Red (WildStorm comics)

Red
Cover to Red #3. Art by Cully Hamner
Publication information
Publisher	Homage Comics/Wildstorm (DC Comics)
Schedule	Monthly
Format	Limited series
Publication date	September 2003 – February 2004
Number of issues	3
Creative team
Writer(s)	Warren Ellis
Artist(s)	Cully Hamner
Letterer(s)	John Costanza
Colorist(s)	David Self
Creator(s)	Warren Ellis Cully Hamner
Editor(s)	Ben Abernathy John Layman
Collected editions
Red

Red is a three-issue comic book mini-series published in 2003 and 2004 by WildStorm imprint Homage Comics both owned by DC Comics. It was created by writer Warren Ellis and artist Cully Hamner.

Paul Moses is a retired agent of the CIA, formerly working in "foreign acquisitions". Living in a secluded area, his human contacts are limited to pleasant phone calls to his handler (who desires what she believes to have been Moses' type of work) and letters to a niece who lives in England.

Michael Beesley, the newly appointed Director of Central Intelligence (D.C.I.), is taken to Room R as part of his orientation by Deputy Director (Operations) Adrian Kane, where he learns of Moses' existence and the full extent of his activities. Disgusted by what he has seen and fearing public reaction should any of those secrets leak out, Beesley orders the assassination of Moses.

A three-man hit-team is sent to Moses' residence, but he kills them, recognizing the pattern of the attack and realizing his death has been sanctioned. He calls his handler, only to learn that she has been transferred. He informs the Agency that his status has changed from "Green" to "Red" before leaving his house and going on the hunt.

Moses telephones CIA Headquarters and is put through to Kane. Beesley breaks into the conversation and calls Moses a monster. Moses calmly replies that whatever he is, he became at the behest of his country. He says that he has now learned the identities of the men who ordered his death and hangs up.

Moses breaks through the cordon of agents surrounding his county and makes his way to Langley, Virginia, where he breaks into the apartment of his former handler, Sally, and forces her to give up the access codes allowing him to enter CIA Headquarters. Normally he would kill her but, instead, apologizes and says he genuinely enjoyed talking with her on the phone, before leaving.