieving our main character from the Daemonite facility and hiding him safely in an inconspicuous motel somewhere (we don’t know what city this story occurs in). Warick gives a little going away speech (to an unconscious Grifter, which is more than a little weird, but it simply served as exposition in the story, so I can let it slide this time) that tells us that this is the third time this has happened (Grifter being kidnapped, Warick liberating him) and he needs to keep his head down and get ready to step up to the big challenge when it reveals itself.

Grifter awakes and sees a note on the night stand that says “See you soon”, signed “W”. He doesn’t know exactly what to make of that, but obviously bits and pieces of his memory are starting to trickle back because he has the feeling that he needs to get ready for a big fight (possibly the biggest of his life), and very soon. Cole goes through the bag that Warick left for him, assumes his new identity, dresses, and moves on with what must be a new drive and determination to find out what is causing his “blackouts” and what needs to be done to get control of his life.

And next...Voodoo!

***END SPOILERS***

DIALOG

Not much to say about the dialog in this issue.  It was good, it served the story.  The characters voices were consistent.  Tieri has been doing a great job, IMO, with lightening up Grifter's character, but leaving the darker undertones, the knowledge that he (Grifter) is always out-gunned and out-manned.  The inner monologue is where some of the angst comes out, but Cole always puts on a hard facade, in order to make everybody think that he's always got every situation figured out, when in reality, he is pretty much bouncing from one violent encounter to another and flying by the seat of his pants.

Awakening from the "blackout"

Frank Tieri takes over full writing duties (plotting and scripting) with next issue, and I am seriously very excited that with the reins completely in hand, he can do something special with this series.  Let's be honest, pretty much every know-it-all fanboy prognosticator on the net has already written this series off to be cancelled with DC's next wave, but I think it still has some legs, and if Tieri can turn it around with a solid story and people like it, the positive word of mouth could save this title.

IN CONCLUSION

As a carry-over from what I was saying above, I have the feeling that DC really, really doesn't want to have to cancel this title (this is based on some things that Liefeld revealed during his stepping down from DC).  My hope, and my educated guess is that the next wave of books won't be here until January or February of 2013, which would allow a minimum of 3-4 more issues (to #16 or #17), and even then, it doesn't seem like DC has any other titles on board to fill the void that Grifter would leave.  I am positing that this series won't be cancelled until the long-rumored Wildcats book is released, because it would look bad for DC to cancel the book that contains both Grifter and now, Voodoo, who are possibly one-third or one-forth of the future Wildcats team, before the new one comes out.

***MORE SPOILERS***

As for this issue, it was good, and got better on subsequent re-reads, but I was a little annoyed by the fact that really nothing of substance happened...other than the fact that the Daemonites were revealed for sure to be the group that experimented on Grifter and thus, gave him his powers.  A fairly big plot/character development, but it just didn't have that much impact.  I was maybe hoping to see some flashbacks from Cole's childhood or just stuff from early in his life.  What shaped him into the Grifter that we have today?

Too many additional questions were raised here, which can be good sometimes, but I'm afraid a lot of them will never been answered if DC and/or Tieri drastically changes the direction of the series again now that Liefeld isn't helming the book any more, or if the series simply gets cancelled before they can get around to answering the lingering questions, the biggest of which being:

Who the hell is Warick and how is he related to Cole Cash?  If they're not blood relatives, why is he helping Cole?  I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

***END SPOILERS***

Also, it will be very cool to see Voodoo (or more accurately, Priscilla) in the pages of this comic.  I'm hoping that the addition of another Wildcat can give people who are on the fence another reason to try this book.

On a little side note here, I would like to say that I hope someone at DC (or possibly even Mr. Tieri himself) reads this, because even though I've been enjoying it for what it is, I desperately want the whole Daemonite angle to end and I want Grifter to start taking on some more street-level, or human opponents.  This character has always worked much better as a gritty, con-man, dealing with non-super-powered (or at least the super stuff is not the focus) issues.  Look at Wildcats Vol. 2 for great examples of this.  I think a larger group of people would respond to this story direction.  But...I'm not a professional writer or editor at DC, so what do I know...

Here's looking forward to a new era of creative chemistry on this title with Marat coming on board as regular artist.  I have high hopes, as usual, and will continue to spread the word about how fun this series is!

