The brilliant and beautiful Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow (coming eventually to a theater near you) has been nominated for the Hugo Award for "Best Graphic Story or Comic." https://twitter.com/tomkingtk/status/1676989132915064839?s=46&t=CysAkpNsjJ3z6TXVzl8ksw
So I just finished Tom King and Greg Smallwood's Human Target. I've raved previously about King and Bilquis Evely's Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, and The Human Target is very nearly as good. Just as WoT is a highly creative riff on True Grit, HT cribs conceptually from the classic noir thriller D.O.A. Christopher Chance, the "Human Target," accidentally swallows poison intended for Lex Luthor. He has 12 days to live and to solve his own murder. He quickly determines that the killer is likely a member of the Justice League International, and the hunt is on. He teams up with Ice (though she's a prime suspect), and despite his every instinct and inclination, finds himself falling in love with her as their investigation proceeds. Smallwood's art is amazing throughout. It's '40s film noir meets '50s advertising art meets '60's pop art. It's stylish and cinematic as hell, and does as much to define and distinguish the book as King's brilliant script. James Gunn seriously needs to consider adapting this to live-action for his DCU, either as a feature film or a TV miniseries. The headlong collision of hardboiled grit and comicbook fantasy would make for a very fresh entry in even this overworked genre. I'm going to need to sit with the ending a while. It's painful and beautiful and cruel and loving and tragic and hilarious. It's perfect, but it isn't neatly disposed of merely by closing the book. I know King is reviled by many fans, but more than ever, I'm convinced he's the finest writer working in mainstream comics today.
Well the fact that Gunn has apparently hired his friend Nathan Fillion to play Guy Gardner means he probably won't be adapting that terrible Human Target book, because there is no way he'd be hiring Nathan to play a violent domestic abuser, which Guy is in Human Target because Tom King is a hack who just slaps DC characters over his OC's in terrible stories to make more money then he'd get writing indy comics. Honestly, imagining how many characters would be ruined in live action if Gunn used King's work as a basis is staggering. Off the top of my head, Tom King is literally the writer of the worst stories to ever feature Guy Gardner, Booster Gold, and Wally West, and arguably Bane and Catwoman (his Batman run overall seems to be his second most divisive work after heroes in Crisis). Its bad enough that Supergirl is apparently going to be ruined by Tom King's work, Gunn needs to stay far away from Tom King's collection of character assassination aka the bulk of his DC work.
And there you go, folks. If my recommendation wasn't enough, now you know for sure that The Human Target is great.
Well, I also hate All Star Batman and Robin, so why don't you go read that, too . Actually, you know what I really hate? Frank Miller's Holy Terror. By your logic, that makes it a must read. I swear, some people are such whiners about any criticism, you'd think they had a vested interest in the success of various shitty things. Tom King won't be your friend because you apparently worship him like a god on an internet forum. I'm not even the odd one out here, the vast majority of people from what I've seen at least hate King's Heroes in Crisis and the Booster Gold story, and King's Batman run in general might be the most divisive major Batman run of the last few decades. Even other DC writers loathed Heroes in Crisis, it might be the most thoroughly retconned story that wasn't just wiped out of continuity by a crisis event.
So lemme get this straight: It's fine for you to clap back at my post praising King, but not for me to reciprocate when you go off on one of your trademark unhinged rants about him? Okey-doke.