Tracker #2 & #3
Written by Jonathan Lincoln
Art by Francis Tsai
Letters by Troy Peteri
Top Cow
Price: $3.99; Release date: February 10, 2010

Federal Agent Alex O’Roark is on the trail of Herod, a vicious serial killer who monstrously mangles his victims, always leaving behind a calling card with Biblical references which O’Roark uses to try and track the killer’s next move. After nearly a year trying to track down the elusive killer, O’Roark finally accurately predicts Herod’s next attack aboard a city bus, where the Agent undercover as a civilian waits for the killer to show. When Herod does strike, O’Roark becomes the sole surviving victim of the brutal massacre. Strangely enough, O’Roark miraculously heals from his fatal wounds — claw-like lesions all over his body, as well as numerous fractures and broken bones — subsequently gaining seemingly superhuman abilities. It’s with these new abilities that the Agent finally has a fighting chance to take down the killer, but O’Roark slowly realizes that he has more to content with than just the damage Herod inflicts.

The series name, Tracker, was a bit too generic to catch my interest and had I properly analyzed the cover of Tracker #1, I might have guessed that this series had a little something to do with werewolves. But, I was too distracted by Agent O’Roark’s snarling Wolverine-like demeanor to notice his claws and the gun he’s loading with silver bullets. Basically, I’m saying I walked right passed Tracker on the comic book racks when it debuted in last November.

Tracker #1
Written by Jonathan Lincoln
Art by Francis Tsai
Letters by Troy Peteri
Design by Phil Smith
Top Cow
Release date: November, 2009

Thanks to a certain popular book and movie series, werewolves have suddenly become the new vampires. Soon, furry and fanged beast men will be saturating the pop culture environment to the point of annoyance. There will be little 12-year-old girls pinning up wildlife posters on their walls, full moon jewelery will become hip, and every movie, book, comic book, concept album, stage play, and mime act that involves werewolves will be instantly greenlit.

Which brings us to Tracker, the new five-part comic book miniseries published by Top Cow. It opens at a grizzly crime scene on a bus, with blood and guts soaking through the seats and splattering the windows. It’s the latest attack by a vicious serial killer named Herod, pursued “˜doggedly’ by Agent Jezebel Kendall and her partner Alex O’Roark. O’Roark is the only survivor of the attack, but he has been covered in scratch-like lacerations that all “˜mysteriously heal.’ He begins to show signs in the hospital of infection from a strange disease and the predictable fur and fangs ensue.