From the first pages of Tom King and Greg Smallwood's Human Target, we've known that a DC character was going to die...
...and Guy Gardner just joined him.
The series revolves around the titular Christopher Chance, who has been poisoned in an assassination gone wrong. Chance has 12 days (in 12 books) to live - and to solve his murder. But by the end, we are absolutely certain he'll shuffle off this mortal coil.
But in Book Six, which went on sale March 22nd, the body count increases.
Thus far in the series, someone attempted to kill Lex Luthor via a poisoned cup of coffee. It would have worked, too, had Chance not been disguised as Luthor to foil a different, unrelated assassination attempt. Chemical analysis of the poison in Chance's system linked it to a mysterious radioactive chemical found in another dimension, one that had been visited by only a few people from the main DCU dimension. And those people just happen to have all been members of the Justice League International.
So, Chance has been investigating JLI members issue by issue, including Martian Manhunter, Booster Gold, and most noticeably, Ice. Ice has gotten closest to Chance in the course of the investigation, sharing with him her past and an intimate relationship. As if sleeping with the woman who may have potentially killed him wasn't bad enough, Chance also drew the ire of another member of the JLI, Guy Gardner. Believing Ice to be his and his alone, Gardner made repeated attempts to intimidate Chance but didn't do anything too violent.
At the end of Book Six, that changed. Furious at both Chance and Ice, Gardner attacked with the full strength of a Green Lantern. He managed to hold off Ice's incredible abilities with his power ring until Chance took a shot at him with his pistol. Gardner deflected the bullet easily, but the tiny distraction was enough to let Ice's freezing powers get through his shields. Slowly, Gardner's body began to frost over, turning him blue and statue-esque until he couldn't even speak. Then Chance channeled his rage into a single punch…
... shattering Gardner's body. Frozen bits of what was once the most annoying member of the JLI were scattered all about his apartment, while Chance and Ice slowly recovered from the shock of what happened. Guy then thawed into gory bits of flesh and blood on the floor with Chance admitting to himself their slow response probably cost them any chance of reversing what happened.
And with the realization, Chance and ce began more or less discussing how to cover up the murder.
And you thought Batman punching Guy back in the day was a big deal.
Of course, the staying power of this shocking death is yet to be determined. Readers know that few superheroes or supervillains stay dead in comic books, and the canon status of this Black Label series is not officially confirmed (in fact, after the events of Death Metal, DC essentially said that everything they publish is canon, at least in an 'Omniversal' way).
However, in a recent interview with Newsarama, writer Tom King did say that the events of issue six "has big effects on a ton of stuff in the DCU." Combined with the fact that King cited his other DC Black Label series, Mister Miracle, as canon, this issue will certainly get fans wondering the same question: In the main continuity of DC Comics, is Guy Gardner really dead?
Human Target is written by Tom King, drawn and colored by Greg Smallwood, and lettered by Clayton Cowles. Newsarama will be keeping up with Human Target and all major changes in DC continuity. Keep an eye on our site for updates as we learn them.
Does death in comics really even matter, especially since it never seems to stick? Newsarama has a compelling answer.
