Grifter is one of the new characters added to the DC Universe’s New 52, while he may be new to you; Grifter has been gracing the pages of “funny books” since 1992. Grifter makes his way to the DCU from the Wildstorm Universe where he was created by DC Co-Publisher Jim Lee.

Of all the books out this week, ‘Grifter’ was the one I was looking most forward to reading. My only encounters with the character came from Flashpoint when he was instrumental in helping Lois Lane with the Resistance. So the chance to read about a character that I knew nothing about was pretty exciting. Of course, after I read ‘Grifter’ #1 I ran to my computer and fired up Wikipedia to read up on Cole Cash.

‘Grifter’ #1 kicks off in the middle of a story already in progress, so we aren’t all bogged down in origin stories right from the get go. I don’t know how fans of Grifter feel about the way this character was introduced to the more mainstream DC Universe, but I know I throughly enjoyed the introduction.

There is plenty of action in this book, partnered with flashbacks and even a military conspiracy to boot. While this story didn’t tell the exact origin of Grifter/Cole Cash, writer Nathan Edmondson did give up some background about the character. We learn he hears voices, we learn he has a brother named Max and we learn that Cole Cash is former military turned criminal.

The hearing voices part comes from an abduction by some strange creature made of what looks like some kind of energy. It seems like Mr. Bad Guy wants to possess Cole, but we aren’t really sure as to the reason why. It could be that Cole possesses some kind of trait or power the baddie are looking for? Whatever it is, Cole Cash is not safe anywhere, because his would-be abductor can control folks telepathically from a great distance and force them to attack Cole.

The ex-military thing is interesting as well, and the fact his brother Max would sell him out and be the one to track him down opens the question flood gates again. Like why would he volunteer to capture/kill his brother? What exactly did Cole do wrong to force the government’s hand? Why would he so easily agree to be the one to bring in his own brother.

I feel like knowing next to nothing about this character let me enjoy this book, because for the first time in a while I’m reading a brand new (to me) character in the DC Universe. That being said, this book is well written and well drawn and deserves to be checked out. It may not fit into the classic superhero or horror buckets that seems to be prevalent in this new version of the DCU, but it is a nice change of pace and something new.

Now I’m interested in seeing what will happen next month since “A Brother Will Bleed” when Cole and Max Cash apparently will go head to head.

Grifter #1
Written by Nathan Edmondson
Pencils by Cafu
Inks by Jason Gordon
Colors by Andrew Dalhouse
Cover by Cafu & Bit