The original Bond is back in action.
Dynamite couldn’t have picked a better week to kick off their new ongoing James Bond series. However, don’t expect this book to match the tone and style of films like Spectre and Skyfall. This series draws its inspiration directly from the original Ian Fleming novels. But while it scratches a different itch, this first issue offers plenty to enjoy for any fan of Agent 007.
Fleming’s Bond is a colder and more brutal character than the one we typically see on screen, and writer Warren Ellis and artist Jason Masters really tap into that quality with their terrific opening sequence. As Bond chases down and savagely dispatches an assassin in Helsinki, all the reader needs to know about the character is made clear. Ellis’ prose is kept to a minimum here, allowing Masters’ textured pencils and cinematic storytelling to shine instead. Apart from some occasionally stiff figure work, Masters delivers some of his strongest work to date in this issue. No good Bond adventure is complete without a great cold opening, and this issue certainly delivers.
The rest of this issue is comparatively quiet, but not to the point of being dull. Ellis focuses a great deal of attention on the internal politics of MI:6 and the struggles this super-secret organization faces in staying afloat in the modern world. These pages introduce the familiar faces – M, Miss Moneypenny, Q – while also establishing Bond’s latest larger-than-life enemy. The strong character dynamics help keep the issue lively even as the story quiets down. Seeing Bond and Moneypenny play off one another is a lot of fun, and hopefully it won’t be long before we see Moneypenny leave her desk and take a more active role in Bond’s globetrotting adventures.
As faithful as Ellis’ treatment of Bond is to the novels, there’s a clear desire to spruce up the source material, move Bond’s adventures out of the Cold war era and eliminate the more unfortunate qualities when it comes to sex and race. The result is something that maintains that delicate balance between respecting the past while looking ahead to the future. What more can you really ask for from a new James Bond comic?
Dynamite picked the right creative team to kick off their new James Bond comic. Ellis and Masters open this issue with an exciting, dynamic showdown between trained killers and then keep readers hooked through strong dialogue and character dynamics. This series may lack some of the flash of the Bond movies, but that’s really the whole point.
