Before you sleep– a review of Point Blank TPB

Point Blank is not a superhero comic book.  That may be weird when you take a look at the Wildstorm stable of books and the origins of Wildstorm– the WildC.A.T.S.  Jim Lee’s WildC.A.T.S. were unabashedly the superheroes of the 90s– all flash and little substance.  Cole Cash, the Grifter, was the bad boy of the WildC.A.T.S.  He was their Wolverine, Jim Lee’s attempt at creating a kewl hero for the grim and gritty Clinton decade.  Even in the capable hands of Alan Moore, the WildC.A.T.S. were a flashy team with little true substance behind them.  They probably were the perfect set of heroes for the 1990s.  After an invigorating but cut too short run by Joe Casey, Sean Phillips and Dustin Nguyen, the Wildcats settled back into their generic superheroics but in 2002, Ed Brubaker and Colin Wilson took Grifter and cast him into the noir adventure Point Blank.

At its heart, Point Blank is a mystery as the Grifter attempts to hunt down the man who shot his ally and sometimes friend John Lynch.  Now Lynch has spent a lifetime making enemies and the list of people who want him dead is practically endless.  While Cole may have been on that list once or twice in the past, Cole also feels a sense of duty toward Lynch, thanks to the two’s shared history.  Brubaker touches on their past as part of Wildstorm’s Team 7, filling in just enough information to explain the duty and general friendship the two old soldiers share.

Brubaker’s story travels through the back-room bars, alleyways and parking garages of the Wildstorm Universe.  This isn’t a story about bright costumes, big guns and incredible super-powers.  Point Blank is a story that exists in a world with those elements but stays to the shadows and tries to remain hidden.  Characters from Gen 13 to the Authority to even supporting characters from WildC.A.T.S. show up but Brubaker makes them as human as possible.  By concentrating more on the people than on the costumes, Brubaker brings the characters more to life than Alan Moore or James Robinson were ever able to.  They’re not superheroes but people with their own fears and joys.  Point Blank offers its characters up as people rather than costumes and secret identities.

While you can see the beginnings of Brubaker’s Criminal and Incognito in this book, Point Blank isn’t nearly as smooth or as coherent as either of those series.  The book does count on its readers to have an understanding of who’s who in the Wildstorm universe since this book features a large cast of connected characters.   You’ve got to know who is whose father, who has slept with whom and who has pissed who off in the past.  While it’s spinning Grifter and Lynch off into darker areas than they were in, this is firmly set in a world with pre-established characters and continuity.  Your enjoyment of this book may hinge on your enjoyment of Wildstorm books.

While the story occasionally gets bogged down by continuity references, Colin Wilson injects a lot of energy through his artwork.  Equal parts Moebius and Walter Simonson, Wilson creates a shadowy New York that could explode at any moment.  It’s expressionistic and moody and perfectly captures the noirish feel that the story is reaching for.

The worst part of reading Point Blank now is that you can see the writer Ed Brubaker will become.  This mini was originally published in 2002, well before Sleeper, Criminal, Captain America and Incognito, all superior works to this.  You can see the structure and moods in early stages here that Brubaker would continue to develop in his later work.

Point Blank
Written by: Ed Brubaker
Drawn by: Colin Wilson
Colored by: Janet Gale
Lettered by: Comicraft

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Tags: Colin Wilson, Ed Brubaker, Point Blank, Sleeper