"LAST SHOT" Story: Rob Liefeld Dialog: Frank Tieri Pencils: Scott Clark Inks: Dave Beaty Colors: Andrew Dalhouse Letters: Wes Abbott Editor: Brian Smith ART Once again we are back to Clark's amazing, definitive rendition of Cole Cash, A.K.A. Grifter. I don't want to bore any of you readers with continuous praise for Scott Clark's art here, but there are a few cool things in this issue that I would like to touch on. Overall, the emotion and true rage of Grifter comes through very well in this issue. Early on we get to see just the tiniest of smirks from Grifter as he knows that he is right where he wants (needs) to be and his captors (and actually the comic book audience, also) at this point aren't sure what to make of that. Is it empty bravado...well, I don't want to get ahead of myself, but we'll see later on in the issue. Another example is toward the middle of the issue, right where the action really kicks off, we get some really amazing shots of Grifter unleashing his awesome and devastating telepathic/telekinetic (TK) powers. The rage on his face is really apparent on his face during the battle with Helspont which helps the reader remember and realize the complete breakdown of his life that Grifter has gone through over what I presume to be the last few weeks, and Helspont is likely the bastard responsible for all of our protagonist's suffering from the beginning. Synge still looks ridiculous, but the saving grace is that this rendition of Helspont is GREAT. Clark makes him look genuinely scary and badass at the same time. I also want to bring attention to the inking of Dave Beaty. This guy is incredibly consistent over Clark's pencils and his presence on this book is very much appreciated. When the art and situation calls for gritty, thick lines, he delivers, and when it calls for clean, crisp character work, he delivers there too. He just doing a great job! Last, but most certainly not least, we have the awesome Andrew Dalhouse. I have gushed over this guy's work in past Grifter issues (he's also kicking butt in a number of other DC titles at the moment), but he stepped up his game again, to another level here. Every page looked amazing and that was in large part because of the coloring: from effects surrounding Helspont's blue-flamed head (actually much cooler looking than it sounds), to the blood spatters on Grifter's face and shirt, to the seriously mind-blowing effects that were meant to showcase the telekinetic powers, this book is very colorful and just plain PRETTY. One last thing, the cover to this issue rocked! Rob Liefeld did an excellent job of making it extremely eye-catching. I'm hoping that some more people might be drawn to this issue because of that great cover image. STORY & DIRECTION *** SPOILERS BELOW *** The story picks up basically right where the previous issue left off with our man held prisoner on Helspont's ship in space and getting the ever-living shit beat out of him, but as we have been slowly shown over the course of the previous few issues, Grifter is much more than a normal gun-toting human. He seems to be very resilient -- I'm of the opinion that he must have a pretty good healing factor, as it has been shown that he can be hurt (so he's not invulnerable), he just heals extremely fast. Grifter is then dragged thrown back in a cell to await his fate at the hands of Helspont. We are shown a few pages of Cheshire and Synge conversing with their leader and it becomes clear that they are not Daemonites themselves, and even though we know Helspont is a Daemonite, he has had some sort of falling-out with his own kind and now his main goal is to co-opt their earth invasion and take everything for himself. He is doing this for revenge for something that was done to him that the readers have not fully been shown yet (they touched on the fact that he was banished for being too powerful, if I remember correctly, in one of the issues of Voodoo). Next, our characters are in the presence of Helspont himself and a conversation ensues that pretty much has Cole telling Helspont that he meant to get captured, and everything that has happened so far is according to his plan. He figured out that Cheshire was a mole long ago because his skills as a con man allowed him to pick up on a subtle tell (or revealing action) that Cheshire had been doing the entire time that the resistance had been together, most notably, whenever someone in the group asked or wondered why they were always a step behind, she would unconsciously look down, which Grifter picked up on every time. Side Note: I mentioned this weird action (looking down all weird-like) that Cheshire would do in the last review, prior to this issue coming out, so it's pretty cool to see that in this way, the art and story were really working together to give us readers a clue about the traitorous act a few issues before it was actually going to be shown in the story. Most comics that I have read, would not have attempted to inconspicuously show this action at all and would have just expected the readers (and the story characters) to live with the reveal of the betrayal without and clues or foreshadowing. This was unique and should be applauded for that. After the reveal that Grifter is here because he figured that this would be the best way to get a face-to-face shot (or face-to-flaming blue skull) at the villain responsible for Max's (Cole's estranged brother) death. Grifter definitely takes his best shot at the approaching Helspont and lets loose a vicious TK blast that sends him flailing back across the large, cavernous room. Grifter and Deathblow surprise their captors at the same instant and both end up with some Daemonite heavy weaponry to help them escape the ship. At this point Synge makes another groan-worthy appearance and steps in to confront Grifter. He starts to tell Grifter that he took everything that he threw at him during their last battle and lived through it, but