Dean Poling
Hard Time Season Two No. 1
In this follow-up to the first mini-series run of "Hard Time" readers learn the back story of what led young teen Ethan to become involved in a school shooting spree. Ethan never fired a shot but the crime led the teen-ager into a life sentence behind the bars of an adult prison. A pair of crusading attorneys, hoping to secure his release from prison, draw from Ethan his tale of being a serial victim of school bullies. This is the meat of this issue, though another glimpse of Ethan's strange powers are also displayed as they were in the first run. Like he did with the first "Hard Time" run, writer Steve Gerber, still best known for his 1970s work on "Man-Thing" and "Howard the Duck," teases details from Ethan's life and superpowers piece by piece, keeping a reader interested and curious in the plight of this tragic youth. Gerber is joined here by Mary Skrenes in the writing chores, while Brian Hurtt and Steve Bird's respective pencils and inks add the right cartoon-illustrative touch to this tale. Readers looking for wham-bam action likely won't look far through "Hard Time" but readers looking for a comic with some subtle observations on social complexities set in a nicely suspenseful yarn may find "Hard Time" to be time well spent. NOTE: This book is not appropriate for younger readers.