Art = 8 / 10

Story/Dialog = 7 / 10

Overall = 75% --> The mystery quotient has officially been upped on this story, and while I liked some of the questions that were raised, I fear that this series might not last long enough to wrap them up and give us readers, who have been here from the start, the payoff we deserve.  So you all better add Grifter to your pull list, starting with issue #13.  That's right, DO IT!

Grifter #12 (New 52) Review

Left: Grifter #12 Cover (no logo)


"LAST SHOT"

Story:  Rob Liefeld

Dialog:  Frank Tieri

Pencils:  Scott Clark

Inks:  Dave Beaty

Colors:  Andrew Dalhouse

Letters:  Wes Abbott

Editor:  Brian Smith



ART

Once again we are back to Clark's amazing, definitive rendition of Cole Cash, A.K.A. Grifter. I don't want to bore any of you readers with continuous praise for Scott Clark's art here, but there are a few cool things in this issue that I would like to touch on.

Overall, the emotion and true rage of Grifter comes through very well in this issue. Early on we get to see just the tiniest of smirks from Grifter as he knows that he is right where he wants (needs) to be and his captors (and actually the comic book audience, also) at this point aren't sure what to make of that. Is it empty bravado...well, I don't want to get ahead of myself, but we'll see later on in the issue. Another example is toward the middle of the issue, right where the action really kicks off, we get some really amazing shots of Grifter unleashing his awesome and devastating telepathic/telekinetic (TK) powers. The rage on his face is really apparent during the battle with Helspont which helps the reader remember and realize the complete breakdown of his life that Grifter has gone through over what I presume to be the last few weeks, and Helspont is likely the bastard responsible for all of our protagonist's suffering from the beginning.

Synge still looks ridiculous, but the saving grace is that this rendition of Helspont is GREAT. Clark makes him look genuinely scary and badass at the same time.

I also want to bring attention to the inking of Dave Beaty. This guy is incredibly consistent over Clark's pencils and his presence on this book is very much appreciated. When the art and situation calls for gritty, thick lines, he delivers, and when it calls for clean, crisp character work, he delivers there too. He's just doing a great job!

Last, but most certainly not least, we have the awesome Andrew Dalhouse. I have gushed over this guy's work in past Grifter issues (he's also kicking butt in a number of other DC titles at the moment), but he stepped up his game again, to another level here. Every page looked amazing and that was in large part because of the coloring: from effects surrounding Helspont's blue-flamed head (actually much cooler looking than it sounds), to the blood spatters on Grifter's face and shirt, to the seriously mind-blowing effects that were meant to showcase the telekinetic powers, this book is very colorful and just plain PRETTY.

One last thing, the cover to this issue rocked! Rob Liefeld did an excellent job of making it extremely eye-catching. I'm hoping that some more people might be drawn to this issue because of that great cover image.


STORY & DIRECTION


*** SPOILERS BELOW ***

The story picks up basically right where the previous issue left off with our man held prisoner on Helspont's ship in space and getting the ever-living shit beat out of him.  But, as we have been slowly shown over the course of the previous few issues, Grifter is much more than a normal gun-toting human. He seems to be very resilient -- I'm of the opinion that he must have a pretty good healing factor, as it has been shown that he can be hurt (so he's not invulnerable), he just heals extremely fast.

Grifter is then dragged away and thrown back in a cell to await his fate at the hands of Helspont.

We are shown a few pages of Cheshire and Synge conversing with their leader and it becomes clear that they are not Daemonites themselves, and even though we know Helspont is a Daemonite, he has had some sort of falling-out with his own kind and now his main goal is to co-opt their earth invasion and take everything for himself. He is doing this for revenge for something that was done to him that the readers have not fully been shown yet (they touched on the fact that he was banished for being too powerful, if I remember correctly, in one of the issues of Voodoo).

Next, our characters are in the presence of Helspont himself and a conversation ensues that pretty much has Cole telling Helspont that he meant to get captured, and everything that has happened so far is according to his plan. He figured out that Cheshire was a mole long ago, because his skills as a con man allowed him to pick up on a subtle tell (or revealing action) that Cheshire had been doing the entire time that the resistance had been together; most notably, whenever someone in the group asked or wondered why they were always a step behind, she would unconsciously look down, which Grifter picked up on every time.

