Richard Stark's Parker: The Hunter   The Hunter coverI've never
read any of Donald Westlake's novels, let alone his Parker
series which he penned under the pseudonym Richard Stark. And
even after reading this adaptation of The Hunter by Darwyn
Cooke, I'm not about to start. So I'm in no position to judge
the faithfulness of the adaptation. But this is still a comic
book, and I have an opinion about whether Cooke's art is able to
effectively tell its story.  First of, the story in itself
sounds perfectly straightforward. After spending time in prison,
master thief Parker tracks down the people who double-crossed
him and left him for dead after the completion of a successful
heist. Parker is neither a flawed anti-hero nor a sympathetic
character (He was planning to carry-out his own double-cross).
Actually he's not much of a character at all. But he's the
perfect embodiment of the male revenge fantasy. While not
sadistically cruel, he's ruthlessly efficient: Methodically
applying bullying tactics and brute forc