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The Human Target #1-12
Blanco humano
Christopher Chance se gana la vida disfrazándose de clientes cuya vida corre peligro. En otras palabras, es un blanco humano. Sin embargo, esta vez, suplantar a Lex Luthor le ha salido muy caro, y dispone de 12 días para averiguar quién lo va a matar... y los principales sospechosos son los miembros de la Liga de la Justicia Internacional. El guionista Tom King y el dibujante Greg Smallwood recuperan a un personaje mítico del pasado de DC Comics en Blanco Humano, una historia que ha fascinado a lectores del mundo entero por saber combinar a la perfección los superhéroes con el espionaje y el género negro. El sello Black Label se ha convertido en un gran activo de la actual DC Comics no solo por el talento de sus autores sino también por la calidad de unas historias que no deben encajar necesariamente en la continuidad habitual. Blanco humano es una de las últimas muestras del éxito que supone combinar los dos factores.
416 pages, Hardcover
Published April 17, 2024
10 people are currently reading
87 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews
May 30, 2024
Top King
February 23, 2026
Christopher Chance has a top tier jawline. He is hot, I’m hot, and the couple who bought this for my birthday are hot.
All round smokeshow.
Rating: 4 Spicy Sausages 🌭🌭🌭🌭
All round smokeshow.
Rating: 4 Spicy Sausages 🌭🌭🌭🌭
September 12, 2025
People seem to love this so I guess I'm missing something because I didn't find this interesting, mysterious, insightful. or entertaining. Tom King is so hit-and-miss he might as well be the NES Zapper being used on a flatscreen TV.
January 25, 2026
Tom King's love letter to pulp fiction, noir, and the Giffen/DeMatteis Justice League. The mystery was easy enough to figure out, my curse and all that, but it was finely scripted, and beautifully illustrated by Greg Smallwood that all that matters was enjoying the ride.
January 16, 2026
Nejsem největší fanoušek Toma Kinga. Jeho Batman: Killing Time byl otravnej a překomplexovanej a jeho Wonder Woman je tak ubíjející, že sem ji vzdal asi po deseti číslech.
Ale ty vole. The Human Target je jedna z nejlepších (a díky Gregu Smallwoodovi i jedna z nejkrásnějších) knížek, co sem kdy četl. Nejen komiksů. Knížek.
Ale ty vole. The Human Target je jedna z nejlepších (a díky Gregu Smallwoodovi i jedna z nejkrásnějších) knížek, co sem kdy četl. Nejen komiksů. Knížek.
December 22, 2025
Continues my favourite trend of Tom King taking an obscure DC character and breaking my heart over them. An absolute stunner of a book.
June 8, 2024
Me ha gustado mucho como casi todas las obras de Tom King. El problema con este autor es que las premisas me gustan y disfruto de su desarrollo y de la calidad que siempre alcanza pero hay veces en las que pierden ritmo y me aburren. Tengo la sensación de que quiere resultar tan brillante, tan inteligente que en ocasiones se hace denso y confuso. Además veo cierta repetición de patrones con otras obras como strange adventures o Rorschach que me dan la sensación de ya haberlo leído antes. Pero dicho esto, gran calidad y muy por encima de lo habitual. El dibujo, una locura.
January 30, 2026
A self-insert Y/N fanfic for the boys who love comic books and imagining themselves as Humphrey Bogart. I am fundamentally unconvinced by this. I am unconvinced by the idea behind Mr. Target's character in general, and by his character journey in this run. One would think, the set up of investigating your own murder under a hard deadline, with every member of the Temu Justice League being on the suspect list could only ever be fun. Well, one would be wrong. The Human Target is not really a mystery, it's a very forced romance that goes through the motions of detective fiction, while our protagonist is sad, allegedly hardboiled, drinks a lot, and is irresistible to women. It really wants to be noir fiction but mostly deals in superficial noir tropes. I like Tom King as a writer, but here he is too self-indulgent and way too verbose. Whoever thought that having dialogue and inner monologue cluttering panels at the same time was a good idea was wrong. This just goes to show that boundaries and restrictions are actually good for a comics writer and his team.