Side Note: I mentioned this weird action (looking down, all odd-like) that Cheshire would do in the last review, prior to this issue coming out before I knew it would be a story beat, so it's pretty cool to see that in this way, the art and story were really working together (synergy, baby!) to give us readers a clue about the traitorous act a few issues before it was actually going to be shown in the story. Most comics that I have read would not have attempted to inconspicuously show this action at all, and would have just expected the readers (and the story characters) to live with the reveal of the betrayal without any clues or foreshadowing. This was unique and should be applauded for that.

After the reveal that Grifter is here because he figured that this would be the best way to get a face-to-face (or face-to-flaming blue skull) SHOT at the villain responsible for Max's (Cole's estranged brother) death. Grifter definitely takes his best shot at the approaching Helspont and lets loose a vicious TK blast that sends him flailing back across the large, cavernous room and he slams into a wall many yards away. Grifter and Deathblow surprise their captors at the same instant and both end up with some Daemonite heavy weaponry to help them escape the ship.

At this point Synge makes another groan-worthy appearance and steps in to confront Grifter on behalf of Helspont. He starts to tell Grifter that he took everything that he threw at him during their last battle and lived through it, but he didn't realize that Grifter was sandbagging during that fight and now,Grifter simply waves two fingers and sends Synge flying out of the picture and out of the battle, probably knocked unconcious.

Across the room, Deathblow is attempting to get away and gets attacked by Cheshire. He overpowers her and is choking her out while slamming her up against a wall, ready to end her...but we don't see the end of that scene...dammit. I want Deathblow to finish the job and kill the traitorous wench!

Grifter and Helspont continue to fight when Deathblow yells out for Grifter to get the hell out of there, as he has rigged the ship to blow. They manage to get to an escape pod and jettison out of the doomed ship a few seconds before we see a huge explosion in the lower quadrant of the ship. Now, I'm not completely sure what is being shown on the last page, but it looks to me like Helspont is able to use his massively powerful TK to literally capture all the blast wreckage and instantly rebuild his ship, but the good guys don't see this as they are headed back to earth without looking back (who could blame them, lol).

Helspont also reveals that he has double-crossed Grifter and that now, he has the human right where he wants him, and also he now knows exactly what he is dealing with as far as Grifter's power levels. It's also revealed that Helspont knows something else about Grifter, as in, what he REALLY is...hmmm, interesting!

Side Note: Grifter's powers are shown to be pretty formidable, but it is apparent that Helspont seemingly took the best Cole had and basically shrugged it off. At this point, the situation seems pretty dire for our heroes, as I don't know how Grifter is going to be able to stop Helspont. He simply doesn't have the firepower (mental or physical), so to speak.

It is interesting that the last two panels of this comic are juxtaposed with each other in the sense that even as we, as the readers, are coming to grips with the almost hopelessness of the situation, (based on Helspont's revelations in his dialog to Cheshire and Synge), Grifter has a huge grin on his face and feels like he has learned something in his battle with Helspont, has a solid partner that can hold his own now in Deathblow, and is in a much better situation to take him and has flunkies on in the future. We'll see who is right...

DIALOG


Tieri's scripts continue to be witty and campy (in a good way, IMO), but this issue had a little more of the smart, always-two-steps-ahead-of-everyone-else-in-the-room Grifter. In virtually all of Cole Cash's appearances in the old Wildstorm (WS) Universe, he was the guy who always had it figured out. He wasn't super-powered (which is a little gripe I'll touch on below), he was very proud to be a full-blooded human (as opposed to the Kherubim, Daemonites, and half-breeds that he was surrounded by), and he mostly had to rely on his uncanny ability with firearms and his military and Coda hand-to-hand training. He also would do whatever it took to complete the mission, get the information out of the bad guy, or save the girl. He had an ungodly amount of determination, and that's precisely why he was so cool. For the first time, really, in the New 52 and this new incarnation of the character, we are starting to see that old con man come out who out-thinks everybody, and I love it!

