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Sep 19, 2011 Web Exclusive By Jeremy Nisen

While Grifter #1 certainly doesn’t inspire awe, it’s enough off the beaten path, and the pencils are interesting enough, that it could be worth your time if the premise sounds like it’s in your wheelhouse.

Forget what you knew before if you were a fan of the Grifter character from his WildC.A.T.S/Wildstorm days. The concept: a con man and ex-special operations agent Cole Cash is kidnapped by (what are probably) aliens, who intend to transfer an alien consciousness into him for nefarious purposes. Something goes wrong, and he escapes—now with an ability of sorts to hear the aliens’ telepathic communications to each other. So he’s basically the one guy who can identify the aliens posing as humans, and stop whatever they are attempting. However, they are well aware of their botched transfer, and are hunting for Cash. After the events of the first issue, he’s wanted by the law as well for seemingly terroristic actions.

Cafu’s pencils are interesting; the way he uses eyes to show emotion, for instance.

Where the book doesn’t really succeed is that the reader isn’t much more on top of things than Cash himself. It’s a bit mysterious, perhaps intentionally, but rather than inspire curiosity, it inspires confusion. And a little more delving into his “grifter” aspect would have made the unravelling of his world more powerful. We get to see one con, then, boom, he’s on the run from aliens. Building the house before it gets broken would have provided more emotional resonance.

And the final scene, where Cash puts on that iconic grifter mask, seems gratuitous and odd.

I think the jury is out, where Grifter is concerned, until the first storyline is complete. It could really go either way, depending on how the holes in the story are addressed and how it proceeds from here. For now, we’ll call it “okay,” and take a wait and see approach before passing final judgment. (www.dccomics.com)

Author rating: 5/10