Human Target #14 - 21

Written by Peter Milligan
Art by Cliff Chiang, Cameron Stewart, and Javier Pulido

It's taken me a while to track down the last few issues of this series, but I finally got it taken care of recently, and I've enjoyed these comics quite a bit.

Unlike the rather unspectacular TV series that shared a name with this book, the Human Target is a psychological thriller that actually tries to delve into the psyche of its main character,Christopher Chance, a man who takes on the appearance and traits of others in order to protect them from danger.

This run includes a terrific story involving a small cult that is centred around a young faith healer who is basically a fraud.  I believe this is the strongest story in the run, save perhaps the last one.  Next there are a couple of one-off stories featuring some fantastic guest artistry (Cameron Stewart and Javier Pulido).

The series ended (before its time I might add) with The Stealer, a three-part tale that has Chance's former assistant, Tom McFadden return on the scene, and eventually try to steal Chance's life and girl.  This story is, in places, wonderfully ambiguous, as the reader starts to wonder who the real Chance is.

Cliff Chiang provides the artwork for most of this run, and he is, as usual, stellar in his work.  Human Target was a very intelligent thriller series, and it's a mystery to me why Milligan's Vertigo run was not collected past the first two trades.  I'm sure there is a market for these comics these days.