Parker

Origin

Simply known as "Parker", he is the ruthless criminal protagonist in many Richard Stark's (Donald E. Westlake) Novels. In the book The Hunter, Parker is betrayed by his wife and former friend. After the betrayal he remains alive and decides to hunt down the man who betrayed him. To hide his former identity Parker would get a face change in " The man with the Getaway face". Parker is a cold-blooded calculated killer and the only virtue he upholds is his professional way of handling his business.

Creation

Created by Richard Stark, which is a pseudonym for famous crime writer Donald E. Westlake. Westlake would write 24 novels which features Parker. Parker is one of the most influential criminal characters, writers such as Ed Brubaker as reference Parker as influence. Parker has also been adapted to movies, but the name was changed because Westlake was protective of his property. Darwyn Cooke would get Westlake to agree to four graphic novel adaptations of the Parker character. This would become historic for Parker, because Cooke would be the only adapter of Parker property to be allowed to use "Parker" as Parker instead of having to change it.

Major Arcs

There are currently two full graphic novel adaptations of Parker: The Hunter and The Outfit. " The man with the getaway face" was suppose to be the second book, but only the face change aspect was kept. "The Man with the Getaway face" would be first released as a over-sized graphic novella and then later included in The Outfit.

In "The Hunter", Parker is betrayed by his wife and crime partner. The book is spent him being "The Hunter" to track and kill those who betrayed him.

In "The Man with the getaway face", Parker would get plastic surgery done to change the look of his face. He would also go on one heist that would get him into trouble with "The Outfit"

In "The Outfit". the book rolls in the events of "The Man with the Getaway face". There arises friction between Parker and The Outfit. Parker breaks down the Outfit with help from "friends".

Skills

Parker is a professional criminal. He is stealthy, he is affective with a gun, he can fight well unarmed and he is a mastermind when planning. Parker should never be underestimated, he is a cold blooded killer who would slice up his wife's face to prevent identification. The only things you can trust in Parker is that he is a professional, he will ensure "the finger" gets his 10% or the right people die when his judgment decides.

Movies

Although Parker himself have never been in a movie, Parker inspired characters have been in movies based on The Hunter. These movies have be adapted long before Darwyn Cooke's adaptations, so they are really adaptations of the original prose novels instead. The movies would be:

1. Jean-Luc Godard's Made in U.S.A (1966)
2. John Boorman's Point Blank (1967)
3. Gordon William Flemyng's The Split (1968)
4. John Flynn's The Outfit (1973)
5. Brian Helgeland's Payback (1999)
6. Taylor Hackford's Parker (2013) starring Jason Statham as Parker