he didn't realize that Grifter was sandbagging during that fight and now, he simply waves two fingers and sends Synge flying out of the picture and out of the battle, probably knocked unconcious. Across the room, Deathblow is attempting to get away and gets attacked by Cheshire. He overpowers her and is choking her out while slamming her up against a wall, ready to end her...but we don't see the end of that scene...dammit. I want Deathblow to finish the job and kill the traitorous wench! Grifter and Helspont continue to fight when Deathblow yells out for Grifter to get the hell out of there, as he has rigged the ship to blow. They manage to get to an escape pod and jettison out of the doomed ship a few seconds before it we see a huge explosion in the lower quadrant of the ship. Now, I'm not completely sure what is being shown on the last page, but it looks to me like Helspont is able to use his massively powerful TK to literally capture all the blast wreckage and instantly rebuild his ship, but the good guys don't see this as they are headed back to earth without looking back (who could blame them, lol). Helspont also reveals that he has double-crossed Grifter and that now, he has the human right where he wants him, and also he now knows exactly what he is dealing with as far as Grifter's power levels. It's also revealed that Helspont knows something else about Grifter, as in, what he REALLY is... Side Note: Grifter's powers are shown to be pretty formidable, but it is apparent that Helspont seemingly took the best Cole had and basically shrugged it off. At this point, the situation seems pretty dire for our heroes, as I don't know how Grifter is going to be able to stop Helspont. He simply doesn't have the firepower, so to speak. It is interesting that the last two panels of this comic are juxtaposed with each other in the sense that even as we, as the readers, are coming to grips with the almost hopelessness of the situation, (based on Helspont's revelations in his dialog to Cheshire and Synge), Grifter has a huge grin on his face and feels like he has learned something in his battle with Helspont, has a solid partner that can hold his own now in Deathblow, and is in a much better situation to take him and has flunkies on in the future. We'll see who is right... DIALOG Tieri's scripts continue to be witty and campy (in a good way, IMO), but this issue had a little more of the smart, always-two-steps-ahead-of-everyone-else-in-the-room Grifter. In virtually all of Cole Cash's appearances in the old Wildstorm (WS) Universe, he was the guy who always had it figured out. He wasn't super-powered (which is a little gripe I'll touch on below), he was very proud to be a full-blooded human (as opposed to the Kherubim, Daemonites, and half-breeds that he was surrounded by), and he mostly had to rely on his uncanny ability with firearms and his military and Coda hand-to-hand training. He also would do whatever it took to complete the mission, or get the information out of the bad guy, or save the girl. He had an ungodly amount of determination, and that's precisely why he was so cool. For the first time, really, in the New 52 and this new incarnation of the character, we are starting to see that old con man come out who out-thinks everybody, and I love it! IN CONCLUSION The ideas in this book aren't rocket science, nor are they intended to be. This book is a sci-fi, action story that simply wants to be fun and throw some of our favorite old Wildstorm characters together in the mixer and let them fight it out. I really don't see a problem with that. DC is walking on thin ice with this title due to it's low sales. Liefeld has provided a little boost, but the last two issues have fallen down to Edmondson's #8 sales levels. I think that DC editorial are trying to play it safe and give some fan service to old WS fans and new readers, by keeping the story as simple as possible. This can be a double-edged sword because the some of the old WS fans want the nuanced, more grown up character that Grifter became and some of the old WS fans and New 52 fans are just happy to be in on the ground floor of Grifter's story and personality growth. That is the camp that I fall into. I don't get to pick and choose the stories that get chosen for my favorite character, I just have to react to them and take them in. Right now I am really enjoying this comic and hope that others can too, in increasingly larger numbers every month, lol. One last thing, their has been some discussion at Clark's Bar (theauthority.ws/clarksbar) Wildstorm forum and on the CBR forums that the way Grifter's TK powers are being handled aren't the way it should be...and I tend to agree. I do like his increased power levels, as I think it allows him to be able to hang with a much larger cross-section of characters in the DC universe (which is vastly more power-oriented than the Wildstorm Universe was), but this has its drawbacks as well. One of the best aspects of the old version of his character was that he (along with the rest of Team 7) had these incredible mind powers, but they were very conflicted and even downright scared to use them, as they came at a terrible price. I don't remember all the specifics, but if those powers were used too often, the user would age more rapidly and eventually go crazy due to the stress on the mind. I think this limitation would make Grifter a much more interesting character and I hope that it is revealed in upcoming issues that there are consequences to using that power so recklessly, and that he has to face them and learn to overcome them. Art = 9 / 10 Story/Dialog = 7 / 10 Overall = 80% --> Another FUN, action-packed issue. It's always cool to see two old Wildstorm characters square off, and this was no exception. We got some awesome scenes with Grifter going all Jedi-Badass on his nemesis, and the way Scott Clark presented the action and emotion made it all worth it.