IN CONCLUSION


The ideas in this book aren't rocket science, nor are they intended to be. This book is a sci-fi, action story that simply wants to be fun and throw some of our favorite old Wildstorm characters together in the mixer and let them fight it out. I really don't see a problem with that.  90's nostalgia makes me a happy comic book reader!

On the negative side, DC is walking on thin ice with this title, due to it's low sales. Liefeld/Tieri had originally provided a little boost during the first two issues of their run, but the last two issues have fallen down to Edmondson's #8 sales levels. I think that DC editorial are trying to play it safe and give some fan service to old WS fans and new readers by keeping the story as simple as possible. This can be a double-edged sword  though because the some of the old WS fans want the nuanced, more grown up character that Grifter became, but the other old-school fans and New 52 fans are just happy to be in on the ground floor of Grifter's story and personality growth. That is the camp that I fall into. I don't get to pick and choose the stories that get chosen for my favorite character, I just have to react to them and take them in. Right now I am really enjoying this comic and hope that others can too, in increasingly larger numbers every month too, lol.

One last thing, there has been some discussion at Clark's Bar (theauthority.ws/clarksbar) Wildstorm forum and on the CBR forums that the way Grifter's TK powers are being handled aren't the way it should be...and I tend to agree. I do like his increased power levels, as I think it allows him to be able to hang (power-wise) with a much larger cross-section of characters in the DC universe (which is vastly more power-oriented than the Wildstorm Universe was), but this has its drawbacks as well. One of the best aspects of the old version of his character was that he (along with the rest of Team 7) had these incredible mind powers, but they were very conflicted, and even downright scared to use them because their use came at a terrible price. I don't remember all the specifics, but if those powers were used too often, the user would age more rapidly and eventually go crazy due to the stress on the mind. I think this limitation would make Grifter a much more interesting character and I hope that it is revealed in upcoming issues that there are consequences to using that power so recklessly, and that he has to face those consequences and learn to overcome them.

Art = 9 / 10

Story/Dialog = 7 / 10

Overall = 80% --> Another FUN, action-packed issue.  It's always cool to see two old Wildstorm characters square off, and this was no exception.  We got some awesome scenes with  Grifter going all Jedi-Badass on his nemesis, and the way Scott Clark presented the action and emotion made it all worth it.

Grifter #11 (New 52) Review

Left: Grifter #11 Cover (no logo)


"Forgive Us Our SYNGE"

Story:  Rob Liefeld

Dialog:  Frank Tieri

Pencils:  Marat Mychaels

Inks:  Rob Hunter

Colors:  Andrew Dalhouse

Letters:  Wes Abbott

Editor:  Brian Smith




ART



Obviously, this book has relied (for me at least) on the merits of its amazing artwork for pretty much this entire run, as the story (under Edmondson at least) has been pretty lackluster through issue #8.  With this issue we have a fill in art team, and let me tell you, I had more than a bit of trepidation when I realized that my beloved Clark/Beaty team was not contributing to this issue.  But after I dug into this one, my fears were stamped out after I got a look at Marat Mychaels and Rob Hunter's version of Grifter.  


Now, the first few pages were OK, but Grifter was not wearing his mask yet, so I couldn't make any judgement as to the overall quality of the art until he slapped on the mask and really went to town with some telekinetic butt-kicking.  Once Cole Cash got into full-on battle mode, the artwork really shifted into high gear for me.  The scenes that showed Grifter engaging Synge in battle using his telekinesis were not as good as the ones that Clark did in the previous issue, but still not bad by any stretch of the imagination.  I think that Mychael's art was at its best when rendering, in very high detail, each and every character that showed up on the page.  That was his strong point for sure.


As usual, Dalhouse has done an awesome job on colors.  This slice of the story was a little more cartoony and fantastical (mostly because of the dumb-looking villain) than a lot of the previous stuff had been, but the colors did a good job of keeping things as grounded as they could be and also made the fight scenes easy to follow, which any comic reader knows is not always an easy thing to accomplish.


Also, we got two 2-page spreads in this issue (if you can't already tell from my previous reviews, I really dig those) that were good, but not quite as eye-catching as Clark's usually are.

Above:  2-Page spread at the beginning that starts off this action-packed issue.

