Publisher: Dynamite Entertainment
Writer: Warren Ellis
Artist: Jason Masters
Colourist: Guy Major
Release Date: OUT NOW!
Price: $3.95

Uncertainty still surrounds the identity of the next screen James Bond, but it’s a safe bet whoever it is will fit the brutal/suave image established by Sean Connery and his successors.

Bond’s creator, Ian Fleming once said that he imagined Bond looking like the American singer/songwriter Hoagy Carmichael. If you’re under seventy you may need to Google that name to see what Mr. Carmichael actually looked like. Suffice to say, he bore little resemblance to any of the screen incarnations of 007 and it’s difficult to imagine the American crooner engaging in the physical activities, in the bedroom and out of it, that Fleming visits upon Bond in the novels.

In James Bond #8 artist Jason Masters has gone for a quasi- Pierce Brosnan/Timothy Dalton look, feeling no doubt that this will stand them in good stead for whoever inherits the Licence to Kill, with the possible exception of Idris Elba or Gillian Anderson who have both been nominated for the role by various fan factions. The newspaper strips and comic book versions of Bond have always been parallel universe creations in the same way that the screen versions are parallel universe interpretations of Fleming’s novels, which, for all their inventiveness are products of their time.

That said, James Bond #8 does a reasonable job of serving up a Bond for all seasons. Warren Ellis is obviously having a ball with Fleming’s tendency to conjure up exotic names, assigning this story arc’s token damsel in distress/love interest the moniker of Cadence Birdwhistle. As Bond tries to keep Cadence safe from assorted killers put on her trail by the mysterious villains of the piece (hint: this issue of James Bond #8 has the title Eidolon and if you know what that means, you know who the bad guys really are) we even have the standard Bond scenario of having to share a room with the aforementioned Miss Birdwhistle which gives Warren Ellis the chance to show Bond at his heavy-handed flirtatious best, or worst, depending on your point of view.

The action in James Bond #8 is fast and furious and if it’s not quite double-oh seven on the success scale, it’s at least double-oh six and three quarters.

 

 

Reviewer: Gary Orchard
Reviews Editor: Steve Hooker