Human Target Volume 1: Strike Zones

Written by Peter Milligan
Art by Javier Pulido

Sometimes I wonder what I was thinking back in 2003 or so, when I'd have left a book like this on the stands. I remember getting and liking the first issue, and then, for some strange reason, never getting another issue. I recently found this in a used book store, and decided to give it a go.

This is the good Peter Milligan. The plotting and storytelling are tight, and Pulido's work is fantastic.

The Human Target (is this becoming a TV show?) is an updating of an old Wein and Infantino character from the 70s. Christopher Chance is so good at impersonating people, he basically becomes them to protect them from danger. He's able to intuit things that they don't even know about themselves, and can absorb their physical skills into his muscle memory. The immersion is so deep though, that he can sometimes lose himself in the character.

There are three stories in this volume. The first has Chance playing the part of an aging movie director, and this represents the deepest immersion of his career. He also meets a guy who faked his death on 9/11 to avoid criminal fraud charges, and later goes undercover in a New York baseball team.

These three stories are clearly designed to establish a status quo for the series, and to set Chance up for his eventual return to LA, to deal with his own emotional problems. I look forward to tracking down the second book.