The Human Touch

Hey, it's Saturday morning and I'm trying to avoid doing any actual work, so let's answer another of your questions. Constant reader Beppo Prime asks:

Mr. Wein, I really liked your (and Carmine Infantino's) Human Target character, though I no longer have any of the stories. Is there any chance of a collection?

Also, do you have anything you'd like to say about Peter Milligan's stories for the character?

To the best of my knowledge, sadly, there are no current plans over at DC for a Human Target collection, though that's nothing a really vigorous write-in campaign might not change. The funny thing is that, though the talented Mr. Infantino did indeed design Christopher Chance and penciled the first story, I've always really thought of the series as belonging more to me and my old friend and editor Dick Giordano, since Dick either penciled, inked or both penciled and inked every one of the stories I wrote for the character.

As to my opinion of the Peter Milligan run on the Target, truth to tell, while the stories were certainly well done, I never really thought that Peter was writing my character. I've generally tried to write positive, upbeat protagonists over the course of my career, and Peter's Chris Chance was anything but. To me, the Vertigo Human Target was sort of like the Ultimate Marvel African-American version of Nick Fury; an interesting effort, but more like a funhouse mirror reflection of the original than anything else.

Hope that answers your questions, Beppo, and thanks for asking. It's always a pleasure to hear from the first among the Super-Monkeys.