The Human Target #7-12

The Human Target #7-12

Originally released in 2022

Written by Tom King

Art by Greg Smallwood

The clock is ticking, and Christopher Chance now has less than a week to solve the mystery of who intended to poison Lex Luthor (and poisoned Chance in the process). Complicating matters is that one member of the Justice League was seemingly killed as a result of his investigation. While Ice helped to cover it up, the looming possibility of the Justice League coming down on him like a hammer doesn't make things easier for him.

Issues 7, 8, and 9 focus on different Justice League members as Chance investigates them or they investigate Chance.  Fire, Ice's best friend, meets with Chance as she tries to get an idea of what he's like while he tries to determine if she poisoned him.  Fire plays the classic femme fatale role, seductive and with unclear loyalties, though she's still portrayed as heroic.

The first part seems like a pretty big departure from her personality in Justice League International, though it fits the noir feel of the story. (And most characters in comics have their personality vary heavily based on the writer) The pages are put together well, showing a collage of movement as a Ferris Wheel rises into the sky.

Issue 8 focuses on Rocket Red - one of his JLI teammates has been missing for a few days, and he takes that very personally. This establishes that Red considers the JLI to be like his family, and he likes how they don't take themselves completely seriously like the original Justice League members.  This also means that he's much harsher towards Chance than he might normally be.

To get Rocket Red off of his back, Chance had recorded a message imitating the victim and got Ice to play it over the phone, though this was his absolute last ditch effort.  It might have gotten someone less obsessive off of his trail, but there's a very real possibility that someone with a keen attention to detail might have picked up on any subtle differences.

Issue 9 was a highlight for me, as Chance's noir-esque monologue becomes paranoid rambling as he's convinced himself that Batman is now out to get him.  Any car could have Batman as the driver, tailing him.  Any person in the same restaurant as him could be Batman in disguise.

Even when he drives out into the middle of nowhere and Ice creates a transparent house that they can stay for the night, and he can see everything for miles, he's pretty sure Batman's still out there somewhere, watching... waiting...  It's an interesting look at the reputation that Batman's built up and how much paranoia he inspires in friends and foes alike despite (possibly) not even being present.

From there, we enter the conclusion of the story - Chance befriends G'nort, and convinces him to get into the Green Lantern archives so he can get some information about his investigation.  G'nort is fairly certain that he's not supposed to do that, but he slept through most of the orientation so he's not totally sure.  G'nort is really, really bad at his job.

The high point of any mystery is the dramatic reveal - I won't give it away here, though unfortunately, it did not involve Skeets giving a dramatic monologue about how he tried to kill Lex Luthor because Luthor once referred to Skeets as "half-baked 23rd century technology", a devastating insult to a 25th century machine that can only be responded to with death.  The reveal made sense based on the common aspects of the noir genre and the clues that had been revealed so far.

I enjoyed reading The Human Target - the whole thing felt well-paced and cinematic, taking the well-established elements of hardboiled detective stories and giving them a superhero spin.  Tom King gives us a good look into Christopher Chance's head, weaving a story of loss and love and trying not to leave anything behind but doing so anyway.  Meanwhile, Greg Smallwood's art remains fantastic, with one double page spread near the end creating a gorgeous but tragic visual. (which I won't be including here because it gives away the murderer)  I don't know how well it works as an introduction to these characters, but I thought it was a well-written and touching story.