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Grifter (2011) #2
Grifter, Vol. 2: New Found Power
As part of the DC New 52 event, Grifter stars in his own on-going series!
Former U.S. Army Special Ops soldier turned con-artist Cole Cash found the ability to overhear telepathic communications of the secret and deadly alien imposters the Daemonites who can inhabit humans. Unable to trust anyone, GRIFTER is now on the run as special forces, Daemonites and many more try to hunt him down.
Former U.S. Army Special Ops soldier turned con-artist Cole Cash found the ability to overhear telepathic communications of the secret and deadly alien imposters the Daemonites who can inhabit humans. Unable to trust anyone, GRIFTER is now on the run as special forces, Daemonites and many more try to hunt him down.
208 pages, Paperback
First published May 28, 2013
About the author
Rob Liefeld
829 books85 followersRob Liefeld is an American comic book writer, illustrator, and publisher. A prominent artist in the 1990s, he has since become a controversial figure in the medium.
In the early 1990s, self-taught artist Liefeld became prominent due to his work on Marvel Comics' The New Mutants and later X-Force. In 1992, he and several other popular Marvel illustrators left the company to found Image Comics, which rode the wave of comic books owned by their creators rather than by publishers. The first book published by Image Comics was Rob Liefeld's Youngblood #1.
He is married to actress Joy Creel.
In the early 1990s, self-taught artist Liefeld became prominent due to his work on Marvel Comics' The New Mutants and later X-Force. In 1992, he and several other popular Marvel illustrators left the company to found Image Comics, which rode the wave of comic books owned by their creators rather than by publishers. The first book published by Image Comics was Rob Liefeld's Youngblood #1.
He is married to actress Joy Creel.
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
October 9, 2014
At a DC production meeting:
"Our first few issues stunk, what should we do?"
"Give the lead telekinetic powers we never hinted at before!"
"Have him crack wise like a discount Spider-man!"
"Make his back-story even more convoluted with shadowy conspiracies!"
"Guest appearances from every C-list title we have!"
Six months later:
"They canceled us, I don't know why."
"Our first few issues stunk, what should we do?"
"Give the lead telekinetic powers we never hinted at before!"
"Have him crack wise like a discount Spider-man!"
"Make his back-story even more convoluted with shadowy conspiracies!"
"Guest appearances from every C-list title we have!"
Six months later:
"They canceled us, I don't know why."
June 13, 2017
I enjoyed the 1st volume of this series mostly for nostalgia's sake. Grifter was one of my favorite characters that came out of Jim Lee's Wildstorm comics at Image. I haven't read too much of the Wildstorm stuff that DC put out after Lee sold his company to them, but I was really excited when I heard that the New 52 was going to bring the Wildstorm characters into the DC universe to interact with the traditional DC heroes and villains. I never could find this in a book store and finally broke down and decided to order it off of Amazon. Seeing Rob Liefeld's name on the cover made me really hesitant to buy it. That dude is a waste of space and I can't believe people in the comics industry still hire him.
Thankfully, old Rob isn't the artist for the book and he has to share writing duties with Frank Tieri. For the first few issues it lists story by Rob's name and dialogue by Frank's. Later it says plot by Liefeld's name and script by Tieri's. Finally, Frank Tieri finishes the book, which is also the end of the entire series, on his own. The book starts out with Grifter on the run from some Daemonites. A beautiful Asian woman named Niko comes to his rescue. She says she's a part of an organization that is trying to take down the Daemonites. She takes Grifter to a safe house where they are met by Deathblow. (He's also an old school Wildstorm character. While he never was one of my favorite characters, it was cool seeing someone that has so much history with Grifter in past comics written into his life in an all new universe where they've never met before.)
No matter where the group goes, Daemonites keep finding them. They know someone in the group is a spy. Grifter and Deathblow get captured by Helspont, another original WIldstorm character that was the main villain in the WildC.A.T.s comic book Grifter originally appeared in. Helspont has always been portrayed previously as one of the Daemonite elites. In this story, he has had a falling out with the rest of the Daemonites and he's just as much an enemy to them as Grifter is.
