Despite Ice’s efforts, the evidence against Fire has certainly been piling up. Now, Fire’s meeting her investigator head on. Is Chance spending a night with his killer — or is his biggest lead about to go up in smoke? Find out in Human Target #7, written by Tom King, drawn by Greg Smallwood and lettered by Clayton Cowles.
Armaan Babu: After a long hiatus, a one-shot and an article from yours truly laying out the suspects in the case, we’re finally back to this old-school noir mystery starring the JLI, and I am … disappointed. Fire’s been built up as a suspect for a while, but the issue actually starring her is a real low point for the series so far.
Dan Grote: It’s not a great return chapter for what so far has been my book of the year, Armaan. Instead, it’s a reminder that when Tom King misses, he misses HARD. This comic is the Heroes in Crisis of Human Target.
Feeling Hot, Hot, Hot
Armaan: Not a whole lot happens this issue. Christopher Chance and Fire head to a club, stop a group of robbers and talk on a Ferris wheel. Chance later finds out that the entire evening was Fire pretending to seduce Chance to find out if he would cheat on Ice — and Chance passed the test! We then find out that the buck of suspicion is being passed on to Guy Gardner. It’s going to be a little difficult to interrogate him now that he’s dead, but hey, this is the DC Universe.
Dan: OK, so you’ve enumerated my two major problems with this issue.
- It pivots from being a classic-feeling Technicolor noir to a bad 1990s erotic thriller, like the kind you would find on HBO after 10 p.m. in 1994.
- No matter how you slice it, pinning the poisoning on Guy is too easy.
Let’s start with the second one. Fire tells Ice and Chance that Guy asked her to get the time-displaced water from Booster Gold (purloined as part of a sketchy bagel business funded by Martian Manhunter via a loan from Blue Beetle) that found its way into the coffee intended for Lex Luthor but drank by Chance.
Guy Gardner. Guy Gardner did all this. Guy Gardner the meathead abusive boyfriend masterminded the attempted poisoning of DC’s greatest richo villain. Guy Gardner who nearly pissed his pants when (fake) Hal Jordan showed up demanding his ring in issue #3.
Guy Gardner, whom Ice killed last issue.
No. Bullshit. I don’t care whether it’s issue #7 or issue #12, that answer is too easy. Of course they’re going to pin it on the (G)uy who can’t respond to the allegations. What kind of a last-panel reveal is that? Instead of a seven-page preview of a superfluous Marc Silvestri Batman-Joker comic, we should have gotten two more pages of Chance explaining why that explanation won’t hold up and then gotten the REAL clue as to where the investigation is headed next. This is a dying man. Stop wasting his time. Stop wasting MY time.
Armaan: Yeah, for a man who only has 12 days to live, he’s spent way too much time dealing with Guy — and now he’s going to have to spend even more time chasing down this ridiculous lead until it passes the suspicion buck to someone else.
But, as you said, that’s not this issue’s only problem…
Dan: Which brings me to my second point (originally listed as my first): This book flips the switch from sexy to horny, and I don’t like it.
(Full disclosure: I am a grumpy, middle-aged man. I don’t like a lot of things. Your mileage may vary.)
Fire, slow dancing with Chance at a jazz club, asking to ride a Ferris wheel with him, talking about how everyone wants to kiss her, whose clothes CONVENIENTLY BURN OFF when she saves him from falling off said Ferris wheel.
I know “unstable molecules” aren’t a thing in DC, but superheroes still wear clothes that don’t get blown off every time they use their powers. The one thing that took me out of the Flash TV series is whenever Barry would save a woman and once she was out of harm’s way it was revealed his speed burned off her top. It was always selective that way. Surely, whoever is the Edna Mode of the JLI or Checkmate would make Beatriz some fireproof haute couture.
Either way, she left it at home that night. So we get a splash of Fire, her borrowed sport coat falling open, showing just enough tiddy to maintain the book’s 17+ rating, saying to Chance, “I bet you want to kiss me now.”
Congratulations, Tom King, you remembered that one scene from Basic Instinct.
Armaan: As a slightly less grumpy reader, I want to say that I’m all in for a good horny comic — emphasis on good. As Chance and Fire do their version of a Horny Angry Tango, I’m left feeling … well, bored. This is bad horny. This is … lifeless and dull sexiness, and given that it’s one of the few character traits King’s version of Fire is allowed, that makes Fire dull and lifeless as well.
Dan: Yes, correct. For the yin to Ice’s yang, Fire is presented nowhere near as complex as her white-haired bestie.