Mychaels did a great job overall on this issue, he actually was a pretty damn good transition from Clark's art, because his work was so detailed and stylish.  If a fill-in artist can't be avoided (which I'm sure is the case, based on how much work Clark puts into has layouts and character detail) then I would be completely happy with Mychaels being rotated in every 4th or 5th issue, if he's available.


STORY & DIRECTION


*** SPOILERS BELOW ***

Man, Grifter just can't catch a break these days (and this becomes even more true toward the end of this issue).


We are thrust right back into the action and devastation arising from Synge's surprise attack on the Resistance crew.  In lieu of doing a full play-by-play of this fight scene, basically Synge beats the crap out of three remaining team members (Grifter, Cheshire, and Deathblow) for about half of the issue.  But, at a certain point, Grifter realizes that the team's conventional weapons (and even an exploding motorcycle) are not doing any damage to Synge (still a ridiculous villain, with a ridiculous design), so he focuses on using his newly acquired telekinetic skills.

Above:  Grifter and Deathblow putting their heads together and trying to figure out how to take down Synge.  Also, this is a great example of this villain's less-than-stellar design...

I need to bring up a little sidebar here:  Cole quips to himself that his now being able to go all "Jedi Badass" is something that has recently happened (possible that it's brand new to him) and was not a previously held power (although the solicits for issue #0 and Liefeld's recent comments at SDCC 2012 seem to state otherwise) that he simply just chose not to utilize.  It seems pretty clear here that the writers are taking what happened in issue #7 (the Midnighter fight issue - with Grifter getting what amounted to an information dump into his head from the wayward piece of the "Eye of the Storm" ship) and him stating that he suddenly knew so much more than he had before, and running with it.  Obviously more will be revealed in the #0 issue to be released in September, but what we know right now is that whether this was a latent ability (actually pretty likely, see above) that Cole was unaware of, or a completely new ability brought on by his exposure to the Eye of the Storm wreckage, he now has full use of extremely powerful telekinetic skills and isn't afraid to use said skills.  The other revelation that we see is that these new powers do have limits (with respect to how much mass and/or volume he can move with his mind) and that Grifter can't rely on them for an infinite amount of time.


Well, back in the story, our hero learns from his earlier lackluster attempt to stop Synge, using his powers to throw scattered tree limbs and various smallish rocks, and decides to go for broke -- he rips out a large chunk of the surrounding forest (trees, soil, and boulders), after tactically luring Synge into just the right spot, and brings them plummeting down on top of him with massive force.  That show of pure mental power is what it took to bring the villain down for the count.

Above:  Mr. Cash decides it's high time to use his "Jedi Badass" powers.

In the moments after the short battle, Grifter states that he is starting to come to grips with the fact that this is his life now (for the foreseeable future) and he is finally ready to embrace it and do what has to be done.


Once again, they are trying to figure out why the Daemonites are always one step ahead of them.  Before they can start to come up with an answer to that question, Cheshire shoots Deathblow, reveals that she is the traitor, and then proceeds to cap Grifter in the chest as well.  What a freaking BITCH !!! Now I know what that weird look that Cheshire had was, when Grifter asked if everyone on the team could be trusted (at the end of issue #10). 


We flash forward to Synge blasting out of the debris, very much alive...NOT GOOD?!?  This is quickly followed by a scene that shows some robed and hooded religious-type followers trying to explain to their master that no matter what they do, the "Chosen One" will always win.  This apparently really pisses off the shadowed figure who promptly process to explode the head of the poor messenger.  It is revealed that that main baddie is Helspont and he is now in control of the unconscious body of Deathblow and the semi-conscious body of Grifter...again NOT GOOD! 

DIALOG



The dialog has remained funny and consistent throughout this 3-issue run so far under Tieri.  I like the pop culture references (Jedi Badass, etc.) that keep the book feeling modern and cool.  I really don't have any issues with this facet of the story.  As a matter of fact, I think the dialog was even a little better this issue that in the previous two (in #9 and #10, there were usually a quip or two by Grifter that just didn't work).  I can identify much more with Grifter now than in the first 8 issues of this series, and that makes me want to root for him harder and and put more of an emotional investment in how exactly he will take down this gigantic Daemonite and Helspont (even worse) threat.


