So, um, Grifter #8...

[BugsySig]

I think I am done with this book. Good art and plenty of action, but the writing is terrible. SPOILERS ahead...


...they start off by killing off that girl who was helping Grifter that I don't care about because she was never really introduced or given a background story. She wasn't even in the last issue. Am I supposed to be shocked by her death? I can't even remember her name. And the big return of Max Cash, or really just his body possessed by a Daemonite, could have been a good reveal if it hadn't happened on page 3. My 2 year old could build more character and suspense in an indecipherable crayon scribble.

Then they end with a Daemonite saying this was their plan for Grifter the whole time...ok, whatever. I guess this is all Rob Leifeld making sure the status quo is where he wants it when he takes over scripting next month, but what's the point? Please, DC, just cancel this book and Voodoo already, insert them in a new Wildcats book, then put a writer that knows what the freak they're doing on it with one of the artists from those two books.

[gma2darescue]

I gave up after issue 1. I've never heard of the character before the New 52 (or Flashpoint, really), but he looked pretty badass.
I don't want to say I hated that issue, because I didn't, but it seems that as it goes on, nothing's really getting done.

This "Edge" grouping isn't really showing great results, critically or commercially.

[The Shogun]

I agree, when she died i was just like already? We just saw her for what 1 or 2 issues? Not that much known about her so when she died i was more like meh. The same thing with gretchen, the characters are getting killed off so quick it makes it hard to grow attached to them.

[Fate's Faith]

Um, no, don't cancel Voodoo :smile:

[Roldan]

I think I am done with this book. Good art and plenty of action, but the writing is terrible. SPOILERS ahead...


...they start off by killing off that girl who was helping Grifter that I don't care about because she was never really introduced or given a background story. She wasn't even in the last issue. Am I supposed to be shocked by her death? I can't even remember her name. And the big return of Max Cash, or really just his body possessed by a Daemonite, could have been a good reveal if it hadn't happened on page 3. My 2 year old could build more character and suspense in an indecipherable crayon scribble.

Then they end with a Daemonite saying this was their plan for Grifter the whole time...ok, whatever. I guess this is all Rob Leifeld making sure the status quo is where he wants it when he takes over scripting next month, but what's the point? Please, DC, just cancel this book and Voodoo already, insert them in a new Wildcats book, then put a writer that knows what the freak they're doing on it with one of the artists from those two books.

I'm pretty sure Frank Tieri's writing it too. I'm gonna check it because i would like to give a a new creative team a chance before i criticize it.

[Reginleif]

Um, no, don't cancel Voodoo :smile:

^ also America

[sage6paths]

Am I the only one that loves Grifter? There is genius in this book or I maybe insane. I loved that they kill people we don't know much about. There is a purpose to it. We should only care about Grifter. He is one of the few people that knows the truth. All those superheros have no clue whats going to happen and Grifter is just one person fighting for the world without the world caring. This book is genius or I am incredibly insane.

[_Pandora_]

Why would anyone give up on this book when the next issue #9 has a new creative team. A new cast of characters join Grifter too. I'm not sure if their temporary or permanent yet. But with a new writer the very next issue, this book will be a bit different. Usually books can get better with a new writer. I know I'm reading the next story arc with Cheshire in it. Not sure about after that arc, but it is a possibility I could read it further than that.

[Raye]

I will give the first issue a chance, but I can't stand Liefeld's writing, so I am not optimistic. I know, he's just plotting, so we don't have to put up with his horrendous dialogue, but from what I can gather about the plots, they seem kinda... mindless. I like to think a bit with my comics, even if they are action characters.


Am I the only one that loves Grifter? There is genius in this book or I maybe insane. I loved that they kill people we don't know much about. There is a purpose to it. We should only care about Grifter. He is one of the few people that knows the truth. All those superheros have no clue whats going to happen and Grifter is just one person fighting for the world without the world caring. This book is genius or I am incredibly insane.

