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Ten Grand

By Jeremy Whitley
April 26, 2013 - 07:24

To say I'm not the biggest fan of Stracynski's recent work would be a bit simplistic.  I have been vocally opposed to all of the Before Watchmen comics, but my issues with JMS go back to Wonder Woman, even further back to Superman, and way back to the oft whispered name "One More Day".  But in all of those cases, JMS has been a mercenary, a literary gun-for-hire.  If you look at the back pages of the first issue of Ten Grand, he makes his dislike for corporate work and editorial edicts well known.  So, what happens when you take the shackles off a guy with obvious chops whose work has suffered from constant interference on the editorial level?  What about when you combine him with one of the great stylized artistic talents in the game right now with Ben Templesmith?

The story is one of noir and supernatural intrigue.  Our hero, Joe, is a scum of the Earth private eye type.  He hangs out in a bar in the bad side of town and waits for people to show up and pay him ten grand to take on their case.  He specializes in the supernatural, but it hasn't always been that way.  We find out through the course of the book that Joe is an ex-enforcer under contract with heaven.  And the contract is often a hard one to swallow.  But in the story we're told here, he is approached by a girl whose sister was part of a cult and has gone missing.  When it turns out that the case has a strange connection to Joe's own past, he's on the case.

Everything in this book is about style.  The fact of the matter is, the story has been done.  Constantine, in one form or another, went 300 issues and is still going in its new form.  It covered a lot of bases when it comes to "supernatural noir" and whatever it hasn't done, Preacher has.  So what makes this book worth reading?  JMS really has the hang of the Sam Spade detective voice.  You can hear the gravely voice over of the main character as he faces whatever horrors await.  It works for the book and manages to pull it away from the 80's British punk vibe that still clings to Constantine's trench coat.  Everything about Joe is American and as old as the genre.

Which, in a way, is where I take issue with the book as well.  Joe is old...and grumpy and this record is getting word out.  Over the past few years, everybody wants to jump on the "I'm old and still dangerous" train.  Red, Grand Torino, Skyfall.  They all have these grumpy old central characters who spend half the story telling you about how they're old, other people aren't, and how being old doesn't make them useless.  Joe spends half of the book cracking wise about young people and their X, Y, and Z.  We're made to feel that he's been around the block, repeatedly.  It doesn't spoil the story, but it's already enough that if it keeps going in the next book, I'm going to be very tired of it.

What I will never get tired of, however, is Ben Templesmith's art.  Templesmith is a guy whom I've met at a couple of conventions now.  he's always classy, always working, and above all - always stylish.  His art exists in a Gothic, dirty 2-D world.  The characters often feel like paper dolls, placed on top of the drawing of the setting.  His look adds the perfect sense of dirtiness, dread, and foreboding that this book needs.  You really have the sense that Cthulu could pop out and start ending things right now.  That's a good vibe for this book.

Overall, it's not a homerun for me, but the team took a familiar concept and made it unique enough that I'll be back for another round.  That is, after all, the point of a first issue, isn't it?

Rating: 7 /10

Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12