Dynamite Entertainment 2017
Written by James Robinson
Illustrated by Aaron Campbell
Coloured by Salvatore Aiala
Lettered by Simon Bowland
In the aftermath of a major terrorist attack in Tokyo by an Aum Shinrikyo-like cult, Felix Leiter finds himself unwittingly drawn into the investigation. And under the oversight of Tiger Tanaka—the Japanese James Bond—and with a squad of Tanaka’s elite operatives, Leiter himself helps to bring down the cult’s leader! But now it’s up to Leiter and Tanaka to work desperately against the clock: they must discover the secret of the cultist’s deadly bio-weapon – especially if they’re going to try and avert another terrorist attack!
With each issue i’m more and more fascinated by what we’re seeing. James does an incredible job with this and showing us that while James may be the standard other countries attempts to emulate him fail miserably by comparison. I mean as much as I like Felix he’s no Bond no American ever could be they would never be given that much power or autonomy. Tiger is kind of out of his depth feeling the pressure of the job and what he’s tasked to do and is as much a cultural thing, honour and duty for example.
By contrast the villains are the same worldwide. They have these same base emotions, feelings and methodology to them that make them the threats they are seen as. James (Robinson) does this marvelous job in how he portrays all his factions here. I am also very much loving how he’s handling Alena in that so far we’ve only seen her from Felix’s point of view and for all his prowess it seems she’s the one person whom he can equate sex with love so that viewpoint is terribly jaded.
Aaron is gosh darn talented and his work here is fantastic, suggestive, tasteful and romantic when we see the flashback of Felix and Alena. From the work they are doing to their private moments you almost get the sense that Felix really is romanticising this much more than he should be and that’s largely due to the artwork. The two page spreads are wonderfully done and the use of page layouts through angles, perspective and background utilisation make reading this easy and joyous. Also there’s just something about the style being used for this story that makes it what it is and it’s hard to put the finger on it but it’s there.
As we see Tiger struggle with his captives from last issue and Felix trying to control his feelings with Alena and how all the pieces of the puzzle are interlocking things are not going according to plan. Well not according to plan for the reader who keeps get stymied as much as Tiger and Felix are. Then again that’s half the fun here as one surprise after another hits you and leaves you wonder just what is going on here and who’s responsible and what that bigger picture might be! So many questions so few answers but the story is under the skin like an itch you can’t scratch and yet you keep coming back for more.