It doesn't help that Mr. Target is not a well-established character, and that his main trait is passivity. Tom King added a huge Batman fakeout to this story, which works well with his core concept that Mr. Human Target here is a Batman reject. He also has to witness horrific murder of his father at a young formative age, he also decides to use this trauma to serve and to find his place in the world, he also is angsty and full of daddy issues, he also is a detective who uses disguise. By all means, he should be Batman Jr. - but he is not, and so he gets introspective and dies about it. Very sad. The only thing I liked about The Human Target outside of the very impressive visuals was when it reminded me of Doom Patrol. If you want great comics noir vibes, just read book 1 of Last Knight on Earth or Tom King's very own The Winning Card. If you want a fun comics about investigating your own poisoning while dying in real time, read Batman: Europa. The irony of leaving Batman recs in this review is not lost on me. What is also not lost on me is the fact that I keep calling the protagonist Mr. Target because I can't remember his name to save my life, despite staring at it for two days straight. Some things just belong to obscurity.
Beautiful artwork though, its vintage colours and the crayon look will stick with me for a long time.
It doesn't help that Mr. Target is not a well-established character, and that his main trait is passivity. Tom King added a huge Batman fakeout to this story, which works well with his core concept that Mr. Human Target here is a Batman reject. He also has to witness horrific murder of his father at a young formative age, he also decides to use this trauma to serve and to find his place in the world, he also is angsty and full of daddy issues, he also is a detective who uses disguise. By all means, he should be Batman Jr. - but he is not, and so he gets introspective and dies about it. Very sad. The only thing I liked about The Human Target outside of the very impressive visuals was when it reminded me of Doom Patrol. If you want great comics noir vibes, just read book 1 of Last Knight on Earth or Tom King's very own The Winning Card. If you want a fun comics about investigating your own poisoning while dying in real time, read Batman: Europa. The irony of leaving Batman recs in this review is not lost on me. What is also not lost on me is the fact that I keep calling the protagonist Mr. Target because I can't remember his name to save my life, despite staring at it for two days straight. Some things just belong to obscurity.
Beautiful artwork though, its vintage colours and the crayon look will stick with me for a long time.
February 5, 2026
Tengo mis altibajos con Tom King, y luego de algún que otro desacuerdo, vuelve a deslumbrarme con Human Target, donde demuestra que es capaz de (re)escribir personajes olvidados de DC sin llegar al extremo de destruirlos, como hizo por ejemplo, a mi modo de ver en Strange Adventures.
Luego de un memorable comienzo, la intriga y el suspenso nunca desaparecen. La puesta a punto de cada capítulo resulta muy útil, más aun cuando el plantel de invitados (JLI) era prácticamente una novedad para mi, sumado al hecho de que King construye todo su engranaje en base a la personalidad de muchos de ellos.
Greg Smallwood resultó todo un descubrimiento, un trabajo sobresaliente basado en una estética retro cincuentera aplicada al comic de superhéroes. Un artista que maneja magistralmente diferentes niveles de definición en sus viñetas, primeros planos realistas y expresivos, entornos con trazos simplificados y fondos muchas veces apenas bosquejados. Utiliza también sorprendentes cortes angulares para diferenciar color e iluminación y junto a una paleta intensa consigue dar marco perfecto al tono de comedia noir que King propone para la obra.
Preciosa la edición de Ovni Press.
Una maravilla.
Luego de un memorable comienzo, la intriga y el suspenso nunca desaparecen. La puesta a punto de cada capítulo resulta muy útil, más aun cuando el plantel de invitados (JLI) era prácticamente una novedad para mi, sumado al hecho de que King construye todo su engranaje en base a la personalidad de muchos de ellos.
Greg Smallwood resultó todo un descubrimiento, un trabajo sobresaliente basado en una estética retro cincuentera aplicada al comic de superhéroes. Un artista que maneja magistralmente diferentes niveles de definición en sus viñetas, primeros planos realistas y expresivos, entornos con trazos simplificados y fondos muchas veces apenas bosquejados. Utiliza también sorprendentes cortes angulares para diferenciar color e iluminación y junto a una paleta intensa consigue dar marco perfecto al tono de comedia noir que King propone para la obra.
Preciosa la edición de Ovni Press.
Una maravilla.
January 8, 2026
Wow. Just an amazing love letter to old-school detective stories and noir. A love letter to obscure DC characters. And some genuinely great writing and prose. This is not a children's book. It has all the typical comic censorship of swearing and stuff like that but it has lots of violent, sexual, and mature themes. In short, it's like a 30's detective novel.
Christopher Chance is the Human Target. You think someone is after you? Someone planning on killing you? You hire The Human Target. He'll disguise himself and take the shot for you. Then, he'll investigate and figure out who/how/why did it. But, who has killed The Human Target? While on a case stopping a murder, he accidentally is poisoned by a second murder plot. He has 12 days to investigate his poisoning and get revenge before he dies. Who could it be? And could it have even been one of the Justice League?