The next page, Chance awakens in his apartment, a woman in the bed next to him. We’re left to wonder for a page whether it might be Fire. It’s not. It’s Ice. They have shower sex. Chance has successfully passed the horny test. Hooray?
What is this? Was this planned? Did Ice say to Fire, “Hey, my boyfriend really wants to know if you’re a murderer. Try to fuck him, see what happens”?
Also … and I’ll keep this brief because I’m not the person you should be listening to when it comes to such things … there is a Claremontian level of queer-baiting going on with Fire and Ice that I do not trust King to handle in a way that would benefit the people who would love to see it.
Armaan: The thing that frustrates me most is that, for good or bad, every issue of this series has always given us some fresh perspective on the murder suspects of the JLI. This book has some unique takes on each of the characters, but what do we learn about Fire in this issue? We learn that she’s dangerous. That she’d do anything for Ice. That she’s manipulative and that she’s comfortable with lies and that she’s very, very hot.
All of these were things we knew already from the mentions of Fire in the first six issues. Hell, we got to learn more about her in the Martian Manhunter-centric issue than we did here.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: Tom King? These series don’t always need to be 12 issues. It’s pretty clear that this one’s just a bridge issue; its only real function is to get us to the next issue where actual things will happen. We hope.
There’s a Little Bit of Bad in Every Good Little Comic
Armaan: I don’t know if it’s because of this issue in particular, or because I’ve been rereading the series during the hiatus, but the formula is starting to get a little tiring. Chance has one pretty solid lead, and the Main Suspect from that lead is moving through the JLI, single file, with a piece of information revealed at the end of the issue. Without the complication of the cover-up of Guy’s murder, I’d’ve checked out of this series already. If this was a novel, I’d already be skipping to the end.
The book’s linear exploration of a single lead makes for a boring mystery. At this point, I find myself dreading the G’nort and Rocket Red issues. I’m even apprehensive about Batman’s eventual appearance.
Dan: You’re right. The cover-up of Guy’s death should have ratcheted up the stakes. Now, Chance isn’t just in a race against time to find his killer, he’s in a race to avoid getting caught. Shit, THAT’S the end of this issue. Chance calls bullshit on the Guy alibi, and while he’s explaining, a Bat-shaped shadow falls over the three of them. A voice off-panel says, “Christopher Chance? I’m here to ask you about Guy Gardner.”
I’ve been wary about playing the Bat-card too early in this series, but fuck it. I’m all in now.
Armaan: You know what. You’ve convinced me. Bring on the Bat. The murder of Guy Gardner was a fantastic cliffhanger, and deserves more focus than this issue gave it.
Dan: We talked in the Halfway to Whodunnit Spectacular about how Fire and Ice mix elements of the good girl and femme fatale tropes common in noirs. Issue #7 lends credence to that theory, but not in a narratively satisfying way.
In the opening scene at the jazz club, Fire and Chance dance to “There’s a Little Bit of Bad in Every Good Little Girl,” a song written in 1916 by Grant Clarke and Fred Fischer. The lyrics hang balloon-lessly in the air as they dance, until the night is interrupted by some easily-dealt-with stickup men.
(Incidentally, I listened to the song online, and instead of being a moody jazz number, the versions I found had the tempo and timbre of a Sousa march. Do not recommend.)
The scene uses every – single – word of the lyrics to hammer home the point that Fire and Ice are a mixed bag of good and bad, naughty and nice. It is the “tell” in show-don’t-tell wrapped in a fur coat. It is so pleased with itself that it dug this century-old song about women and morality out of mothballs, and it is the No. 1 killer of the pacing in this comic. We could have had Batman, Armaan. We could have had BATMAN.
Armaan: We could have had character development, Dan, and this might be a controversial take from a superhero comics critic, but a lack of character development is far worse than a lack of Batman.
Dan: Why would you say something so controversial yet so brave?
Armaan: What made this story sing has been how interesting its characters have been — for good or bad, there’s always been a hell of a hook.
I’m glad we’re moving on from this issue, and I hope it’s just a bump on the road to better storytelling.
Cheap Shots
- It gives me no joy to report Greg Smallwood made a small mistake this issue. During the walk to the pier, Fire is barefoot one page, then wearing her heels again on the next. In baseball terms, this is the equivalent of batting .999. You’re still a goddamn hero, Greg.
- Does absolute zero clean things? Is that how that works?
- I have absolutely zero idea, Dan.
- The overuse of grawlixes when the stickup men try to hold up the jazz club was so %#$& annoying; really the cherry on the %#$& sundae of that scene.
- While we know Nancy did it, this issue does nothing to prove or disprove her guilt, which is further proof of how bad the issue is.
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.
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.
