Last Comics You Read

James Bond, the Main Range Dynamite Entertainment comics specifically. Vargr, Eidolon and Black Box. Got to say, I'm impressed. I didn't think I'd enjoy them as much as I did.

I have a great fondness for cinematic Bond, but literary Bond is a bit sketchier and that's largely down to Fleming's own ideological slant. Kingsley Amis's novel, Colonel Sun, was a far less roughshod in that regard while still retaining the aesthete of a Bond story. It's definitely one of the better continuations and the comics seem to have followed that thoroughfare. This interpretation is very much Fleming's Bond, but without the rather nasty bigotry and dogma. I could easily see him being played by a colder Henry Cavill.

The first story, Vargr, feels very much like it could've been taken from the first half of the canon, sometime before From Russia with Love. And yet, it doesn't shy away from its contemporary setting. The twenty-first century is front-and-centre with chemical therapy, surgical prosthesis, genetic virology, the list goes on. All in all, it feels rather small scale, despite the global ramifications of the villain's plot. Kurjak himself leaves quite an impression, especially in his final scene. Quite twisted, but hardly larger-than-life and with an explication that's disturbingly simple.

Eidolon I don't think I enjoyed as much, but that's largely down to its depiction of SPECTRE. Its exploration of the divide between MI5 and MI6 was quite interesting though. As was its reinvention of Bond's friendship with Felix Leiter and the CIA as "frenemies" who he seems to have a hot-cold relationship with. It makes his character far more memorable. Unfortunately, the story itself just seemed to feel a bit too routine, there was a much needed additional dimension that just seemed to be missing.

Black Box has got to be my favourite, it's much closer to the post-Dr No "man fighting with giant squid" school of Bond tales without going overboard. Just a touch of hyperbole to make it fun. Genji feels like a mild exaggeration of the classic Information Age shadow broker. The link between knowledge and power is just an upload away. His hired assassin, No Face, allows for Bond to make an important distinction between being cold on the outside and dead on the inside. The "Bond girl" of this particular outing, Selah, even prompts a bit of exploration in her devotion to morals juxtaposed with 007's devotion to duty. She reminds me a little of Melina Havelock from For Your Eyes Only, a character who exists more than just as someone for Bond to court, and it's a welcome addition.

All in all, it's shaping up to be something rather good. I'd definitely recommend Black Box to anyone interested in picking up the series. It uses its darkness to say something rather meaningful about scars and it manages to be rather fun to boot.