Like shooting fish and spies in a barrel.
Creative Staff:
Story: Andy Diggle
Art: Luca Casalanguida
Colors: Chris Blythe
Letterer: Simon Bowland
What They Say:
Assigned to hunt down and eliminate a terrorist threatening Britain’s nuclear deterrent, 007 shadows the nation’s leading defense contractor at the Dubai Arms Fair. As a lethal trap is sprung around him, Bond finds an unexpected ally in glamorous arms company executive Victoria Hunt.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The opening installment of this series hit a certain sweet spot for me in both the writing and artwork that my curiosity was certainly piqued. Though the Bond seems to be familiar to the main series that Warren Ellis kicked off, what we got here was a story that engaged pretty quickly and some great artwork from Casalanguida and Blythe that simple caught the eye and had some great camera placement for it so that it felt theatrical. With the Bond incarnation easy to connect with in that distant sense and a quick move to the mission at hand, along with the introduction of many of the usual hallmarks of a Bond property, Hammerhead got underway in a solidly engaging way.
With this issue we get a lot of banter and back and forth dialogue that is a whole lot of fun to watch play out. Part of the charm of the character is just that, the charm, and it’s been lacking in the main series. Here, Diggle has Bond going through the simple job that he’s been assigned and figuring there won’t be much to it as it’s a babysitting job, but with someone like Victoria Hunt to deal with there’s a magnetism at work there that’s infectious. The two certainly hit it off and are playful in all the right ways so that you know there’s an attraction that’s likely real on some level, even if both are possibly playing at it on another level. That the two end up in bed together at the end of this chapter was also a wonderful reconnect to part of the character that’s been missing and it’s an area where Casalanguida definitely delivers on it with the visuals and Diggle on the location as it has all the hallmarks of the franchise.
Of course, into every babysitting job there must be an element of danger and that comes in the form of an assassin going after Lord Hunt at the party. This also has the right tone and location pieces to it in Dubai where we get some unique set pieces, such as the tanks, and the craziness of how the action unfolds as there are sharks in the mix that up the ante in the danger. While Bond does ferret out a clue or two with it along the way, it’s just an absolute blast to watch it play out with the fighting and the escape aspects as well as seeing how Bond uses Victoria here. While I suspect she’s probably playing a larger game of her own, there’s a good sense of genuine fear and being upset in the mix with what’s going on that makes you hedge your bets while being a lot more curious about her.
In Summary:
The second installment of the Hammerhead arc takes what we got from the first and bumps it up nicely without going so far overboard. Everything here feels like a proper Bond story with the writing and visual design that you can easily see it coming to life on the screen. There’s uncertainty as to the bigger story at the moment as well, but that’s also a familiar trait of the films as there are bound to be twists and turns ahead. I was wary going into a new miniseries like this at the same time as the other book was running, but I think the property is going to make out for the best with a range of writers and artists bringing it to life throughout the year in smaller self-contained miniseries bursts like this. And anyone else is going to have some big shoes to step into after Diggle and Casalanguida are done with their arc.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Dynamite Entertainment
Release Date: November 9th, 2016
MSRP: $3.99
