Review of James Bond #1

Writer – Warren Ellis; Artist – Jason Masters; Colorist – Guy Major; Letterer – Simon Bowland; Published by Dynamite Entertainment. 

“This is meant to be Fleming’s Bond.” – Warren Ellis, Orbital Operations newsletter, Nov. 1, 2015.

“It would be more accurate to compare a novel by Fleming to a game of basketball played by the Harlem Globetrotters against a local team.  We know with absolute confidence that the Globetrotters will win:  the pleasure lies in watching the trained virtuosity with which they defer the final moment, with what ingenious deviations they reconfirm the foregone conclusion, with what trickeries they make rings around their opponents.” – Umberto Eco, “Narrative Structures in Fleming,”  1965.

With the first issue of Dynamite Entertainment’s James Bond series, writer Warren Ellis’ stated objective is to capture the qualities of Ian Fleming’s Bond novels. The implication of this statement is that the series will more closely match the aesthetics and structure of Fleming’s Bond novels rather than subsequent cinematic interpretations of the character.  While Ellis’ script accomplishes this, he also brings a modernity to the character and setting that the art team of Jason Masters and Guy Major render with great skill.

Umberto Eco was one of the first literary critics to recognize the artistic merits of Fleming’s work.  In his study “Narrative Structures in Fleming,” Eco examines the repetitive plot structure of Fleming’s Bond novels, and recognizes that Bond and supporting characters have a limited depth and complexity.  However, Eco finds that Fleming skillfully distracts readers from this lack of depth and the character’s sometimes unbelievable feats with a fast-paced narrative and an intense focus on realistic details that ground the story and make it more believable.

Ellis and Masters do the same in this first issue.  The comic opens with a fast-paced chase and fight sequence in snowy Helsinki, but the reader can’t help but notice the sharp details provided by Masters – the cost of fuel at a local gas station is as prominent and intriguing as the person that is running through the street at night, and the dirt under the fingernails of Bond’s foe is just as captivating as the blood that flies from the enemy’s body.

The comic follows the structure of a Fleming novel neatly, with Bond’s boss M crisply giving him an assignment while setting up the next challenge – a new drug is having strange effects on its users, and the British government wants to put an early and permanent end to it.  A mysterious and sinister villain takes measures to stop Bond. The conflict is being set up, to be resolved in future issues.

Masters achieves with his art what Fleming did with his prose – he gives great detail to the mundane and the quick action scenes are more easily accepted by readers as a result. Ellis’ script does the same – Bond’s conversations about his frustrations with British bureaucracy may seem out of place in an action comic book, but the action is more believable because Ellis makes Bond’s world more believable.

Colorist Guy Major uses a palette to accentuate the action and excitement of the story, and his colors work with Masters’ art to give the comic a gritty, realistic look, but also a cinematic flair.

The first issue of James Bond is a fast, engaging comic that should appeal to readers that are unfamiliar with the character, as well as Bond aficionados.

The Devil Reviews CITIZEN JACK #1

Writer – Sam Humphries; Artist – Tommy Patterson; Colorist – Jon Alderink; Letterer – Rachel Deering; Published by Image Comics.

 

Review of Secret Files of Project Black Sky

Dark Horse Comics is building a superhero universe, linking together its corporate superhero characters created in the 1990s (X and Ghost) with classic characters (Captain Midnight and Brain Boy) and modern creations like the character Blackout.  The glue that connects all of these different superhero characters is the secret government group “Project Black Sky”.  As Captain Midnight – a hero from the 1940s mysteriously transported to the present day – says about the organization, in the Free Comic Book Day:  Project Black Sky comic:  “It was founded in my day to combat horrors.  And in doing so… it may have become a horror itself.”

While the Free Comic Book Day:  Project Black Sky issue and other Dark Horse comics give a hint about the organization’s sinister agenda, the organization’s past activities are a mystery.  What “horrors” was Project Black Sky created to fight?  How did the organization become a “horror” itself?

Dark Horse Comics is exploring those questions in a webcomic entitled Secret Files of Project Black Sky, which can be accessed here.