Somewhere around this point in the book, the story is interrupted by showing Grifter's New 52 origin. I'm guessing this is the #0 issue that pretty much everyone of the original New 52 comics got. After the origin story, Grifter is trying to get some information that will help against the Daemonites, Helspont, and anyone else that happens to be after him. Voodoo, one of Grifter's WildC.A.T.s teammates, makes a cameo appearance and helps Grifter teleport to the Stormwatch space station. (While WildC.A.T.s was one of the flagship Wildstorm titles, Stormwatch was the other. Take the first part of each team/book name and you get the name of the company.) Grifter ends up battling both Midnighter and Apollo, two more Wildstorm characters, when he sneaks aboard the Stromwatch base. The events here lead to Grifter being inside the Suicide Squad's base beneath Belle Reve penitentiary. Finally, Grifter gets to mix it up with some DC characters as he squares off against Amanda Waller, Deadshot, Harley, and more. The series ends, "not with a bang, but a whimper," to quote TS Eliot.
I was pretty into the whole battle against the Daemonites that was going on in the beginning, but about half way of the book it seems like they knew the series was going to be canceled and just quit even trying to write a cohesive story and just scripted fights with people they wanted to see Grifter battle with. While this could have been much better, it also could have been much worse due to Liefeld's involvement. The writing gets 2 stars.
Scott Clark and Marat Mychaels are the artists for the book. Clark draws the first half and Mychaels the latter half. Both have a thin lined art style reminiscent of the art by Mikel Janin. I like Clark's art better. His Grifter looks better than Marat's. Niko is the best looking character in the book and all of her panels are drawn by Scott Clark. I really like the character design for her. It seems like Clark tried to emulate the look of Zealot from the WIldC.A.T.s with a different color scheme and character ethnicity. Both artists work combined give the art a score of 4 stars.
This is a far cry from the best comic I've ever read. Hell, it isn't even the best book in the New 52, but it's also nowhere near the worst New 52 book either. I can only recommend this one to people that really love Grifter. Even those people may not like it since this definitely isn't the Grifter many of us loved from the 1990's. Overall rating: 3 stars.
Thankfully, old Rob isn't the artist for the book and he has to share writing duties with Frank Tieri. For the first few issues it lists story by Rob's name and dialogue by Frank's. Later it says plot by Liefeld's name and script by Tieri's. Finally, Frank Tieri finishes the book, which is also the end of the entire series, on his own. The book starts out with Grifter on the run from some Daemonites. A beautiful Asian woman named Niko comes to his rescue. She says she's a part of an organization that is trying to take down the Daemonites. She takes Grifter to a safe house where they are met by Deathblow. (He's also an old school Wildstorm character. While he never was one of my favorite characters, it was cool seeing someone that has so much history with Grifter in past comics written into his life in an all new universe where they've never met before.)
No matter where the group goes, Daemonites keep finding them. They know someone in the group is a spy. Grifter and Deathblow get captured by Helspont, another original WIldstorm character that was the main villain in the WildC.A.T.s comic book Grifter originally appeared in. Helspont has always been portrayed previously as one of the Daemonite elites. In this story, he has had a falling out with the rest of the Daemonites and he's just as much an enemy to them as Grifter is.
Somewhere around this point in the book, the story is interrupted by showing Grifter's New 52 origin. I'm guessing this is the #0 issue that pretty much everyone of the original New 52 comics got. After the origin story, Grifter is trying to get some information that will help against the Daemonites, Helspont, and anyone else that happens to be after him. Voodoo, one of Grifter's WildC.A.T.s teammates, makes a cameo appearance and helps Grifter teleport to the Stormwatch space station. (While WildC.A.T.s was one of the flagship Wildstorm titles, Stormwatch was the other. Take the first part of each team/book name and you get the name of the company.) Grifter ends up battling both Midnighter and Apollo, two more Wildstorm characters, when he sneaks aboard the Stromwatch base. The events here lead to Grifter being inside the Suicide Squad's base beneath Belle Reve penitentiary. Finally, Grifter gets to mix it up with some DC characters as he squares off against Amanda Waller, Deadshot, Harley, and more. The series ends, "not with a bang, but a whimper," to quote TS Eliot.
I was pretty into the whole battle against the Daemonites that was going on in the beginning, but about half way of the book it seems like they knew the series was going to be canceled and just quit even trying to write a cohesive story and just scripted fights with people they wanted to see Grifter battle with. While this could have been much better, it also could have been much worse due to Liefeld's involvement. The writing gets 2 stars.
Scott Clark and Marat Mychaels are the artists for the book. Clark draws the first half and Mychaels the latter half. Both have a thin lined art style reminiscent of the art by Mikel Janin. I like Clark's art better. His Grifter looks better than Marat's. Niko is the best looking character in the book and all of her panels are drawn by Scott Clark. I really like the character design for her. It seems like Clark tried to emulate the look of Zealot from the WIldC.A.T.s with a different color scheme and character ethnicity. Both artists work combined give the art a score of 4 stars.
