Title: The Complete Jon Sable Freelance
Issue: Volume 1
Date: April, 2005
Publisher: IDW Publishing
Writer: Mike Grell
Art: Mike Grell
Editor: Mike Gold
Collecting the first six issues of Mike Grell's classic series for First Comics in the 1980s.
Jon Sable is a bounty hunter and mercenary-for-hire based in New York City, a former Olympic athlete who learned the mercenary trade in the African wars in the 1970s. The first two stories are standalone adventures in the current continuity that introduce Sable, as well has his alter-ego, bestselling childrens author BB Flemm. The opening story also features an appearance by President Reagan.
From there, the rest of this volume uncovers Sable's tragic backstory, with the murder of his family driving him on a relentless path of revenge, inflicting slasher-film levels of violence on the poachers that were responsible for killing his wife and children.
Grell does a great job with the action, nicely treading the line between realism and over-the-top mayhem. Real history and politics are worked into the story, and there are some entertaining twists even if the overall revenge plot is pretty standard fare.
The lighter side to the story, telling how Sable ended up in his double life as an author of childrens books, is genuinely funny and goes a long way toward humanizing the overall story.
Rating: 8/10
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