Grifter is one of the Wildstorm characters that DC acquired years ago.  I have to admit I never liked him.  I never really gave him a chance either.  He always seemed like Wildstorm’s version of the Punisher.  If I want to read about an amoral gun shooter, that already seemed covered.  I guess a little more combat-ish with his combat boots, flack jacket and knee pads.  Why the knee pads?  Is he going to do tile work?

But I have to say I like this book more that I expected to.  The story was solid enough, I liked the disembodied voices he hears, and I liked the girl in the telephone booth.  The writer only has 20 pages so it takes some skill to get some interesting things.

The story did suffer a bit with the time line.  I had to go back to see that the scene after the plan jump had a red ‘Earlier’ in the top frame, unfortunately it was to the far right and hidden.  And, even after reading it twice, I have no idea how he got out of the straps.  He is completely strapped down and then he is loose?

His powers and abilities are unclear, and for a first issue, that really is not a good idea.  I guess they are aiming for fans of the previous comic, but that is too bad as there some good things here to recommend.  The best thing about this book is the art.  The penciler is Cafu.  No last name or first name, just Cafu.  I would write him off a pretentious goof, if he didn’t have the talent to back it up.  This guy is great.

Not only does each strand of hair look real, he can actually draw lines and wrinkles on face without turning the faces into muddy shades of black ink.  He draws every detail from the laces on the boots to the treads on the sole of the boots.  There is one scene where the show some money, and maybe he used a stencil? But he draws so much detail that I would bet he did it free hand.

He also draws detailed background.  No flat blank backgrounds here.  He draws street scenes with bushes in the distance, airports with clocks, and warehouses with broken glass in the distance.  All details that show he cares and is wiling to put in the time to do it right.

B+  mostly because of the art.  —–  Don

I agree that the art is a big bonus, and pretty much all of the newly launched books are very polished. Hopefully, this will carry over to future issues. Grifter is another character that I thought would lose a lot by being ported over to the mainstream DCU from his original Wildstorm universe. As it was, he was never the most unique character – mask, guns, coat, gritty attitude… he was like Wildstorm’s amalgamation of Gambit and the Punisher without being nearly as cool as either of them.

That said, the story has a good hook and I’m looking forward to see how it develops. Is Grifter really who we think he is? Is he even who HE thinks he is? The weak point is the fact that there’s no compelling reason to use Grifter as the lead as a opposed to any other generic gunfighter-type character or a brand new one. Take out the alien stuff and it could be a cool issue of a “24″ styled comic. On the plus side, it’s not like there’s a wealth of classic Grifter continuity to pave over in order to set this book up. Given my doubts about using Wildstorm characters, and the fact that this is unexpectedly far superior to Stormwatch, I give this a “B” with room for extra credit if the story continues to develop favorably.  — Ed