Action/Adventure

Point Blank

Point Blank is a story set in the Wildstorm Universe. I’m a massive fan as I’ve been reading and following this Universe for nearly 10 years now. I’ve see some amazing art from the studio (Jim Lee, Whilice Portacio, Adam Hughes, Lee Bermejo, Carlos D’Anda) and been given some highly entertaining stories from the likes of Alan Moore, Warren Ellis, James Robinson, Ed Brubaker, so this story is right up my alley.

The story follows Cole Cash (Grifter) as he’s trying to find out who _tried_ to kill John Lynch. It’s a who dunnit story, set in the back alleys of the Wildstorm Universe and one of the first books to come out of the Eye of the Storm line from WS a couple of years back. It was meant to show that the readers of the Universe had grown up and therefore so should the books. I was well on board, unfortunately not everyone else was, and so this initiative didn’t last very long. The story that started off here however was continued, because it was that good.

From the dedication in the front of the book it should be pretty apparent that this is not following the mould of decompressed storytelling, where there are 10 panels of people looking at each other and saying anything, just to set the mood. We get into Grifter’s head. Something that just wasn’t happening very often in comics as people forgot one of the tricks that comics have over movies. People were/are trying to make paper movies, when there’s just soo much more to comics than visuals and dialogue. Luckily Ed Brubaker felt the same.

In his search he meets various characters from the WSU and in doing so Brubaker gives us a glimse as to where everyone is at this moment in time. The great things about this story (as with most of Brubaker’s stories) is the fact that he keeps things as accessible for the new reader and yet pepper’s the story with great little nuggets for the hardcore fan as well, while not alienating the new reader.

The main bad guy in this case is TAO (Tactically Augmented Organism) . When dealing with a character like TAO then you’re always in for a good ride. This story effectively sets up the ground work to building TAO as the ultimate bad guy in the Wildstorm Universe. Whenever that rascle is involved in a story you know that things are going to get interesting. After all he was created by Alan Moore, who gave us the first twist in his superb Wildcats run (I’ll be doing a review of these issues for sure in the near future).

Colin Wilson is an awesome talent and this story is nothing short of a fine way for him to illustrate, and is not a throwaway story. This one has legs. So much so that the story that was setup here continued in a further 4 volumes from Wildstorm in the form of Sleeper (again the reviews for this will be coming in the near future).

There is one scene in particular that really doesn’t ring true to both the character and to the story itself. It seems forced to show that this is actually the new Eye of the Storm imprint from WS that was trying to be cutting edge and ‘ADULT’. Whatever. I can forgive such editorial rubbish in light of the superbly crafted story right here.

It’s very rare for a comic to have a ‘GOTTCHA’ factor in it. I’m talking about the TWIST that you find in the great movies. The setup is superb, and the writer has laid his trap as effectively as he can. He’s got you thinking you know what the deal is, but in actual fact you don’t have a clue. I did consider not telling everyone that there is a pretty cool twist in this one, but I think the fact that I mention this will make you actually want to read it rather than just letting it pass you by. There’s something to be told about the power of the twist actually is. Do I ruin it by telling you that there is one, and therefore you’re actually looking for it or do I keep quiet about it? If you’re on the fence about this one then hopefully that will actually make you go out and pick it up.

Writer: Ed Brubaker
Artist: Colin Wilson
Colourist: Janet Gale
Letterers: Rich and Jimmy from Comicraft.
Cover Artist: Simon Bisley
Publisher: Wildstorm Comics