As long as the dialog stays consistent and doesn't get too hokey (which some people argue, myself not included, that it already is, but I guess we all have a different threshold for certain types of dialog) then I don't see this doing anything but elevating the story.

IN CONCLUSION



This is fun comics, no other way around it.  I continue to love this book because it continues to know exactly what it is and what it's supposed to be -- which is an action-packed, wild ride of a comic.  We are slowly starting to learn more about the character of Grifter in regards to his power limits and his mental state right now (acceptance of what he needs to start doing to win this war).  In my opinion, any little bits of backstory or endearing scenes that will make us, as readers, gravitate to Grifter's personality are going to be good for this book.


It seems that based on the sales figures, this book has leveled out at around 15,000 issues ordered per month.  This is not a bad number at all when compared to a lot of DC's other 2nd-tier books.  I sincerely hope that the sales are enough to keep this from cancellation and that we will continue to see Grifter's adventures long into the future, or at least until a Wildcats book is available.  In a perfect world, I will still want him to have his own book no matter what, though.

Bottom line is this: I continue to like the new direction (as grifter78 says, it really feels like an entirely new book that the first 8 issues) that Liefeld and Tieri are taking us in with this story.  As always, the art is stunning (even with the fill-in artist) and should continue to stay that way if Clark and/or Mychaels stays on the title.

Art = 8 / 10

Story/Dialog = 6 / 10

Overall = 70% --> Let's keep this bitch going...if anybody who reads this review and doesn't already get Grifter and likes this review, please pre-order it or pick it up off the shelf.

Grifter #10 (New 52) Review

Left: Grifter #10 Cover (no logo)


"COVER ME!"

Story:  Rob Liefeld

Dialog:  Frank Tieri

Pencils:  Scott Clark

Inks:  Dave Beaty

Colors:  Andrew Dalhouse

Letters:  Wes Abbott

Editor:  Brian Smith




ART



Let me start off by saying that I can understand how this comic doesn't appeal to everyone.  Some people don't like the simple shoot-em-up style, some people (old Wildstorm fans mostly) wish for a return to the corporate espionage deepness and low-snark version of Grifter depicted in Wildcats Version 3.0, and some people simply don't know how to have fun with their comics.  But, regardless of everybody's feelings about the "Chosen One" storyline or the trajectory of Grifter (and his personality), I firmly believe that nobody can say anything bad about the art in this book right now.  IT IS SIMPLY GORGEOUS AND STUNNING on every level (almost -  I will nitpick just a little, later in this review), from the highly detailed and perfectly stylized renderings of Scott Clark, to the extremely tight and accurate inks of Dave Beaty, to the eye-popping colors of Andrew Dalhouse. These guys are ON FIRE, and in my opinion are creating the DEFINITIVE look of Grifter, right now as we speak.  Also, let me say that I have a weird thing about how artists draw Grifter's mask (I generally don't like how a lot of artists draw it).  I feel like a lot of guys draw it realistically (flopping and swinging all over the place and usually make it way too long as well), but that just doesn't look cool at all.  At face value, a guy who runs around with a rag on his face doesn't sound very compelling, but Scott Clark has found away to make Grifter look awesome with the mask on in virtually every panel.  I even like how Grifter's new combat outfit pays homage to his original green trench coat and red dish-washing gloves look -- just a much more modernized and functional take on that design.  Keep up the good work, gentlemen! 




My only nitpick relating to the art in this issue would be that it seems that Scott Clark is putting so much detail into a few 2-page spreads or action-heavy pages that some of the detail in the "talking head" scene panels gets put aside.  I'm thinking that Mr. Clark just doesn't have enough hours in the day to make every panel as hyper-detailed as the larger spreads, which is really fine by me.  I'm loving the large spreads and am willing to see less-detailed quiet scenes if it means we can get 2-3 almost "cover quality" spreads within the issue.  I know there are a lot of other people out there who would disagree with me on this point, but I'm just being realistic in how I view the art with a knowledge of how long it takes to grind out the pages for these issues.

Above:  Single panel -- Grifter getting ready to kick some butt.

                                          

STORY & DIRECTION


*** SPOILERS BELOW ***

Like I stated above, the story is not going to be for everyone...but I also think that everyone could find something to like about this issue if they just quit being so damn jaded about their comics!!!

