My adoration for the Grifter character comes from the fact that I’m a kid of early 90’s. I grew up on a steady diet of X-men comics and always longed to read some Image comics but never really had the opportunity (I don’t know why) to get some. Grifter was originally a member of the Wildcats team from Image, and what I know of him I know from the cartoon and a guest appearance in the amazing Sleeper series from Wildstorm. He’s one of the refugee characters from the Wildstorm universe that made his way into the main DC Universe. For some reason, all these Wildstorm characters have really grabbed my interest, so I knew Grifter would be a for-sure pick up.

So how did #1 turn out? With an intriguing mystery that works to further explore the paranoia pervasive throughout the new DC Universe, I liked Grifter a lot. It pulled me in right away, and I couldn’t help but like this new version of Cole Cash. He’s disoriented, confused, and anxious, and the story is told in a fashion that really reminded me of Memento. This first issue is called “17 Minutes” and those 17 minutes are quit tantalizing as a mystery that will be unraveled throughout this first arc. Neither we nor Cole know what happened to him in that short time period, and he seems to be even more out of the loop than he guessed at first blush. I’m very much looking forward to seeing this story unravel.

I don’t really know where the story is going, but I do know that it hooked me enough that I want to see what happens in #2. The cast is nice and small, and the alien menace is creepy and completely surrounds our protagonist. I love how crazy Cole looks throughout this first issue and, I’m sure, the many issues to come. I feel like with Grifter we’re getting a man-on-the-street view of why the new DC Universe is so suspicious of aliens as a whole, and it’s probably going to be invaluable in the months to come as more and more books start talking about the alien threat looming over Earth.