The Book I Think You Should Buy:
The Miss
ion
by Jon Hoeber, Erich Hoeber, and Werner Dell’Edera; Image, $14.99
The Mission ran for six issues (I think), and impressed me with the potential of its story. A regular guy, Paul Haskell, is confronted one day by someone odd, who tells him that he needs to kill another man for him. He suggests that there is some sort of otherworldly war taking place all around us, and that our man has no real choice but to get involved. The thing is, our guy is a family man with an office job, and isn’t exactly prepared for this kind of thing to happen to him.
Nevertheless, when the man he was supposed to kill ends up opening fire in a court, killing a few people and kidnapping his daughter, our guy realizes that had he acted, none of this would have happened. In this way, he finds himself getting drawn into whatever conflict is going on. Later, when he tries to back out, Paul discovers that he and his children have a rare, incurable, form of cancer. This problem can be fixed only by his continuing to work for Gabriel, his contact into this weird world.
The Hoebers keep the story moving at a quick pace, as Paul learns a new skill set and starts to question everything he believes. The final twist to the story may have been predictable, but it is still very effective. Dell’Edera’s art works nicely here – it’s not quite as dark as what I’m used to seeing from him (I’m thinking of Loveless), and sometimes its lighter style works as a good contrast to the story material.
I’m not sure if there will be a second volume of this book. There is more than enough space to expand this story for years to come, but this single volume also works very well as a one-off story. I guess if we want more, people will have to buy this trade.
So, what would you buy Were Money No Object?