The webcomic is written by Fred Van Lente, and promises, over the course of five issues, to pull back the curtain and show readers what Project Black Sky has been up to over the years.   The first issue is entitled “The Field”; a spaceship crashes to Earth in a rural field on October 30, 1938.  Van Lente’s choice of date isn’t random; not only is this the date of Orson Welles’ panic-causing War of the Worlds radio broadcast, it’s also the year in which the world’s first superhero character, Superman, debuted in Action Comics #1.  The spaceship’s crash landing, and the subsequent discovery by an investigating couple that the spaceship contains a baby, is taken straight from Superman’s origin story.  Then Project Black Sky agents show up; what happens next is horrible, and artist Steve Ellis’ art expertly renders a despicable action that should make readers sick to their stomachs.

The second issue is entitled “The Launch” and is currently ongoing.  If “The Field” was about the cold measures Project Black Sky took to stop a Superman analog, “The Launch” is about the organization’s efforts to stop characters that resemble Marvel Comics’ Fantastic Four.  In June 1961 (the cover date for the first issue of Fantastic Four) military personal arrive too late to stop a rocket launch.  Astronaut Rand Roberts and three other crew members escape into space, in the hope of discovering new worlds.   Van Lente and artist Michael Broussard have crafted an exiting comics story that is still unfolding, and readers will have to read  future updates to the webcomic to learn what happens next.

Review of King: Jungle Jim #2

Written by Paul Tobin. Illustrated by Sandy Jarrell, Felipe Cunha, and Richard Case, with colors by Luigi Anderson. 

Who is Jungle Jim?

Read King: Jungle Jim #2, and you will find out!

How does writer Paul Tobin connect a somewhat obscure character from a 1930s jungle adventure newspaper comic strip to the extraterrestrial adventures of the iconic Flash Gordon, as well as the equally iconic jungle superhero the Phantom?

Quite brilliantly!  You need to read this comic to see just how masterful Tobin’s storytelling skills are, as he transports Earth adventurer Jim Bradley to the planet Arboria, and even gives the character superpowers!

What is the  plot of this comic book?

Oh, it’s a lot of fun.  An Arborian, Lille, attempts to recruit the legendary Jungle Jim to save her dissident brother, who is scheduled for execution on the planet Mongo, home of the tyrannical Ming the Merciless!  (I did say Tobin would connect Jungle Jim to the adventures of Flash Gordon, didn’t I?)

Lille and her fellow rebels find Jungle Jim strange, but he has superpowers, and he is eager to help, so they set off to rescue Lille’s brother.  But things don’t go as planned.  They go very badly, in fact.

And all the characters and action are illustrated nicely; it’s a pretty book!  I tip my hat to artists Sandy Jarrell, Felipe Cunha, Richard Case, and Luigi Anderson.  Well done!

The creative team of King: Jungle Jim #2 make the book accessible; even if you did not read the first issue, you catch up pretty quickly, although I recommend you go check out the first issue, too, because that comic book was also great.

My only criticism of this comic is that I find it hard to say “King Jungle Jim” aloud; the title makes me laugh!  It just sounds so regal!  But other than that small, irrelevant critique, my praise for this comic is effusive.

 

Skeets Warns Readers about The New 52: Futures End #47

Written by Brian Azzarello, Jeff Lemire, Dan Jurgens, and Keith Giffen.  Art by Andy MacDonald, Alberto Ponticelli, Alan Goldman, and Dave Green.

The Skeets character is the property of DC Comics and is used here as a not-for-profit fan parody.

Review of Casanova: Acedia #2

by Matt Fraction, Michael Chabon, Fabio Moon & Gabriel Ba

“What does it mean when your farts smell like cinnamon?”

“Who is Casanova Quinn?”

“Who is ‘Akim Athabadze’?”

These are questions that writers Matt Fraction and Michael Chabon explore – but don’t necessarily answer – with artists Fábio Moon and Gabriel Bá in the second issue of Casanova: Acedia.

You see, Casanova Quinn is a cool super-spy suffering from amnesia while trapped in a parallel universe.  In the new reality in which Casanova is stranded, he goes by the name “Quentin Cassaday” and works as a majordomo for the rich and powerful Emil Boutique, who also can’t remember his past.

