A serial killer is on the loose, one that hunts in public places and leaves no survivors, until now. Federal Agent O’Roark has been tracking the killer, but now he has become a victim, and one of two survivors. Forget about the full moon, Agent O’Roark’s life has just gotten hairy.
Title: Tracker #1
Publisher: Top Cow, Image, Heroes and Villains Entertainment
Writer: Jonathan Lincoln
Artist: Francis Tsai
Cover A: Francis Tsai
Cover B: Darick Robertson and JD Smith
Federal Agent Jezebel Kendall is rather upset when she answers a call to what initially looks to be a simple bus crash. But upon entering the bus, she finds a charnel house of human remains. This is the work of the serial killer she knows as Herrod. But thinks get even stranger when she calls her partner, Alex O’Roark only to find him on the bus under a pile of bodies, clutching his cell phone more tightly than his life.
After he is pronounced dead, O’Roark miraculously proves the examiner wrong in the morgue. Moved to a room to recover, he meets a mysterious doctor named Handel who tells him that he will have the answers to his questions, once his memories return. Healing faster than he should, O’Roark helps his partner and their new teammate survey the scene of the latest of Herrod’s victim, who was the only survivor from the bus attack. He finished the job, and the only victim left is O’Roark. But the killer is still in the hospital, and O’Roark is determined to catch him. But what do you do when the killer is something more than human, like a werewolf? Worse yet, what do you do when he has infected you?
You can check out the artwork by Francis Tsai and read the first 6 pages here at Major Spoilers. Tracker is the first title to be released under the new deal between Top Cow and Heroes and Villains Entertainment. Jonathan Lincoln, the creator of Tracker, has a new spin on the werewolf mythology. In a statement in the back of the first issue, he says, “You’ll find no full moons or gypsy curses. Instead, “Tracker†frames lycanthropy within the language of science.†Besides a werewolf story, Tracker also touches on the crime scene investigation genre. What would the FBI think if they came upon a scene that was an actual werewolf attack? How would they deal with it?
This first issue is good. As a story telling technique, the reader is given access to Agent O’Roark’s thoughts, and they help move the story along. A wide cast of characters, from the hot blonde partner and the jealous know it all teammate to a loving fiancé, gives you looks into both O’Roark’s personal and work life, and how his new situation is affecting those around him. Francis Tsai has some good art here as well, and his coloring reminds me a lot of watercolor work that we used to see a lot. Good panel placement and view points help Lincoln to tell his story, and everything flows nicely. Cover A is supplier by Tsai, while Cover B is by Darick Robertson and JD Smith provide a second cover. Both look great, but I do have to wonder what is up with Tsai’s gun on his cover.
Overall, I liked the book. There was a werewolf/cop movie out SEVERAL years ago called Full Eclipse that starred Mario Van Peeples that I always loved, and while this does not have any real resemblance to it, I could not help but be reminded of that movie. With the big push now being in vampire and werewolves, Top Cow and HVE have picked a great time to have Tracker pounce on the reading public, and earns 4 out of 5 stars.