Tom King is very hit or miss for me. I love his Vision miniseries. I think his Batman run is average. Meh. But this is my favorite of his yet.
Christopher Chance is the Human Target. You think someone is after you? Someone planning on killing you? You hire The Human Target. He'll disguise himself and take the shot for you. Then, he'll investigate and figure out who/how/why did it. But, who has killed The Human Target? While on a case stopping a murder, he accidentally is poisoned by a second murder plot. He has 12 days to investigate his poisoning and get revenge before he dies. Who could it be? And could it have even been one of the Justice League?
Tom King is very hit or miss for me. I love his Vision miniseries. I think his Batman run is average. Meh. But this is my favorite of his yet.
January 14, 2026
So I was settling in the rating for this book and I was thinking 4 stars. I like King in general and although clever, I did not find Human Target amongst his best. A 3 star rating seemed fair.
Now, the art. OMG the art, Smallwood did something so gorgeous and layered and with all the right references that had to be no less than 5 stars.
And then I saw the process pages that come as extras in the deluxe and I was somewhat disappointed on how Smallwood managed that gorgeous art and I thought that maybe it was not for 5 stars.
And at the same time King's script kept coming back to me, and yeah, it's 4 stars for each.
As for my art disappointment? well, maybe we shouldn't find out how the sausage is made. my bad.
Now, the art. OMG the art, Smallwood did something so gorgeous and layered and with all the right references that had to be no less than 5 stars.
And then I saw the process pages that come as extras in the deluxe and I was somewhat disappointed on how Smallwood managed that gorgeous art and I thought that maybe it was not for 5 stars.
And at the same time King's script kept coming back to me, and yeah, it's 4 stars for each.
As for my art disappointment? well, maybe we shouldn't find out how the sausage is made. my bad.
November 26, 2025
Books like this are so fun. I don't know if I could read detective books all of the time, but if I can keep the frequency just right, the familiar beats read as "classic" rather than "cliché." Greg Smallwood's illustrations compliment the story perfectly, and, specifically, his coloring. The palette was perfect and the way the colors bleed outside of the lines is such a great touch. My only complaint is that end comes a little too early. I like my denouements at the very end.
February 7, 2026
I still remember reading JLI issues at the grocery store while my mom was shopping, so coming back to the key characters of that era was a nice return. But the story is very different in tone and focus; it's quite a balancing act to keep the character's personalities in this different genre of story. Very noir, and while the mystery ends up playing out just about as you would expect for a noir story, it's the journey that makes it a worthwhile and beautiful read.
December 28, 2025
4 issues of pretty good Ed Brubaker superneonoir mixed with 8 issues of water
January 17, 2026
It was a surprisingly great comic. I do just wish someone else killed Chance instead of Ice.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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January 20, 2026Tom King is a bad writer except for when he’s writing my favorite stories
January 22, 2026
dammit, Tom King, you did it again
February 4, 2026
A unique super hero story that follows someone who’s really: just a guy. Love the retro style and the inclusion of DC heroes into the noir storyline.
February 21, 2025
Human Target is the type of story that I equivocate to my experience of Knives Out; a colorful story of charismatic characters featuring a whodunit narrative that offers diminishing returns each time you read it. My first read through, this had been a 5, this time it was a 3, so I'm averaging the two out for an overall score of 4. There's a lot of talent on display here, with some fantastic art providing this book a beautiful aesthetic. And even on my second pass, King's writing still grabs me as he explores ideas of the lies we tell ourselves and others. It's definitely worth a read, but I would argue this is a one-and-done for sure, largely because knowing the ending can make long sections of the story drag. There are issues that simply don't hold any punch or impact the second time through that, while I didn't love the first time around, at least provided a tension that drove the story forward.
The best issues to me are the ones that allow us an in-depth look into one of the various JLI heroes, namely issues 3, 4, and 10. You might note that those issues don't have as much of our two leads present and that's because, while their respective character arcs are interesting, I don't find them to be especially appealing characters. Their relationship, while enjoyable to follow, feels somewhat frustrating to parse, and I don't really know how much of a sense I have for where they stand by the end of the story. In some ways, they feel like they are given as much depth as the minor characters of the story, which I think does the story a disservice in that respect.
