Posted in: Comics, Comics Publishers, DC Comics, Justice League, Review | Tagged: booster gold, Christopher Chance, comic book reviews, guy gardner, human target, jli, justice league international

Human Target #3 Review: An Accomplishment

The jealous meathead ex is a time-honored fictional trope, and there could literally be no better character to place in that role than Guy Gardner. Human Target #3 throws that energy right at the titular protagonist at the worst possible time. Toxic masculinity meets what's essentially the mind of an expert profiler, and the results are very surprising.

Christopher Chance makes a living by impersonating people in danger, doing such a good job pretending to be them that no one knows the difference. While doing this job for Lex Luthor, he was irrevocably poisoned and will certainly die in days, kept alive by a concoction hidden in a whiskey flask. The only clues lead to a group once called the Justice League International, and he's worked with the complicated heroine Ice to begin his investigation. The problem is, her ex Guy Gardner is both territorial and incorrect. He comes into this book with all the subtlety of a tractor-trailer, and his arc here is sheer enjoyment.

Then we toss in Booster Gold, a hapless mercenary with time travel at his disposal and the dumbest possible ideas. He's investigated, and Chance is surprised by the effortless bonhomie shared between old friends … which he doesn't necessarily have at any point in his own life.

Writer Tom King does a great job weaving characterization into the clever plot, which does some very tricky and difficult things in the third act. The artwork by Greg Smallwood and Clayton Cowles does some surprising and effective things with visual storytelling (the truck, the facial expressions at the foot of the bed) and helps pull off the plot twists brilliantly. It would have been really easy for all of this to fall apart, but it clicks so perfectly that it's an accomplishment.

The vibe of this series is engrossingly entertaining. If this series keeps going in this direction, with an answer to its central mystery that satisfies, we may have a modern classic happening. RATING: BUY.

Human Target #3
By Tom King, Greg Smallwood
Christopher Chance is a man on a deadline and working to solve a crime that might be unsolvable. Despite his better judgment, he's falling for his lead suspect, and her violent ex-boyfriend isn't happy about it. Oh, and that ex? He's a Green Lantern.

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