I don't hate it, but I do think it has serious flaws. I think several of the ideas have been good, but the execution somewhat lacking (which can be said of many of the Edge books) Killing characters while caring nothing for them is bad writing, even if it is Grifter's book. Yes, we should care primarily about him, but in a solo book, we should be living vicariously through the main character; if we don't care about the secondary characters, why should we believe he does? Even with his brother, we saw so little of him prior to his death that we didn't get a lot of sense of what his and Cole's relationship was like, we were expected to care just because they shared blood. Just because they are secondary characters doesn't mean they should be written as props for Grifter. We should be SHOWN why he feels what he does about the people in his life.

[Mr. Holmes]

Yeah this book has been disappointing, considering Who is Jake Ellis was really good. It's not horrible, and I only dropped it to make way for Nocienti's Green Arrow. I'm hoping they can do better with a WildCATS book.

[This]

I have given titles like

Grifter and Voodoo and Deathstroke and Resurrection Man and Captain Atom and Blue Beetle and Fury Of Firestrom: The Nuclear Men a few reads.
But they are just so boring and insignificant when compared to the other D C books and many of the titles marvel is putting out.

Where is Doom Patrol or Adam Strange or Spectre or Metal Men or Donna Troy or Wally West????

[wiski]

We should only care about Grifter.

That's one of the reasons I stopped reading on issue #5, a good writer makes you care about more than just the title character, so that there is some impact when something happens to them. In 'Grifter', I couldn't get myself to care about ANYONE in the comic, including the title character.

'Grifter' started out looking like it was gonna be good, but now it seems like it's just a bunch of random action sequences.

[Harbinger of Apocalypse]

I was actually a bit confused by the beginning because thats how the first issue started with him on a plane. Almost thought it was a flashback and got disappointed they just killed that lady off already. Seemed... a bit pointless... why introduce her in the first place again? Nothing really resonated with him about her death beyond just shaking Grifter's life up. Though I am curious now about the Daemonites plans because it seems there is a dissident faction who have their own motives.

[havok1977]

I'm pretty sure Frank Tieri's writing it too. I'm gonna check it because i would like to give a a new creative team a chance before i criticize it.

Yeah I also dropped this book after the first issue - sad that after a single issue I just knew it was going nowhere, but since I really liked Tieri's run on Wolverine back in the early 2000s and I'm willing to give his Grifter a sample despite doing so under Rob's shadow.

[BugsySig]

I guess I should have prefaced my review by indicating that I grew up in comics with the original Wildstorm books and LOVED Grifter because he was bad-ass and mysterious. This new incarnation just doesn't fit with the character. He comes off as whiney and confused about everything. It is very hard to take a character like Grifter, who works very well in a group dynamic, and focus a solo ongoing origin book. The Grifter I know just wouldnt behave this way. I know it is a reboot, but you cant take away most of what made a character great and expect it to still be great.

As far as the people around him dying, again if the writers were able to properly show us Grifter's feelings towards them, then it would be more effective to see everyone arouind him die and leave him alone. Even if that was the point, though, Grifter should be focused on going it alone so others dont get hurt...NOT LOOKING TO RECRUIT MORE PEOPLE TO HIS WAR! It's just bad writing that I don't think can be fixed at this time.

I realize their is a new creative team coming in, and I will read the reviews to see if their take is an improvement, but I A) highly doubt this book can recover and B) assume this book will be cancelled by issue 16 anyway.

[Schnitzy Pretzelpants]

I don't hate it, but I do think it has serious flaws.

Sold!

I'm adding this one to my pull list today!:wink:

[grifter78]

(No Spoilers)

After a string of action centered issues, Nathan Edmondson takes his last issue to tie up some loose ends and give us an emotional action-packed ending to his Grifter run. Even fill-in artist Daniel Sampere does a great job of taking the reigns from Scott Clark for an issue and doing some great work as we see this first chapter of Grifter's story wrap-up.

I have to admit, when I first starting reading the issue, I got a little annoyed at how it started. I knew going into it that it was going to be Edmondson's last issue and I wondered if DC had given him enough notice that he was leaving the title so we could get some sort of closure. The result is a mixed bag as I think its obvious DC told him they were taking him off the book because he shoves a lot into the issue in order to resolve plot lines he'd been laying out. It starts with the death of a character Edmondson introduced and they are taken out very unceremoniously. One could argue that it was done the way it was because of the idea that death is sudden and sometimes it's over quickly without one last speech or final rally before the character dies. But I think here it's mainly because it was something Edmondson had to do quickly because he only had one issue to wrap up a lot.

