By Jim Lee, Billy Tucci and various (Image/WildStorm)
ISBN: 1-887-279-24-5
The 1990s were a time of startling changes in the American comicbook industry. Young upstarts broke away from the big companies to do all the job themselves, with admittedly mixed results, but as they lived or died on their own merits and ingenuity, it signalled a way that the other creative arenas (and of course I’m thinking the music biz here) could learn from even after all this time.
There had always been independent titles, but where the new guys differed from past do-it-yourself attempts was in the slick production values. These guys knew the product had to look and feel as sharp and cutting edge as the best of DC or Marvel – it’s just a shame so much of the new independents concentrated only on the style and so often ignored the actual creative content.
After a while however the very best of those independents, such as Jim Lee’s WildStorm titles from the Image Comics co-operative and Billy Tucci’s gradually unfolding martial arts epic Shi rose in sheer Darwinian majesty from the shiny, colour-saturated mire and carved a lasting place for themselves.
One of the biggest advantages of being an independent creator was how few people stood in the way if you wanted to do a team-up tale. The respective owners could just talk to each other…
This pretty and engaging tale is an unchallenging but generally satisfying conspiracy quest very much in the traditional manner starring the charismatic soldier-of-fortune Cole Cash (better known as Grifter) and the startlingly compelling and unconventional dancer/samurai masterminded by Jack-of-all-trades Billy Tucci.
Shi is Ana Ishikawa, whose father was a Japanese Warrior Monk and her mother an American Catholic missionary. Her father and brother were murdered by Yakuza boss Masahiro Arashi, setting her on a path of brutal, unrelenting vengeance using the Sohei Warrior skills taught by her grandfather, a master of the Yambushi Monks’ ancient secrets. She chose the mythical guise of Tora no Shi (Tiger of Death) to mask her when she began her crusade, but as she continued her battles her Catholic upbringing increasingly conflicted with her Sohei methodology…
Grifter is a veteran of many years of combat, covert and otherwise, who began his troubled life on the other side of the law. After years of black Ops he eventually went rogue, joining the WildC.A.T,’s super-team and was trained in alien combat techniques by the super-amazon Zealot. He has a unique no-nonsense approach to getting the job done, and has psionic powers he doesn’t like to use.
In this visually appetising collaboration Grifter returns to Japan hunting terrorists who killed one of his comrades, as the 50th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima approaches. Meanwhile a highly placed Japanese government official has stolen a North Korean nuclear weapon, embroiling Ana Ishikawa and her sensei grandfather in a plot to steal a priceless artefact known as the “Final Rite of Kusunokiâ€, a 150 year old artwork that can exert an undeniable influence on the real ruler of Japan. This mastermind’s scheme includes long-delayed vengeance on the Americans, political power and even settling a centuries old feud with his clan’s greatest enemies, the Sohei…
With a nuclear clock counting down Grifter must first work out who he can trust, especially the enigmatic Shi, before the convoluted machinations and seemingly endless string of opponents standing between him and his own particular brand of payback drags him down to dusty death.
Sometimes a little too complex for its own good, this is nevertheless a solid piece of entertainment from an incredible cast of creators (clearly doing it yourself includes a large amount of sub-contracting) including Brandon Choi, Peter, Gutierrez, Travis Charest, Ryan Benjamin, Jamal Igle, Troy Hubbs, Richard Bennett and John Nyberg. If you need a little more style than substance occasionally, then this is certainly the fashion to follow…
© 1996 Aegis Entertainment Inc., dba WildStorm Productions and William Elliott Tucci. All rights reserved.