The issue starts with Grifter getting ribbed by basically the entirety of his new group (the resistance fighters introduced last issue) while traveling from one "safe house" to the next in the Swiss Alps.  Deathblow gets in on the shit-giving routine that the others are laying on Cole, and Cheshire tells him to just ignore them.  Grifter holds his own and just reveals that he reads minds (I don't know if this was rhetorical or not, but based on what happens later in the issue, I'm inclined to say that he means his statement literally).  This nugget is actually a pretty big deal, as this is a facet of this character's power set that we have not seen up until now (no mention of this in the previous 9 issues).

Above:  A scene from early in the issue that shows the "Resistance" team ribbing Grifter for being the "Chosen One".

A few seconds later, the Daemonites blast the hell out of the transport that our characters are traveling in and the action starts in earnest and doesn't quit until the end (and even then its only a brief respite...)  

Grifter, Cheshire, and Deathblow escape the carnage and take the fight to the aliens with little luck.  They get to a point where they are hopelessly outnumbered and outgunned with Deathblow preoccupied about getting his fellow soldier, Buck, out of some of the wreckage, which basically takes the big guns out of the fight for the time being.  Grifter and Cheshire realize that unless they do something drastic, they are all going to die right there on that mountain road.

Chesire gives Grifter a pep talk that goes like this in a nutshell, "Step up and be the man that we know you can be -- save us or all this sacrifice was for naught!  Something goes off in Grifter's noggin and he decides to FINALLY quit reacting and start taking the fight to the Daemonites.  And boy does he do just that.

Over the course of the next few pages, it is revealed that he has some super-badass telekinetic powers that he apparently likes to keep under wraps, for reasons unknown to us at this time.  Let me just say that for Grifter fans, this short fight scene is one of the most awesome things I've ever seen this character do.  I won't go completely into detail here, because this fight sequence really needs to be seen to be fully appreciated, but suffice to say that this New 52 version of Grifter could give some of the most powerful telepaths a run for their money.  He single-handedly dispatches about two dozen Warrior-class Daemonites with his mind!

The battle is won and our heroes have doggedly made it to another supposed Resistance "safe house".  There, they have a few quiet moments to reflect on what happened earlier that day, finally give Grifter the respect he deserves, and start to realize that they are fighting for someone worth saving.  It seems like they (as a group) have started to turn the corner and allow themselves to have hope that Grifter maybe can get them through this and truly beat down the Daemonite invasion.

The quiet moment is shattered by the explosive arrival of another new character, Synge.  I have to say that I think the character design is a little ridiculous, but hopefully he ends up presenting a good challenge to our heroes next issues.

DIALOG



Cole Cash's snarky dialog continues this issue and I continue to love it.  This is how I truly believe the foundations of the character's personality should be, while still allowing some room to grow into a more confident and reliable (anti) hero.  It seems that in this setting, with what we know if Grifter's story so far, he is a scared individual who has been hounded at every turn by these bastard aliens, intent on taking everything from him, which they basically have (brother, girlfriend, etc.).  Grifter doesn't know how to cope with this, so he hides behind the banter to keep himself from going over the edge and losing control and/or just shutting down from all the traumatizing experiences he's recently endured.

I think Tieri's take on the character is 1000x more endearing that Edmondson's, and I always look forward to hearing what Grifter has to say and how he says it.


IN CONCLUSION



This entry into the Grifter story was another solid and extremely fun comic.  We really learned a lot about the main character's power set and what he is truly capable of.  The artwork was mind-blowingly amazing!  The over-arching story is moving pretty slow at this point, with both of the (Liefeld/Tieri/Clark) issues essentially just showing a single fight scene each, with some dialog and exposition on the bookends of the issue, but I can't wait to see the larger aspects of this story and how Grifter and company are going to take down the Daemonites, which seem pretty damn tough at this point.

Bottom line is this: The new direction that Liefeld is taking the book in is FAR superior to it's previous storyline and each issue has been better than the last, so I have some extremely high hopes for this book going forward.  Let's keep this title going...BUY THIS BOOK PEOPLE, YOU WON'T BE DISAPPOINTED.

Art = 9 / 10

Story/Dialog = 9 / 10

Overall = 90% --> doesn't get much better (or more fun) than this !!!