There are also some really weird typos sprinkled throughout the series as a whole that really chafes me. We live in a day and age when those mistakes can be adjusted pretty easily from a digital perspective, yet they're left alone, distracting little moments that take me out of the story as I have to reread a word bubble 3 times to understand what's being said. Even beyond the ability to fix it in post, these are fairly obvious errors, they should have been relatively easy to catch. How this slipped past quality control is beyond me.
The last thing I'll note here is a lot of folks have issues with how King portrays some of the more well-known heroes, whereas others defends this by saying this is set in an alt reality, being a Black Label comic. While I have no deep knowledge of these characters to the degree others would, I do think it's a problem when these characters are portrayed as flanderized versions of themselves for the sake of the plot, regardless if whether or not I'm familiar enough to recognize it. While this is an alt universe, it is similar enough to the standard continuity that I think dramatic changes to characterization in this manner should be called out.
The best issues to me are the ones that allow us an in-depth look into one of the various JLI heroes, namely issues 3, 4, and 10. You might note that those issues don't have as much of our two leads present and that's because, while their respective character arcs are interesting, I don't find them to be especially appealing characters. Their relationship, while enjoyable to follow, feels somewhat frustrating to parse, and I don't really know how much of a sense I have for where they stand by the end of the story. In some ways, they feel like they are given as much depth as the minor characters of the story, which I think does the story a disservice in that respect.
There are also some really weird typos sprinkled throughout the series as a whole that really chafes me. We live in a day and age when those mistakes can be adjusted pretty easily from a digital perspective, yet they're left alone, distracting little moments that take me out of the story as I have to reread a word bubble 3 times to understand what's being said. Even beyond the ability to fix it in post, these are fairly obvious errors, they should have been relatively easy to catch. How this slipped past quality control is beyond me.
The last thing I'll note here is a lot of folks have issues with how King portrays some of the more well-known heroes, whereas others defends this by saying this is set in an alt reality, being a Black Label comic. While I have no deep knowledge of these characters to the degree others would, I do think it's a problem when these characters are portrayed as flanderized versions of themselves for the sake of the plot, regardless if whether or not I'm familiar enough to recognize it. While this is an alt universe, it is similar enough to the standard continuity that I think dramatic changes to characterization in this manner should be called out.
December 2, 2024
Tom King sigue generando una marca sólida de creación comiquera en cuanto a sus reexaminaciones hiper dramáticas y de género negro con personajes en los margenes de sus universos comiqueros (cuando no es agitar el avispero personal de Batman o probar con una especie de nuevo ALL STAR SUPERMAN).
Blanco Humano se presenta como el mayor canto de cisne noir del autor. Con un personaje menos tratado para lo interesante de su trabajo y modos operandi de actuar de "guardaespaldas definitivo" asumiendo amenazas mortales suplantando a las víctimas con maestría en el disfraz y diferentes artimañas para no acabar bajo tierra en el encargo. Esta historia ya eleva las expectativas al tener a Christopher Chance asumiendo la amenaza de muerte de Les Luthor. Pero el golpe mortal viene de otro lado y la vida de Christopher coloca un fatal Ultimatum de 12 dias. Asumiendo su destino pero no queriendo irse sin dilucidar quien es responsable de esta muerte errada, comienza a seguir los pasos a los principales sospechosos... Los miembros de la Justice League International.
Con esta premisa, Tom King ya consigue disponer de todos los grandes aciertos de sus propuestas narrativas fuera del canon. La aparición grafica de Greg Smallwood Magnifica todo interés en acercar esta maxiserie a su espíritu pulp y de noir hiper clásico. Sumando un gran arte pop que defenderá no pocos grandes números temáticos y personales en esta investigacion que se vuelve aún más personal desde que irrumpe HIELO. Heroina clásica de esta formación sospechosa que juega con el cliché de femme fatale de unas formas más increíbles de lo que apuntaba al inicio. King logra que la relación con este par establezca el tono y el todo de la historia en una pasión continua por volver a maravillarse con el mundo que les rodea. Donde personajes tan irreverentes o disfuncionales como los miembros de la JLI pueden ser grandes heroes en compañía de Batman.
Blanco Humano vuelve a sacar a relucir al Tom King más virtuoso en su particular empeño argumental de las maxiseries "Black Label". Quizás con la ayuda de la estabilidad temática de orbitar en los cañones noir m;as clásicos el autor logra volver a plasmar esa cruda y gris realidad al Universo DCita, pero esta vez volviendo a encontrar cierto y frio dulzor en el día más lluvioso y amargado por el apure de la botella de whiskey y los puros.
