Grifter #9 (New 52) Review

Left: Grifter #9 Cover (no logo)

"THIS MEANS WAR!"

Story:  Rob Liefeld
Dialog:  Frank Tieri
Pencils:  Scott Clark
Inks:  Dave Beaty
Colors:  Andrew Dalhouse
Letters:  Wes Abbott
Editor:  Brian Smith

ART

I realize that art is completely subjective, but I would like to point out that it seems like Clark is trying something new this issue and attempting to evolve into a better artist (who is already stellar, IMO). If you check out a lot of the face close-ups and more detailed shots, you see that he is utilizing a ton of cross-hatching and shading that I felt really gave depth to the characters and looked really beautiful. 

On the other hand, I have no idea how much of this new style is to be attributed to the inker, Dave Beaty, but kudos if it was his doing. He's been consistently killing it as well. Like I have said before, I'm a sucker for hyper-detailed art (yet still slightly stylized) and this fit the bill perfectly for me. And I don't think anyone can argue that the opening few pages (especially the crazy-awesome two-page spread) was almost worth the price of admission alone! 

I would be remiss if I didn't mention the coloring of Andrew Dalhouse. Overall, the coloring is one of those things that doesn't usually get recognized unless something is drastically wrong. This fact is a shame, because Dalhouse is really making this book come alive, and among the 30 other DC books that I read every month, this one probably has the best colors of all, it's TRUE! 

A few examples of particularly appropriate and awesome colors that have jumped out at me over the last few issues are: 

Issue 8 - the sky around the Eiffel Towner, the way that Grifter's red mask would take on a darker hue/shade of red when being shadowed with an explosion in the background.

Issue 9 - the polarized lens effect on Grifter's goggles at the beginning of the issue. It's so cool because it was such a minute detail, yet I've never seen an effect like that in comics before.

The only gripe that I have is that we only got to see Grifter in the mask in a few panels at the end, but this is merely a side-effect of the story and in no way reflects on the quality of the art. 

Above:  Awesome 2-page spread early in the issue featuring some very Jason Bourne-inspired moves.

STORY & DIRECTION

Thinking about the characterization and drama, I didn't actually like the way the story had been told up to issue 8, so any change was welcome. I'd be happy if nearly everything (except the death of Max, Grifter's brother) from the first 8 issues was thrown out and a fresh start implemented. 

As for the dialog and quips that Grifter was using, I loved that soooooo much more than Edmondson's version. I'm not usually critical, but the dialog in most of the first 8 issues was literally some of the worst I've seen in a modern comic. Every time I read a groan-worthy line, it almost felt like Edmondson was actually trying to make the dialog suck, maybe because of being upset with the way the editors steered the story and changed his original ideas...we'll never know, I guess. 

Above:  Another amazing cover-quality 2-page spread showing an explanation of what the "Chosen One" is up against.  This artwork is worth the price of admission alone!

DIALOG

As for the snarky nature of Grifter's dialog in this issue, it was right on with what I consider to be the definitive voice of the character, which was Grifter's first solo series, written by Steve Seagle. For those of you that have those issues, go back and re-read them (I just did that very thing about 2 weeks ago) and see how well Tieri's dialog matches up with that series. I personally think it's great! For me, Grifter is a mix of Deadpool's snarkiness, Punisher's badassery, and Wolverine's anti-hero status. But, where those three characters stay pretty rigid in their characterization, Grifter's personality and past characterization allow him to change and adapt to fit different types of stories and different writers. That is a great thing about the character that makes him stand out from the others. 

Above:  Cheshire slugs Grifter after telling him to "Smarten the hell up" and get with the program.  Nice use of action lines in this scene to underscore the violence.

IN CONCLUSION

By no means was this the best single issue story ever, but it did an adequate job of setting up the future storyline and gave us a few mysteries to go on and again, I really liked Grifter's characterization here. Who is Cheshire, Deathblow, and the rest of the resistance fighters (in the landscape of the new DCU, I mean)? I'm very excited to learn more about them, in addition to more of Grifter's back story. Mr. Liefeld and Mr. Tieri, if you are reading this please give us some backstory on Grifter, if editorial will allow it. 

Bottom line is this: The book, over the first 8 issues, failed to have any sort of coherent or compelling direction. It now seems like Liefeld, Tieri, Clark, Beaty, and Dalhouse are giving it a much needed shot-in-the-arm. I'm very excited for the new direction and can't wait to see Grifter and Deathblow and the rest of the resistance tearing it up and kicking a bunch of Daemonite ass!

Art = 9 / 10

Story/Dialog = 7 / 10

Overall = 80% --> solid start for the new creative team