A review by vraper
Richard Stark's Parker: The Hunter by Richard Stark, Darwyn Cooke

3.0

A beautifully-drawn graphic novel based on Donald Westlake's Parker books. I'd read Firebreak, a Parker novel by Westlake, and felt there was something *missing* from that book. Seeing the graphic novel adaptations (Hunter and The Outfit) of other Parker novels, my problem is clearer. Parker lacks heart, which is deliberate since the graphic novel tells us he feels emotion less than most people. No one around him seems to be anything other than a violent sociopath. The result are books that lack heart too. What keeps the pages turning is the reader's fascination with a force of nature - ruthless, relentless, driven and unforgiving. Parker kills almost everyone he meets. Over two graphic novels, he kills maybe 100 people in a few months - mostly in the heat of the moment. Where are the police? The relentless killing detracts attention from the story's climatic killings. I didn't care when he got even with Mal and Bronson from The Outfit. They were just another dead body...