Blanco Humano se presenta como el mayor canto de cisne noir del autor. Con un personaje menos tratado para lo interesante de su trabajo y modos operandi de actuar de "guardaespaldas definitivo" asumiendo amenazas mortales suplantando a las víctimas con maestría en el disfraz y diferentes artimañas para no acabar bajo tierra en el encargo. Esta historia ya eleva las expectativas al tener a Christopher Chance asumiendo la amenaza de muerte de Les Luthor. Pero el golpe mortal viene de otro lado y la vida de Christopher coloca un fatal Ultimatum de 12 dias. Asumiendo su destino pero no queriendo irse sin dilucidar quien es responsable de esta muerte errada, comienza a seguir los pasos a los principales sospechosos... Los miembros de la Justice League International.
Con esta premisa, Tom King ya consigue disponer de todos los grandes aciertos de sus propuestas narrativas fuera del canon. La aparición grafica de Greg Smallwood Magnifica todo interés en acercar esta maxiserie a su espíritu pulp y de noir hiper clásico. Sumando un gran arte pop que defenderá no pocos grandes números temáticos y personales en esta investigacion que se vuelve aún más personal desde que irrumpe HIELO. Heroina clásica de esta formación sospechosa que juega con el cliché de femme fatale de unas formas más increíbles de lo que apuntaba al inicio. King logra que la relación con este par establezca el tono y el todo de la historia en una pasión continua por volver a maravillarse con el mundo que les rodea. Donde personajes tan irreverentes o disfuncionales como los miembros de la JLI pueden ser grandes heroes en compañía de Batman.
Blanco Humano vuelve a sacar a relucir al Tom King más virtuoso en su particular empeño argumental de las maxiseries "Black Label". Quizás con la ayuda de la estabilidad temática de orbitar en los cañones noir m;as clásicos el autor logra volver a plasmar esa cruda y gris realidad al Universo DCita, pero esta vez volviendo a encontrar cierto y frio dulzor en el día más lluvioso y amargado por el apure de la botella de whiskey y los puros.
December 21, 2024
Cada vez que cojo una de las series limitadas de Tom King voy con algo de reparo porque después de tantas obras suyas que he disfrutado sé que alguna va a defraudarme. Pues sabéis una cosa, Blanco humano no es una de ellas sino otra de esas pequeñas maravillas que nos regala este autor que en esta ocasión está acompañando por un dibujante que no conocía y que simplemente me ha parecido maravilloso. Greg Smallwood ha captado increíblemente el tono de la historia y sinceramente no podría imaginar este cómic dibujado por otra persona.
Definitivamente uno de mis cómics favoritos de 2024.
Definitivamente uno de mis cómics favoritos de 2024.
August 18, 2025
Tom King potwierdza własną klasę, proponując historię gościa, który wie, że za chwilę umrze. Główny bohater jest częścią superbohaterskiego universum, choć sam się za bohatera nie uważa. To komiks idealny dla tych, którzy u Kinga cenią przede wszystkim zepchnięcie tej całej infantylnej otoczki na drugi plan, by powiedzieć coś ważniejszego. Muszę przyznać, że czyta się to świetnie. "Człowiek cel" ma swój regularny rytm, detektywistyczną zagadkę i świetne grafiki, które moja żona określiła jako "idealne do komiksu o Bondzie". Bardzo polecam
September 23, 2025
Un personaje del que nadie se acordaba. Un planteamiento original. Una historia que fluye a buen ritmo. Una coprotaganista que nadie esperaba. La mejor Liga de la Justicia de siempre como invitados. Todo magníficamente narrado e ilustrado. Tom King lo ha vuelto a hacer
September 14, 2025
Una historia que nos lleva a descubrir mucho más sobre los personajes de la JLI, y sus relaciones.
El misterio de una muerte siempre moviliza al mundo, en este caso, una sentencia de muerte será el motor de esta investigación.
Excelente.
El misterio de una muerte siempre moviliza al mundo, en este caso, una sentencia de muerte será el motor de esta investigación.
Excelente.
April 30, 2024
Coup de coeur.
C'était trop bien autant l'histoire que les planches. Je suis ravi d'avoir lu ça enfin 🤌👌
C'était trop bien autant l'histoire que les planches. Je suis ravi d'avoir lu ça enfin 🤌👌
July 27, 2024
Après tout, il ne s'agit pas d'une histoire de bien et de mal, de gentils et de vilains à combattre, mais bien d'une histoire d'amour...
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 29, 2025
¿Podría tener alguna cosa mejor resuelta? Sí ¿Me ha flipado igualmente? También
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