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! |
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:
- 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).
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
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| 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!
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!
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