Dynamite Entertainment 2015
Written by Warren Ellis
Illustrated by Jason Masters
Coloured by Guy Major
Lettered by Simon Bowland
After World War Two, army intelligence groups created ghost cells called "stay-behinds" across Europe in the event of a Warsaw Pact surge. “EIDOLON” is the story of a SPECTRE stay-behind structure – ghost cells of SPECTRE loyalists acting as sleepers until the time is right for a SPECTRE reformation and resurgence. The time is now.
I’m a huge fan of this series and the opening completely demonstrates why. With a very cinematically stylistic opening from Jason and Guy it has all the drama and emotion needed to immediately draw you in and capture your attention. It’s also a very good start to the arc as it really tells you just enough about Mr. Hawkwood and what’s he’s up that will tie into what we see James up to.
When we jump to part two it adds this extra dimension to British politics that as an American we don’t really think of. That MI-5 and MI-6 are competing agencies much like the FBI and the CIA who are constantly at odds with each other and fighting to do their jobs within the best of their ability without the other getting in their way. Behind the scenes stuff that leads directly into James, as MI-5 has no love for him.
James lands at LAX and is greeted by an old friend. Sometimes I want to see his male friends being treated like his female friends, yeah let him swing both ways. This encounter was kind of fun, flirty and a message being sent. Subtle but not so much, friendly banter and a few hmm moments as i’m thinking yeah something’s up and it’s more the Felix is letting on about. It also gives us a heads up as to what James is doing right now.
His mission is just an extraction of an undercover agent who they think has been made. Pretty innocuous right but no not once events start unfolding. Pretty soon you begin to put the pieces together, not James he wasn’t privy to the opening, but as a reader you see the connecting dots and it’s ooo now this is going to be good. This is fun, exciting and a perfect translation for James into a comic book series.
I mentioned Jason and Guy earlier but throughout the whole issue you’ve got to admire what they bring to the table. The flow of the book through pages and panels with the use of angles and perspective are wonderful. The attention to detail in faces, clothing and the little things you barely notice but have a major impact are all just perfectly placed and done. Plus i’m one of those who thinks backgrounds are incredibly important for the whole picture and I like what i’m seeing of them here.
James Bond is smooth, suave and a handful and it’s great to see him just being him and having a series that doesn’t try to do more with him than it should. With smart intelligent writing and sleek stylistic interiors this is a top read!