There are a very few works of fiction that treat issues of gender in a thoughtful, carefully considered way. Despite the fact that great works of literature and film are valued as a way to hold up a mirror to current cultural or political issues without having to be explicitly allegorical, most that in any way address gender identity or how gender is performed socially are… less than deep.
Considering the current political landscape that trans individuals must navigate on a daily basis, The Assignment is, at the very least, a look at reassignment that takes itself seriously.
Frank Kitchen is a hitman with very little conscience and with seemingly little thought to spare for his victims. After eliminating a deadbeat fashion mogul, he’s double crossed by his employer and handed off to the victim’s sister, who performs a complete gender reassignment surgery, even cosmetic alterations to hands and face. She leaves Kitchen to recover alone in a shady motel room with hormonal supplements and a note that instructs him to take the hormones and to take advantage of a new start as a woman.
With flash-forward scenes where the deranged surgeon is being interview Hannibal Lecter-style by a psychologist, the rest of the story is all about Frank’s quest for revenge and learning to live with an altered form.
This may not seem like the most sensitive way to begin addressing an issue as serious as gender dysphoria, but at no point does the story treat Frank’s situation like a punchline. Within the first few weeks after recovery, Frank experiences an attempted rape, assault and battery, and some of the underworld’s rampant misogyny to which he had previously been immune. Yet whenever Frank encounters someone who knew him before his surgery, they talk to him the same way, treat him the same not necessarily because of some kind of gender blindness but because they know he still possesses the same set of assassin skills as before.
Writers Walter Hill and Denis Hamill don’t ever compare their work to the struggle of trans people, whether closeted or attempting to “pass”, and it doesn’t seem that they put any special effort toward treating their subject matter with sensitivity. However, because they take their story so seriously, they automatically avoid the cheap laughs and go a little more introspective.
Artist Jef really brings the noir atmosphere to life, utilizing muted palettes with a few pops of color that draw the reader’s focus. Jef is not particularly concerned with making his characters look traditionally attractive; Frank, both before and after surgery, is something of a beautiful specimen, but apart from him, it seems part of Jef’s realistic style to show his characters warts and all.
Hard Case Crime, a fairly young imprint from Titan Comics, has definitely brought a title that will start people talking with The Assignment. I might not go so far as to rank it among those “great works of literature”, but certainly they’ve presented their story as something to think about.