This is a far cry from the best comic I've ever read. Hell, it isn't even the best book in the New 52, but it's also nowhere near the worst New 52 book either. I can only recommend this one to people that really love Grifter. Even those people may not like it since this definitely isn't the Grifter many of us loved from the 1990's. Overall rating: 3 stars.
May 3, 2015
Reprints Grifter (2) #0, 9-16 (July 2012-March 2013). Grifter has found new fame as a potential chosen one in the battle against the Daemonites. Facing off against Stormwatch and Suicide Squad, Grifter much live up to his reputation of a man who can pull off the impossible...but is he the one doing the conning or is someone conning him?
Written by Rob Liefeld and Frank Tieri, Grifter 2: Newfound Power is the second volume in the New 52 relaunch. Following Grifter 1: Most Wanted, Rob Liefeld and Frank Tieri replaced Nathan Edmondson and CAFU as writers of the series, but sagging numbers resulted in the series cancellation.
I was really excited when Wildstorm characters popped up in Flashpoint and were announced as continuing series in the New 52. I read Grifter and rather enjoyed Grifter (I also was of the opinion that Voodoo wasn’t as bad as everyone claimed it to be). Unfortunately, this volume shows a downturn in the writing and quality of the comic.
Rob Liefeld never has been a good writer and his art has never been my favorite (despite loving some of his New Mutant/X-Force run). Like many of his ’90s comics, Grifter suddenly becomes a comic where nothing is going on, and it is just a series of boring fights.
The story ends up coming out as gibberish. I’m sure that Liefeld had bigger plans for the story, but the run was cut short. The story ends rather abruptly and in a cliffhanger…leaving you wondering what happens. It is a rather lackluster cliffhanger—we already knew Helspont survived.
I guess with the bad writing, I could have enjoyed art by Liefeld since Liefeld created the character. Instead you have a Liefeld-esque artist and the artist has to do page after page of generic fights that Liefeld and Tieri probably didn’t provide much direction for.
Grifter 2: Newfound Power is a rather dull and lifeless collection. The writing is substandard and the artists struggles to illustrate it. Liefeld demonstrates that he has not evolved much since 1991...sometimes retro is not a good thing. I hate that a series I enjoyed fell so far from the first volume, but Grifter 2 earned its cancellation.
Written by Rob Liefeld and Frank Tieri, Grifter 2: Newfound Power is the second volume in the New 52 relaunch. Following Grifter 1: Most Wanted, Rob Liefeld and Frank Tieri replaced Nathan Edmondson and CAFU as writers of the series, but sagging numbers resulted in the series cancellation.
I was really excited when Wildstorm characters popped up in Flashpoint and were announced as continuing series in the New 52. I read Grifter and rather enjoyed Grifter (I also was of the opinion that Voodoo wasn’t as bad as everyone claimed it to be). Unfortunately, this volume shows a downturn in the writing and quality of the comic.
Rob Liefeld never has been a good writer and his art has never been my favorite (despite loving some of his New Mutant/X-Force run). Like many of his ’90s comics, Grifter suddenly becomes a comic where nothing is going on, and it is just a series of boring fights.
The story ends up coming out as gibberish. I’m sure that Liefeld had bigger plans for the story, but the run was cut short. The story ends rather abruptly and in a cliffhanger…leaving you wondering what happens. It is a rather lackluster cliffhanger—we already knew Helspont survived.
I guess with the bad writing, I could have enjoyed art by Liefeld since Liefeld created the character. Instead you have a Liefeld-esque artist and the artist has to do page after page of generic fights that Liefeld and Tieri probably didn’t provide much direction for.
Grifter 2: Newfound Power is a rather dull and lifeless collection. The writing is substandard and the artists struggles to illustrate it. Liefeld demonstrates that he has not evolved much since 1991...sometimes retro is not a good thing. I hate that a series I enjoyed fell so far from the first volume, but Grifter 2 earned its cancellation.
September 29, 2025
First of all, I read this volume to know the end of this story but sadly there is no resolution. The Daemonites is still around and Helspont is preparing for an Earth invasion. I'm not sure of they finish this storyline in the other titles.
I like the art by Scott Clark of the early issues of this volume but it subside at the end when they change the artist. It is like a lazy art where there is no backgrounds in the panel and the lines are light.
