Warren Ellis & Jason Masters “James Bond Vol 1: VARGR”
(Dynamite, 2016)
The Bond franchise is really weird. I’ve read the books by Fleming. I’ve seen most of the movies. I’ve never been
a big fan, but it’s always been there for most of my life.
So I wanted to read this eARC to see what a talented comics
team would do with the property.
Those of you expecting some crazy deconstruction will be
thoroughly disappointed. Just go read Casanova. This is more about Ellis going right for the
core of the series.
We have Bond being called to work on a case after another
agent has been killed. There’s a villain
who absolutely fits the mold of “Bond villain”, complete with lair, crazy plan,
and vicious henchmen. Yes, one of the henchmen is a beautiful (but deadly
woman).
Ellis deals with some of the problematic issues head
on. Staff members are now people of
color. Some of Bond’s more precious
quirks are lamp shaded (get a real gun, Mr. Bond).
This works so well because Ellis doesn’t try to reinvent the
wheel. He tells a damn good Bond story,
one that you could visualize as a movie.
Masters’ art is well chosen for this pairing. It’s not flashy, but gets the job done. Characters are clear and distinct. Action sequences are clean and easy to
follow. It all works in the service of
the narrative.
I know that Ellis doesn’t have a great track record of
longer runs in recent years, but I would definitely like to read more of his
take on Bond.
No comments:
Post a Comment