Working for a billionaire is what poisoned him — will investigating another put the Human Target in even more danger? Christopher Chance continues his investigation into his own murder with a visit to Ted Kord, the Blue Beetle. The question here is, can Christopher keep his mind on the mission and ignore Ice’s affections long enough to get to the bottom of what’s really going on? Human Target #4 is written by Tom King, drawn by Greg Smallwood and lettered by Clayton Cowles.
Dan Grote: Good news, everyone. THIS GUY FUCKS.
Armaan Babu: Dan! How could you; This is a Tom King comic, we all know the proper way to phrase this is “THIS GUY %#%@.” While I’m happy for Chance, we don’t really get to that until muuuuch later — we’ve got some significant Blue Beetle talk to get to first, so let’s dive right in.
Better Off Ted
Dan: This issue introduces us to the next suspect on our list, Blue Beetle, portrayed as a talky billionaire obsessed with being seen as “the good one” and logic-pretzeling his way through Christopher Chance’s investigation. Armaan, does this version of Beetle jibe with your understanding of the character?
Armaan: From what I’ve read of Blue Beetle, I’d say your description of his appearance in this comic gels fairly well with what I know of him. But I think you’ve left one thing out—there’s a shrewdness to this Beetle as well. In the face of being a murder suspect, he’s calm, collected, logical…and falls easily into a number of very cynical perspectives. In another comic, I could see this being panicked ramblings, but right up until the very end with the bar scene, I felt like this version of Beetle was always in control.
Human Target is a great noir mystery, meaning every character with a speaking role gives you a reason not to trust them. This isn’t the Blue Beetle I’m most familiar with, but he’s certainly a twist on a Blue Beetle who’s perfect for this specific story.
Even as a more suspicious Beetle, though, he’s still an incredibly endearing character. The ease with which he settles into old grooves with his dear friend Ice, with the way he brings up fond memories they’ve shared, the energy in him that just. Won’t. Stop. This man is nerding out about everything, even his own role as a suspect, and he doesn’t stop until he’s physically brought down by a drink too much. I love him, he’s great. He can steal the book and become its new protagonist, as far as I’m concerned.
Dan: You are so right. There is a shrewdness to Beetle. You don’t become a billionaire without it. … Well, that and generational wealth, I suppose. The thing about Beetle is in this issue is, you can tune out what he says and watch what he does. The man makes Chance and Ice watch him get changed — butt-ass naked — and follow him on mission after mission. Poisoner or not, he’s wearing them down via the magic of CEO-level power moves. Heck, by his own logic, maybe his drunken slip about Martian Manhunter was a feint, an intentional plant to send our leads onto their next adventure.
I don’t know, nor should I on issue #4 of a 12-issue series. Where does Ted rank on your list of suspects to date?
Armaan: Let’s see, we got Ice, Guy, Booster Gold, Skeets, Doctor Mid-Nite if you’re really looking for a twist, and now, of course, Blue Beetle. Or it could have been Lex Luthor all along.
Dan: Which, God, if it ends up being Lex, I’m gonna be pissed.
Armaan: You know who tops my list?
It’s Nancy.
Nancy, secretary for Ted Kord. Nancy, who’s the one constantly calling Blue Beetle to send him running across the country on the very day someone comes to investigate him. Nancy, who would have all of Ted Kord’s contacts, an awareness of the people he meets, and certainly knowledge and authority enough to move assets around to put events in motion. Nancy, who, like any good secretary, doesn’t just keep track of her billionaire boss but other billionaires trying to take Kord Industries down and put her out of a very lucrative job (as we see, Kord has no problems doubling people’s salaries on a whim).
Who’s trying to take down Kord Industries? That’s right, the man the poison was intended for, Lex Luthor himself. Means, motive, and, with a good secretary’s reach, opportunity. Nancy’s my #1 suspect and in every review here on out I will attempt to show you just how much every new issue only strengthens my belief!!
(To answer your question though, in decreasing order of suspicion: Blue Beetle, Lex Luthor, Ice, Skeets, Doctor Mid-Nite, Booster Gold, and Guy Gardner.)
Dan: Well, shit, I’m sold. It’s Nancy. The rest of you can go home. Case closed. [Editor Matt’s Note: I am now confident it is Nancy, and that Nancy is really Gilda Dent]
Cape and Cowles
Dan: We’ve gone on and on about how great the art is in this series and will continue to do so, but I want to take a minute to focus on the lettering.
This is a comic that attempts to capture the look and feel of a 1950s/’60s detective movie, and in this issue especially, that tone loops back around to emulating the look and feel of a Silver Age comic.
The A cover is awash in Batman ‘66-style sound effects as Beetle, halfway off page, carries out that time-honored superhero tradition of thwarting bank robbers, while Chance watches, flask close at hand, giving the whole scene the side-eye.
The title page is the splash of a classic Lee-and-Kirby comic, with giant letters spelling the bombastic title “To This Great Stage of FOOLS,” the last word lettered with jagged edges and punctuated with a thick exclamation point.
The best example may be the four-panel sequence in which Chance watches Beetle and Ice handle bank robbers off panel. We see Chance leaning against Blue Beetle’s Bug, surrounded on all sides by giant SFX, similar to the cover, and word balloons filled with grawlixes, all these very comic book-y things, punctuated once by Chance’s cough, rendered smaller than everything else around it.
