Grifter #4 – Review

By: Nathan Edmondson (writer), Scott Clark (penciller), Dave Beaty (inker), Andrew Dalhouse (colorist)

The Story: Who knew that arrows-versus-guns isn’t a completely one-sided draw?

The Review: Action can be a tricky thing in comics.  While you can cobble together an entire movie composed of mostly gunshots, car chases, explosions, and kung-fu, with just enough of a plot to hold it all together, this strategy doesn’t quite work in a comic book, probably because even the most dynamic two-page splash in the world can’t quite compare to even the most budgeted stunt and special-effects sequence on the big screen.

So while I’ve made comparisons between this series and The Bourne Identity, that’s not to say you’ll enjoy following Grifter’s chaos nearly as much as you do Jason Bourne.  True, the action on this title sure makes for a wild ride—literally.  At one point, Grifter breaks into a car, ties his belt to the steering wheel, shatters the front window, turns on cruise control, and climbs onto the hood, firing his pistol as he yanks on his belt to maneuver the vehicle through traffic.  It doesn’t get much more intense than that, frankly.

And yet it does, when you add Green Arrow to the mix.  G.A. has always been a bit of a goofy character, with the whole Robin Hood shtick, but in the new DCU, he has a modern edginess to him that, quite honestly, makes him feel more like DC’s Hawkeye than ever.  Setting that aside, you can’t deny his extreme competence in this new iteration.  I don’t know how he gets on in his solo title, but here he can dole out the special moves with the best of ‘em: slapping aside Cole’s gun from point blank and sticking an electric arrow in the muzzle in two panels.

Just like Kyle Rayner’s guest appearance in Voodoo, Green Arrow makes a sensible choice for Grifter’s first encounter with a blue-blooded DC hero.  As the owner of Q-Core, a company devoted to advanced technology geared toward military applications, Oliver is a sensible target for the infiltrating Daemonites.  Technically, you don’t know exactly what they’re infiltrating for, but a weapons research corporation can come in handy in all kinds of situations.