Last issue, Boutique offered to help Cassaday/Quinn remember his past, if Cassaday investigated Boutique’s origins.  Cassaday went to the library to do some research and got attacked by some occult thugs.  So in this issue, needing to know more about magic, he recruits a reluctant magician to help him.

Cassaday also makes friends with a police detective who gives him some alone time with the female assassin that tried to kill him last issue, and that turns out to be a harrowing experience.

But a seed is planted.

Cassaday also learns about an old photograph that may offer clues to understanding the past of Emil Boutique.

And while Matt Fraction writes all that, intriguing and entertaining you so much that you hate to finish reading the comic, artist Fábio Moon illustrates it all brilliantly, while colorist Cris Peter uses a contrasting color palette of sepia and shadow that is absolutely beautiful.

Meanwhile, Micheal Chabon and Gabriel Bá explore the multi-dimensional worlds of Casanova Quinn’s adventures with “the Metanauts” (a group of dimensional travelers who “stalk the timelines in search of a solution to reality’s deadliest question”) as they embark on a mission to a weird world.  It is a funny and sad story, with strange action and romance (see if you notice the sex scene) depicted in a bright, cartoonish style, with colors provided by Cris Peter.

The creative team may not answer the questions that they pose in this issue, but you will be grateful that they were asked, nonetheless.  Even if you haven’t read any previous issues in the Casanova series, you will likely enjoy the art and story of this comic.

Alan Moore and Brian Michael Bendis Discuss Howard the Duck #1

 

OUR STORY THUS FAR:  Months ago, Alan Moore traveled to Portland to discuss comics with his fellow comics creators.  Today he’s having coffee with Brian Michael Bendis…

Alan Moore and Brian Michael Bendis were not involved in the creation of this not-for-profit parody comic strip review of Howard the Duck #1, nor was Applebee’s.  The opinions expressed by the characters above are the opinions of the author, and not the opinions of Alan Moore and Brian Michael Bendis, or Applebee’s.

Review of Project Superpowers: Blackcross #1

Review of Über #23

 

“The Great Burn.”

Remember reading about it in high school?  How Germany, in September 1945, used its army of superhumans to systematically set fire to Western Europe?  How the intense heat of these super-soldiers’ pyrokinetic blasts destroyed buildings and melted human bodies?  Were you horrified when you read about the senseless destruction?  In your studies of the period, were you disgusted by the waste of human life in a war that seemed to just keep escalating in atrocity with each day?

Perhaps you took comfort from reading about the Allied response – about the covert efforts of Bletchely Park to produce Allied super-soldiers to stop the Germans?  Maybe you saw the movie, the one in which Benedict Cumberbatch played Alan Turing, the mathematician who helped the enigmatic “Agent Stephanie” in her efforts to create stronger, more deadly superhumans?  (I loved that movie – I got teary-eyed about the plight of Leah, the poor test subject turned into a monstrous and deformed creature with the codename “HMH Churchill.”)  Perhaps you were inspired by the strength of the Allied super-soldier codenamed “HMH Dunkirk” at the Battle of Brussels?

Did you learn about the Russian sacrifices in your classes?  In the United States, we tend to focus on American sacrifice and heroes, but the Russians suffered terribly during World War II, and killed a lot of Germans.  And the mentally unstable and unreliable super-soldier named Maria killed more Germans than most.

If you didn’t learn such things in school, it’s probably because you live in a reality where such things never occurred during World War II.  But take heart – you can learn about all this and more by reading the excellent comics work of historians Kieron Gillen (a writer of some regard, with an impressive imaginative understanding of the impact of superhuman warfare) and Daniel Gete (an artist who skillfully captures the bleak, depressing horror of war) in the comic book Über #23 from publisher Avatar Press.

Read it.  It will make you think, and perhaps appreciate the sacrifices and heroism that occurred in the non-superhuman World War II of your reality even more.

Hector Hammond Reviews The New 52: Futures End #43

The Hector Hammond character is the property of DC Comics.  The character’s use on this site is intended as a not-for-profit fan parody.  You can read more about Hector Hammond here.  The opinions expressed above are the opinions of the author, and not DC Comics.