Human Target
47 years ago - Christopher Chance is born.
38 years ago - 9-year-old Christopher becomes a ward of the state after he watches as his father is killed by a loan shark's assassin.
35 years ago - 12-year-old Christopher learns the art of disguise from one of his foster mothers.
31 years ago - 16-year-old Christopher begins using his uncanny mimic skills to run long cons.
28 years ago - 19-year-old Christopher is caught running a con on the federal department, and is recruited by Argus.
25 years ago - 22-year-old Christopher is selected for Team 7.
17 years ago - 30-year-old Christopher retires from the DEO, and becomes a bodyguard & private investigator, using his unique skills to take the place of high-risk targets.
8 years ago - 39-year-old Christopher fails to save the life of the woman he loves and descends into despair.
6 years ago - 41-year-old Christopher is blackmailed by King Faraday into taking a job. He goes back to work.
2 years ago - 45-year-old Christopher finds his lover's killer.
DC had a lush catalog of spy character that came out of the sixties. Comics simply had a broader audience at the time. While you might still see a crime series from other publishers today, DC really doesn't do non-superhero stories anymore, and that's a shame, because they had some good ones. Human Target is actually a very cool concept; a bodyguard and private eye that used his skills of disguise and mimicry to take the place of his client in order to put himself in harms way, and then uses his skills of improvisation to thwart the bad guys even while they were putting their plans in motion. It's a really adventure-heavy story idea. As a child of the eighties it reminds me of adventure TV shows like Macguyver, The Fall Guy, Magnum PI or Spencer for Hire. Apparently TV producers thought the same thing, as he was made into a TV series in the 80's staring Rick Springfield, and again in the 2000's in a show starring Mark Valley. Clearly, the concept is a cool one.
We did almost nothing to the character. We gave him a good long while to just let him have his adventures. In order to explain the 'why' of his skills a little bit we gave him a good long career with the DEO, including a member of the infamous Team 7, a group of spies and assassins that absolutely could use a young master of disguise in their ranks. We included a few years of severe depression, since his chosen career really only makes sense if he has a little bit of a death wish, but used his old Team 7 partner King Faraday as the reason he's able to return to work. Sometimes, you just don't have to complicate something that isn't broken. |