It’s a great way to use lettering to show how out of place Chance is in this world, how he’s dealing with life or death while the gods among us engage in the same silly punch-em-ups they always have.
Shucks. Look at me. I’m rambling again. Armaan, favorite art stuffs, GO.
Armaan: You do Ted Kord proud, Dan.
So I had to go back and look at previous issues to find out if this was a one-time thing or whether it’s been happening throughout the run in ways I’ve missed, but there was a LOT of Smallwood cutting rectangles of light across characters’ faces this issue. Turns out it’s been happening a lot this run, but it was a lot more noticeable here. A lot of it is the shadows of Beetle’s ship.
Smallwood plays with light a lot, it’s a large part of what makes his pages so beautiful. As Beetle and crew zip around the country putting out one fire after another, we’re getting some great daylight shots. From a storytelling standpoint though…we’re never completely removed from the shadows of Blue Beetle’s Bug. That ship is the foreground we spend little time looking at, the foreground being the realm of superheroes.
But our focus here is on Chance. In the background of a superhero’s world, living just outside the fanfare, the punches, the camaraderie; hell, he’s even an outsider to the continuity Beetle keeps bringing up. “I shouldn’t be here.” I love how the art puts him firmly outside of this world, an observer trying to catch as many details as possible before his end.
Also ye gods. That skyscraper credits page. High above the clouds. Breathtaking.
Dan: Smallwood’s color juxtapositions are just sofa king good. The blues and peaches of Kord’s office, the blues and golds of Beetle’s lair, the dark and light blues of the inside of the Bug, even the rainbow colors of the SFX against the backdrop of the Bug. I’ve honestly never wanted to spend more time in a Crayola box. It just shows this series isn’t assembly-line comics as usual. Smallwood wants to be remembered for this.
And the best part is, King is giving him the space to. We talked up top about how wordy Ted is, but Ted talking too much and the comic talking too much are two different things. I read a comic last week where the exposition got in the way of gorgeous art, and it bummed me out. But if you look at the scenes on the Bug, the dialogue and the art make room for each other. They’re telling two different stories — Ted’s alibi and the growing closeness of Chance and Ice — simultaneously and in conversation with each other. This is three people who know how to make comics doing it well.
Armaan: Dan, I’ve been complaining about the same thing in another comic, so I understand just how great it is to be seeing a comic like this where the creative team just comes together so well.
Icy Hot
Dan: Over a number of flights from one minor crisis to the next, we see Ice growing closer and closer to Chance and Chance giving in to temptation. A hand around the shoulder. A gentle nuzzle. The tight interlocking of fingers. The rubbing of pants (Go ahead, Black Label!) By the end, there’s nothing left to do but get down on your knees. And pray.
Jesus, Armaan, I need a cigarette. Was it good for you?
Armaan: Ice’s heady mix of girl-next-door and sultry gazes laden with genuine affection make it almost hard to focus on anything else, Dan. Which I’m beginning to suspect is the point.
I’m not gonna mention what video game this is from ‘cause it’s a bit of a spoiler (if you know, you know), but this reminds me of a moment that turned the entire game on its head. The cop is talking to a witness, and realizes, halfway through the conversation, that this woman has been using the cop’s attraction to her to manipulate him, to keep his focus off of details she doesn’t want him looking into. The thing is, even after he knows this, it’s still extremely difficult for him to look past her smiles, to seek her approval and affection, to want to keep her safe — his mind keeps returning to what he desperately needs to see. Even I, as the player, found myself hoping she wasn’t so bad all along, even knowing what her role was.
From her first appearance in this series, Ice has clearly been intending to throw Chance off the trail. We know that. Chance knows that. But whatever investigative skills he has are constantly being thrown off by her.
Last issue I spoke of Ice’s eventual role in this series being either one of tragedy, or betrayal. I think some of the former is found here, because the effect she has on Chance is telling. She’s not overtly sexual. She is just — despite her moniker — warm. Constant warmth, countering Chance’s cold, cold fear of death one affectionate movement or smile at a time. He knows what’s happening, but dammit, he needs this.
That he needs it so bad is what makes it heartbreaking.
Cheap shots
- Does stealth tech … smell?
- On a ship designed by Ted Kord? You betcha.
- Ice checks out Ted’s butt, Chance doesn’t.
- Chance is starting to look more weary. Maybe it’s the fight with Guy last issue, but Smallwood is definitely drawing him more tired, like he’s beginning to show signs of breaking down rather than just being a classically handsome older man.
- I didn’t realize the bear monster was a monster at first. On second read, I saw the double eyes, teeth and claws. One might say it was a … Demon Bear. YEEEEEAAAAAH!
- It’s nice of Kord to lay out all the clues for us a third of the way through the series so we can keep track without a recap page, hopefully the JLI’s other great detective does the same later on.
- Next suspect on the list: Martian Manhunter (That was the other great detective you were thinking of, right?)
Armaan is obsessed with the way stories are told. From video games to theater, TTRPGs to comics, he has written for, and about, them all. He will not stop, actually; believe us, we've tried.
Dan Grote is the editor-in-chief of ComicsXF, having won the site by ritual combat. By day, he’s a newspaper editor, and by night, he’s … also an editor. He co-hosts The ComicsXF Interview Podcast with Matt Lazorwitz. He lives in New Jersey with his wife, two kids and two miniature dachshunds, and his third, fictional son, Peter Winston Wisdom.
