Daniel X, Alien Hunter by James Patterson and Leopoldo Gout

Daniel isn't your ordinary kid. Yeah, he's a kid, but he's also an alien. And not just any alien, but an Alien Hunter. That means he tracks down aliens who are outlaws and came to earth to hide. He didn't ask for the job, but when his parents and little sister were murdered, it became up to Daniel to track down the aliens on the Alien Outlaw List.

With each number lower on the list, the aliens become more dangerous, their powers more outre and bizarre. Now, Daniel is in Japan, on the trail of #7. Someday, he hopes to fight #1, who is the one who killed the rest of his family, but he knows he isn't powerful or trained enough yet.

Because Daniel is an alien, he has a power of his own: the power of creation. Anything he can imagine, he can create, from clothes to people. In fact, he's made himself friends so he won't feel so lonely without his family and because of his job. His friends can help him, but because they are creations of his, they aren't quite real. They just seem to mirror parts of his personality. He can also re-create his family at times as well.

His job on earth is to hunt Alien Outlaws, but when he isn't specifically at work tracking them, he likes to use his powers on cruel and brutal humans, trying to teach them a lesson, and helping out other humans who are being picked upon.

But this latest alien is puzzling. There isn't any information on him in the list, and all Daniel has is his designation. Daniel spies on him from afar, but this Outlaw seems to know Daniel is there. Another strange thing is that this alien has a son who has been going to human school, and even though the son, named Kildare, is picked upon for being different, he doesn't hate or want to hurt humans.

Daniel infiltrates the school and tries to befriend Kildare, then realizes how alike they are: two aliens who appear to actually like human culture and defend it from the outlaws who are only using humans. But Kildare's Father wants to withdraw him from school, where he has been working on a science project, and bring him into the business his father runs: using and breeding other aliens and setting them loose on earth for alien hunters to chase and destroy.

Daniel finds the latest alien target, a mobile, sentient plant named a Pleionid, and tries to protect it from the hunters, but is too late. He takes his revenge on the alien who destroyed it, but it is #7 who gains Daniel's real wrath, for perpetrating such a thing on a harmless Pleionid in the first place.

And then, when going after #7, Kildare learns the truth about Daniel and his occupation, and Daniel learns about #7. He is made up of a living colony of ants, as is his "son". But with him able to break down into so many little creatures and reform elsewhere, can Daniel find a way to defeat him and free Kildare from his father's pheromonal influence before it is too late?

I never read James Patterson's "Dangerous Days of Daniel X" before I read this graphic novel, but I just might now. Daniel has the power of creation (which the cover bills as "The most powerful ability", but it's more than just that Daniel can make anything, it's in the way that he uses his ability that makes him so powerful. Well, and the fact that re-reading the list apparently unlocks more of the power(s) built into his genetics.

We never get to know what kind of alien Daniel and his family were. In addition to being able to create just about anything he can think of, he can also use it perfectly: when he creates motorcycles for him and Kildare to ride, he can ride them without crashing, even though we never see him having taken any sort of driving test. He can fight with whatever weapon he creates as well. And despite being alien, Daniel appears completely human. And so do his relatives on his home planet (which isn't named), even though its ridiculous to think of an alien looking exactly like a human. Is there some element of shapeshifting going on? We can't tell.

The setup of the story is excellent. #7, Kildare's father, is presented as the villain to both Daniel and Kildare, but it soon becomes obvious that Kildare won't be surviving until the end of the comic. Readers are allowed to hope otherwise for a brief while, until their hopes are dashed. But Kildare's science experiment that he worked hard on while at school and which he hoped to win acclaim, is instrumental in bringing down his father at Daniel's hands.

I enjoyed this graphic novel, which could stand on its own without having read "The Dangerous Days of Daniel X", and the story is tense and gripping but with moments of humor and camaraderie. I highly recommend it for those who haven't read it yet.