There is also a sudden change to the main character with no explanation. He suddenly has telekinetic and telekinesis abilities. He also talks like Spider-Man.
A waste of potential that may contribute by weak characterization of the protagonist. The storyline is a mess with no direction. The quality of the art dropped in the end.
I like the art by Scott Clark of the early issues of this volume but it subside at the end when they change the artist. It is like a lazy art where there is no backgrounds in the panel and the lines are light.
There is also a sudden change to the main character with no explanation. He suddenly has telekinetic and telekinesis abilities. He also talks like Spider-Man.
A waste of potential that may contribute by weak characterization of the protagonist. The storyline is a mess with no direction. The quality of the art dropped in the end.
April 2, 2018
This is volume two on the superhero known as the “Grifter.” I have previously read and gave a positive review for volume one. This second volume was not as good as the first volume; in fact it kind of died down. The story is a continuation from the previous volume. This book collects issues #0 and #9-16.
This is the story of a former U.S. Army Special Forces operator name Cole Cash who found the ability to overhear telepathic communications of covert alien invaders called Daemonites who can inhabit humans beings. Cole is known as the Grifter for his ability to smooth talk and his former life of being a con artist. His fight against these Daemonites takes him all over the world from Nepal, New York and even to outer space. But as Daemonites go about trying to kill him other human beings do not necessarily know of his special abilities nor do they see him as a hero (instead he is seen as a fugitive and a terrorist).
After this volume the publisher DC discontinued the series. I thought the character and the story in the beginning had a lot of potential even though I’m not typically the alien warfare type of comic book reader. Grifter himself as a character is interesting and it is unfortunate they didn’t get to explore his character more.
This is the story of a former U.S. Army Special Forces operator name Cole Cash who found the ability to overhear telepathic communications of covert alien invaders called Daemonites who can inhabit humans beings. Cole is known as the Grifter for his ability to smooth talk and his former life of being a con artist. His fight against these Daemonites takes him all over the world from Nepal, New York and even to outer space. But as Daemonites go about trying to kill him other human beings do not necessarily know of his special abilities nor do they see him as a hero (instead he is seen as a fugitive and a terrorist).
After this volume the publisher DC discontinued the series. I thought the character and the story in the beginning had a lot of potential even though I’m not typically the alien warfare type of comic book reader. Grifter himself as a character is interesting and it is unfortunate they didn’t get to explore his character more.
July 29, 2020
Nul, y a rien qui marche. Tout est tiré du chapeau, le héros est naze on se fout de ce qui peut lui arriver, aucun enjeu. Pire que Voodoo du même label. Make DC great again !
December 30, 2020
A bad series that adds Rob Liefeld and Frank Tieri is doomed. This book is beyond bad. Plot, dialogue, layouts, etc. are all insanely bad. This series never had a shot and it shows. The book is almost a how-to manual of how to make a bad comic book. Overall, severely terrible.
February 24, 2026
Increiblemente decepcionante, el personaje ahora tiene poderes por la cara, cameos de personajes sin sentido y final en el que no cierra la historia, todo maravilloso
July 28, 2014
After reading the first book in the series I was looking forward to this, I was pretty disappointed with this incoherent story. I would give this a 2.5, which I think is one of the lowest ratings I've ever given a book.
This title started off with some real potential. It had a likeable main character with an interesting story of alien invasion. This book was like another thing altogether, unfortunately not a good thing. The suspense from the first book is completely gone in this volume, replaced with wish-wash incoherent mumbo jumbo. The support cast are so forgettable I think the writer forgot about them and they disappeared without a word of acknowledgement. Along with Cole attaining telekinesis without any explaining or build up. Just a "oh hey I have powers all of a sudden and I know exactly how to use them" scenario. It's like Rob Liefeld hadn't even read the previous issues and just thought he'd make it fun by throwing in more explosions and crossovers. Then we get to one point and the story just jumps to something completely different, introducing characters (I use the term introducing very, very lightly) without any word of explanation. I enjoyed the art on the first volume, but this one, much like the writing, is a big step down as well.
This series showed a heap of potential at the beginning. Then the writer changed and it lost all of it's awesomeness. If you're like me and enjoyed the first book, then stay away from this cause it'll ruin everything great about Grifter. Screw you Rob you dick!
