Top Cow Pilot Season: Crosshair #1

What you need to know: Justin Weller is a retired Black ops agent who is forced back into the game when he is attacked by members of his former squad.

What you'll love

Potential: The story is full of potential. The concept is an interesting one, though poorly executed.

Ending: Once the story gets going we find out that Weller is going to attempt to assassinate the President of the United States. The catch? He only has 48 hours.



What you won't


Weak Opening: The book opens with brainwashed members of a black ops team being activated and ordered to kill one of their former team members. Not only is this cliche but it's also hard to follow or to realize that these men have in fact been brainwashed.

Clarity: The writer openly admits that he was inspired by the Manchurian Candidate, however the brainwashing aspect of the story is difficult to ascertain initially. Besides that there are several troublesome time jumps that don't work.

Moved too fast: The first time we meet Justin Weller, he is attacking someone in a bar. The very next page he is involved in a firefight inside his suburban neighborhood. The script gave the reader no time to establish a bond with the lead character. There's a veiled attempt but at the very least the story could have had more than one panel showing Justin with his family before they were attacked. The stakes can't be raised because we don't truly know how much Justin's family means to him.

Overwrought: After being attacked,Justin flees his house(coincidentally leaving his family, which makes no sense) and runs through the neighborhood, uncovering weapons that he's hid over the years in the event that something like this were to happen. The plausibility of this aside,the writer shows us flashbacks of when Justin planted the various weapons at the neighbor's houses. It takes the reader out of the story.

Characterization: It's hard to say that a story has zero character development, but this one comes close. If it does have character development its from the Steven Segal school. There's just no there, there.


Bottom Line: Crosshair is a diamond in the rough. Very,very rough.

Grade: C