The Tattered Man

Written by Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray
Art by Norberto Fernandez

I'm not ever quite sure how I feel about the writing team of Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray.  I find their Jonah Hex to be wildly inconsistent, but often good.  Their superhero books, like the Freedom Fighters, have been disappointing, but their independent work, like The Last Resort and Random Acts of Violence have been brilliant.  I also enjoyed their Time Bomb at Radical.

So, when I saw this forty-page graphic novel being solicited, I thought it was a no-brainer.  It's okay, but it's not great.  Basically, the writers use this book to revisit the DC character of the Ragman, and re-write him into a slightly grimmer character.  That's about it.

Of course, both the Ragman and the Tattered Man of this book have their origins in Jewish mythology.  In this book, an old man is assaulted by a trio of costumed junkie thieves on Hallowe'en, and while ransacking his home, come across a box of rags.  They ask him about them, and he proceeds to tell a lengthy story about his experiences as a child Holocaust survivor.  Then some stuff happens, and the rags are re-awoken to bring justice.  At that point, this book basically becomes an issue of the Spectre.

I'm not sure why these two writers felt the need to tell this story.  To read the back matter, both of them are incredibly proud of the originality of this book.  The thing is, there isn't any.  I don't see a single new idea or approach in this comic, and so I'm puzzled by this self-congratulation.  Fernandez does a good enough job on the art.  This isn't a bad comic, it's just not a special one.  I hope that the forthcoming one-shots written by these guys that I've pre-ordered are better.