Grifter #1:
What Happened: Cole Cash, a small-time conman(hence the name Grifter), is grabbed off the street by some freaky creatures and they try to do some sort of experiment on him. The experiment doesn't seem to work out perfectly, and Cole is left with some telepathy that allows him to read the minds of the freaky creatures. The freaky creatures(who seem capable of body-snatching) try to recapture Cole, while he tries to stay a step ahead of them. To add to Cole's troubles, his brother Max is a military man who has been tasked with bringing Cole(who the government thinks is a terrorist) in.
The Good: This comic did a WAY better job of introducing us to the lead character than Static Shock #1 did. We learn about Grifter's background(smalltime conman), we learn how Grifter got his powers(freaky creatures) and we get introduced to the duel threat Grifter will be dealing with(the freaky creatures and Grifter's own brother). You can't ask for all that much more from a first issue about a character I know next to nothing about.
The Bad: Gah, what is up with those Wolverine-esque sideburns on Grifter?! They were horrible... Besides that, there really wasn't enough time to develop any kind of real relationship between Grifter and his partner Gretchen(lovers perhaps?), nor between Grifter and his brother to get an emotional attachment to Grifter losing Gretchen or to Grifter being hunted down by his brother.
The Verdict: I liked this issue. It was a good, strong, solid start. There was some mystery, like who/what those creatures were and why Grifter seemed to get powers from them, and the eventual confrontation between Grifter and his brother should be heated(you'd think). I definitely won't be dropping this one yet.
Score: 7 1/2 out of 10.
If I were to find myself in a similar situation, I think my response would be close to Grifter's, but with a lot more profanity and sobbing...
I am a bit curious about your opinion of Suicide Squad after they show Amanda Waller.
ReplyDeleteJust read Grifter, I definitely agree with you on how they introduced Cole. I thought this was a pretty good starting issue, and it made me interested in the second one which is more than Static did.
ReplyDeleteI should get to S. Squad by the end-ish of the week. I hope they didn't screw with Waller too much, because she's a character that I've always liked.
ReplyDeleteAs always, great minds think alike, JT! This issue def did a better job of letting us know who Cole was, where he got his powers, etc, which was a far cry from Static Shock... I've got to ask you though, should I stick to this review format to do the new DC books? Thoughts?
I'd say yeah, I like it, and it allows you to fly through reviews without having to do a Best of the Rest/Ratings and Rantings type format, so you can still do multiple single reviews.
ReplyDeleteOkay, so before I even comment on the comic review itself. I LOVE your revamped quick post with "the good the bad the verdict" in the review. I think you should do that for ALL your reviews from now on. That's if it's not too much work.
ReplyDeleteAs for Grifter, from the looks of it, seems like a nice first issue. I don't know if it'll be something I'll be reading faithfully. Maybe I should read the comic for myself before I judge too harshly. Who knows maybe I'll wait til the next issue to see what you and JT have to say about it before I decide on continuously reading it or not.
Cool, thanks for the opinions JT and Lisha. I'll definitely stick with this format for the rebooted DC comics going forward. As for longer running series, idk, I'll play it by ear depending on what the series is/how deeply I want to get into the review portion of the post. For something epic like Fear Itself, I want to really delve into the review, so I wouldn't use this format, but for other book where the review isn't THAT important? I may switch over to this format full time. But thanks for the advice, it's much obliged.
ReplyDeleteWell, Lisha, JT and I both gave this issue of Grifter the same score(I think), so we seemed to be cautiously optimistic about it. But I can def understand wanting to wait a month or two before you read it. That way you'll have a few issues to base your decision on. A lot of times that's how I'll read minis, I'll wait for a few issues to drop before I read it since that'll give me a better idea of how I feel about it.