The Silencer #1: Code of Honor
Writers: Dan Abnett and John Romita, Jr.
Artist: Sandra Hope
Colors: Dean White
Letterer: Tom Napolitano
Publisher: DC Comics
Review by Michael Farris, Jr.
The Silencer #1, one of DC’s New Age of Heroes, introduces us to Honor Guest, a former assassin now trying to live a normal life. The comic kicks off with the first page bringing us into the present day, where the Silencer is pissed off at…someone…enough to presumably shoot them. After the first page, the rest of the comic is a flashback giving us more background on Honor. Married to Blake and mother of Ben (aka Jellybean), she is out grocery shopping with her son when a reminder of her past life comes back to haunt her. The situation only gets worse when an old colleague—Talia al Ghul—arrives to inform Honor that the life she thought she had escaped isn’t quite so forgiving of her decision to leave. With the balance of power at Leviathan at stake and literally at her front door, Honor has no choice but to suit back up.
When I first started reading this comic, I was intrigued in the direction it was going. Honor’s internal dialogue asking the question, “Is a normal life all that bad?” seemed like an interesting premise. The more I read, the less interested I got, sad to say. For one thing, all I know so far about her is that she’s a very skilled assassin and her superpower is…some kind of force field of silence. It reminds me of the cone of silence from Get Smart. It seems like a good idea for a very minor mutant in the X-men comics (wrong universe, I know), but for a primary character…eh. The silence zone plays pretty well when she’s fighting someone off in proximity to her son—who is completely oblivious to the fight—but then that made me wonder why it wasn’t utilized when she (presumably) shoots someone in front of her son. So many questions.
The art is well-done, reliable comic art. Nothing risky, and that’s fine. The baddie at the end with the long red hair was pretty cool. The Silencer’s outfit was not so much. She kind of looks like she should be delivering pizza in Tron.
Verdict:
Wait and see. You get the impression that Honor has strengths as a character with real struggles that unfortunately weren’t really translating for me when she went back into assassin mode. Which I guess, kind of proves her point that her normal life is more enjoyable than the assassin life. I was intrigued, but don’t feel compelled to keep reading. Not ready to write this series off yet, though.
