Review: Grifter Vol. 1- Most Wanted

Quick Summary

Pros: The action and conspiracy in this book are thrilling and entertaining.

Cons: Emotions fall flat and are not as powerful as they try to be. The storyline with Green Arrow seemed pointless. Inconsistent power levels make fights unpredictable.

Overall: In this book, readers can easily find some fun action and thrilling conspiracy, while a search to find anything more will leave them disappointed. A host of flaws, including an inorganic crossover with Green Arrow, a lack of real emotion, and confusing power levels, prevent this from being a truly good book. Fans should really only go to into this looking for fight scenes and a mildly entertaining plotline about an alien invasion, as this is a very mediocre book otherwise.

Story

Grifter Vol. 1: Most Wanted is a high intensity book packed to the brim with action and conspiracy, yet lacking in emotion and meaning. Writer Nathan Edmondson brings Grifter to the DC Universe with a bang, having him perform death defying stunts and fight deadly villains in ways that would make MacGyver jealous. However, with nonstop action dominating the story, other aspects of the book are neglected. This, combined with a few other flaws, leaves the book feeling like a decent summer blockbuster: full of explosions and heroics but missing out on anything else.

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This book begins by thrusting readers directly into the middle of Cole Cash’s origin story. He fights an alien, jumps out of a plane, and begins his crusade against an alien threat as Grifter. Not long after, his girlfriend is kidnapped and his brother is killed, further solidifying his rage. It is a shocking and suspenseful way to start the series that immediately introduces a powerful threat and is sure to satisfy fans of explosive action.

At this point in the story, things are interrupted by a weird pseudo-crossover with the Green Arrow series. It is a lackluster story that just feels like an excuse for Green Arrow to show up in this series, no matter how inorganic and forced it may be. The crossover even ends with the suggestion that Queen Industries is somehow tied up in the Daemonite invasion, yet this plot point is never explored again in either Grifter or Green Arrow.

From here, things devolve quickly. Grifter launches a confusing assault on a Daemonite ship, loses his girlfriend, and temporarily defeats the bad guys. The fight doesn’t stop here though, and Grifter goes on to have another lackluster pseudo-crossover, this time with Midnighter, and a final showdown that sets things up for the next volume. Once again, the primary purpose of this story is the focus on fighting, and there is little else here.

The best part of this entire story is the uncovering of the Daemonite conspiracy. Edmonson sets up the Daemonites as an unseen, but ever-present threat, ready to jump out from anywhere. It keeps you in a constant state of suspense, since you never know when another character will turn out to be a deadly assassin in disguise.

However, in some ways, being in a constant state of mystery also hurts the book. Grifter’s abilities are never explained and readers are never told how powerful the Daemonites are. This causes a lot of confusion as Grifter will occasionally struggle to kill one Daemonite yet be able to kill a whole group of them in the next scene. Consistency goes out the window and readers are left out on a limb in terms of understanding how intimidating the alien threat actually is.

Besides this, the biggest flaw throughout this book is how it sacrifices emotion and meaning for action. Cole’s relationships with his brother and his girlfriend are paper thin and never receive the substance they need. This deprives his brother’s death and girlfriend’s disappearance of the emotion that they could have. Readers have no sense for these relationships so they are unable to properly empathize with the protagonists struggle. It leaves the book feeling hollow and is a huge impact on the overall appeal of the read.

It is also worth mentioning how horribly the character of Sofia Cordón is handled. She comes into the story as a generic replacement for Cole’s girlfriend and ends up unceremoniously killed off after only a few issues. She also has an odd habit of inorganically inserting one Spanish word into every sentence she says, as if to constantly remind readers that this is a Latin American character. Her entire character is a failure in regards to both feminism and cultural sensitivity.

(spoilers end here)

Art

The first half of the book is penciled by Carlos Urbano. Urbrano’s work is not exceptional in any particular way, however it also is not necessarily bad in many ways either. The only problem is that strong emotions end up looking weird instead of expressive. Besides this, the book looks nice and is as detailed and descriptive as most fans will desire.

The second half is mostly done by Scott Clark. Though not a huge stylistic shift, Clark’s art has a unique quality about it that feels very strange. Background scenes and characters seem to be drawn in a completely different style, enough that it is noticeable on most pages. It makes these pages look like a real world photograph that has comic characters Photoshopped onto it, a feature that definitely throws the book into the uncanny valley. In addition, Clark’s pages are far more sexualized and feature a great deal more ripped clothing and exposed skin simply for some cheap sex appeal. Though not horrible looking, the second half of this book is far from good.

Continuity

Grifter Vol. 1: Most Wanted starts the Grifter New 52 series. This means that this is the first volume in a brand new continuity, so there are no references to Grifter’s history. This makes it a great starting point for new fans.

The story here is continued in Grifter Vol. 2: Newfound Power (Review).

This volume also makes a brief reference to another comic book, detailed below:

• Green Arrow’s dealings in Seattle are explained by Green Arrow Vol. 1: Midas Touch (Review).

 

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