But on the flip side, I did like where the story goes from there. As the cover shows, Max Cash is still alive, so no spoilers there. I loved the brother vs. brother conflict. I have a brother so stories like this are easy for me to relate to. I will be up front and say it was all resolved very quickly. But for the short time it lasted I did enjoy it. It made me wish that Edmondson had revealed earlier that Max was alive and we had spent the last few issues having the two brothers at odds. I think it would've strengthened all the issues we've gotten since Max was thought dead.

Another thing I appreciated here was Grifter's inner dialogue. I liked it early on in the series but again, when Scott Clark came on the book a lot that was replaced with more action. Here, I actually felt sorry for Grifter and understood how defeated he felt. Everything has literally been taken from him by the Daemonites so now he has more than enough reason to want to hunt them down. This to me solidified his purpose. Before, he seemed to be reacting to the situation and now I feel we may get a more proactive Grifter. Of course, this also depends how much of this development Liefeld will keep in upcoming issues.

The Grifter title started really well for me, dropped significantly into too much action and not enough story, but then made a decent rally here at the end of Edmondson's run. I know Edmondson had planned to be on Grifter longer and I think I can see the frustration in his writing when he realized he wasn't going past this issue. I took this last issue as a "what could have been" issue of sorts. This felt like more of an amalgamation of the first couple of issues but with a decent amount of action as compared to the action-heavy issues we'd been getting. But next month, we've got Scott Clark back on as artist with Liefeld plotting and Frank Tieri assisting with story duties too. We'll see where the new team takes Grifter from here. Hopefully, most of fans will too.

[DarkKnghtJared]

I don't hate it, but I do think it has serious flaws. I think several of the ideas have been good, but the execution somewhat lacking (which can be said of many of the Edge books) Killing characters while caring nothing for them is bad writing, even if it is Grifter's book. Yes, we should care primarily about him, but in a solo book, we should be living vicariously through the main character; if we don't care about the secondary characters, why should we believe he does? Even with his brother, we saw so little of him prior to his death that we didn't get a lot of sense of what his and Cole's relationship was like, we were expected to care just because they shared blood. Just because they are secondary characters doesn't mean they should be written as props for Grifter. We should be SHOWN why he feels what he does about the people in his life.

You said it for me--it seems like at first it focused on plot and not really getting into why we should care about this character, and then it focused purely on action and not really getting into why we should care about this character, and then the last issue it just threw some random pathos by pitting the character's brother against him and calling that a character arc. That's what really irks me about it--because there was mad loads of potential to make this an interesting book, it just never seem to think about selling us on this character until the very end.

It made me look forward to Rob Liefeld taking over next issue. That should tell you how dire the situation is, and yes, I feel rather weird and dirty saying it.

[Robotman4]

it was like the previous Grifter issues. good but not great.

[Raye]

It made me look forward to Rob Liefeld taking over next issue. That should tell you how dire the situation is, and yes, I feel rather weird and dirty saying it.

Heh! I'm not quite to that point, yet. ;) But yeah. What kills me about this is that he does have the potential to be a very cool character, and some of the things brought up, like his brother, the possibility of telekinetic powers which he doesn't understand yet, his relationship with whatsherface, could have been really interesting if they had dug deeper into them. Maybe he was planning to and just ran out of time before he got replaced with Liefeld, I dunno, but still...

I was more into The Authority and stuff, but I did read some Wildcats and a few other things with Grifter, and he did develop into a pretty well rounded character, despite having some rather shallow roots at the beginning. He was also pretty versatile, he could be full on action hero, or could fit into more thoughtful stories, so a number of approaches could have worked. You can see hints of some of the stuff that defined him, but the frustrating part is it never really gets beyond hints.

[BoboBobo]

i wish they would have just made wildcats v3 canon and continue from there

[paulski]

it was like the previous Grifter issues. good but not great.

I actually would have said "not that good, not that great" instead. :wink:

Seriously though, it probably wouldn't have been a bad book - Clark's artwork was quite snazzy at times - if not for the fact the writing really let it down most issues.