This title started off with some real potential. It had a likeable main character with an interesting story of alien invasion. This book was like another thing altogether, unfortunately not a good thing. The suspense from the first book is completely gone in this volume, replaced with wish-wash incoherent mumbo jumbo. The support cast are so forgettable I think the writer forgot about them and they disappeared without a word of acknowledgement. Along with Cole attaining telekinesis without any explaining or build up. Just a "oh hey I have powers all of a sudden and I know exactly how to use them" scenario. It's like Rob Liefeld hadn't even read the previous issues and just thought he'd make it fun by throwing in more explosions and crossovers. Then we get to one point and the story just jumps to something completely different, introducing characters (I use the term introducing very, very lightly) without any word of explanation. I enjoyed the art on the first volume, but this one, much like the writing, is a big step down as well.
This series showed a heap of potential at the beginning. Then the writer changed and it lost all of it's awesomeness. If you're like me and enjoyed the first book, then stay away from this cause it'll ruin everything great about Grifter. Screw you Rob you dick!
March 16, 2025
#0 Meh story. Meh artwork.
#9 Liefeld's name is on the cover but he's there as story only. No dialogue. No art. It's still not great, Grifter is the chosen one to beat the Daemonites. Really?
#10 - 12. Just lots of fights with Helsponts minions. Car chase, fight, explosion. Rinse and repeat. One of the resistance fighters gets saved from an explosion that kills all the other incidental characters, he’s taken to the safe house, there’s another fight with yet another bad guy and the poor guy is never mentioned again. Did he die? Did they just leave him there to survive on his own in the cold and snow while everyone else got zapped into space? Did Rob Liefeld forget about him? Talking of RL, his artistic *snort* hand is evident in several of the internal pages even though he’s only credited with plot and covers. Then there’s outsmarting, double crossing, and oneupmanship that all seems too convenient.
#13-14 Grifter breaks into Stormwatch. Why? To prove he can beat up Apollo and Midnighter. Or to get teleported all over until he lands up in BelleVue.
#14-15 Fights Suicide Squad. Did I mention he has telekinesis now. Waller let's him go with a warning he's being double crossed.
#16 Last issue, thankfully. What a mess. I can honestly say I don’t have a clue what was going on.
Bad.
#9 Liefeld's name is on the cover but he's there as story only. No dialogue. No art. It's still not great, Grifter is the chosen one to beat the Daemonites. Really?
#10 - 12. Just lots of fights with Helsponts minions. Car chase, fight, explosion. Rinse and repeat. One of the resistance fighters gets saved from an explosion that kills all the other incidental characters, he’s taken to the safe house, there’s another fight with yet another bad guy and the poor guy is never mentioned again. Did he die? Did they just leave him there to survive on his own in the cold and snow while everyone else got zapped into space? Did Rob Liefeld forget about him? Talking of RL, his artistic *snort* hand is evident in several of the internal pages even though he’s only credited with plot and covers. Then there’s outsmarting, double crossing, and oneupmanship that all seems too convenient.
#13-14 Grifter breaks into Stormwatch. Why? To prove he can beat up Apollo and Midnighter. Or to get teleported all over until he lands up in BelleVue.
#14-15 Fights Suicide Squad. Did I mention he has telekinesis now. Waller let's him go with a warning he's being double crossed.
#16 Last issue, thankfully. What a mess. I can honestly say I don’t have a clue what was going on.
Bad.
January 11, 2014
This is all over the place, in a silly but good way. Putting Grifter up as savior of humanity seems really outlandish, and the action surrounding that section of the story is over the top. There's also a fair bit of world-development, which was somewhat interesting. Further developing the other characters (although there are a lot of throwaway characters) does push the story forward. It's just not a very strong story overall. Not bad, but not remarkable either.
July 23, 2013
There was some promise here...but it all seemed to go sideways and became a lets save the title by having multiple crossovers.
I am not even truly surely the big storyline of this cancelled title, the Damonite war was even resolved.
I am not even truly surely the big storyline of this cancelled title, the Damonite war was even resolved.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 19, 2015
I wanted to like this more than I actually did. I enjoy the character of Grifter and have been intrigued by his new backstory in the New 52. However, the story in these last issues seemed very jumbled. Characters came in and disappeared without reason. The art was fantastic though.
September 21, 2014
La serie continúa su andadura sin terminar de cumplir con las espectativas (que tampoco eran muchas). A la hora de la cancelación deja su plot bastante abierto.
December 6, 2022
Pobre Cole Cash y su escueto elenco.
June 8, 2017
Suicide Squad zbutował Griftera. I dobrze. Seria zbyt słaba, żeby utrzymać się na nogach po przedłużanej walce poddaje się wreszcie. Nic wartego uwagi.
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