Life after the Company.
Creative Staff:
Story: James Robinson
Art: Aaron Campbell
Colors: Salvatore Aila
Letterer: Simon Bowland
What They Say:
From superstar creative team James Robinson (Starman, Red Sonja) and Aaron Campbell (The Shadow, Uncanny) comes the Bond spin-off highlighting 007’s American counterpart! Felix Leiter finds himself in Japan, tracking down a beautiful, Russian spy from his past. But when the mission takes a turn for the worse, he will discover that there are more deadly schemes afoot in Tokyo and beyond!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Within the James Bond universe, particularly with the movies, there are a few consistent pieces that change along the way like our name character. One of those is my favorite with Felix Leiter, a character that has had several actors playing him and each bringing a different kind of whimsy and American-ishness at times. With this new miniseries, the character gets to spin out from the events of the twelve-issue James Bond run by Warren Ellis but with James Robinson telling the tale with some fantastic artwork from Aaron Campbell that really does cement it well within the environment it takes place in. Felix has probably just as many stories as Bond does with more than enough differences as well that exploring one of them is certainly worthwhile.
This story takes place after the main Bond series that just ended and has Felix in a very different place. While he was getting some of the prosthetics from the company that has now been taken down due to what they were really up to, he’s got some upgraded gear thanks to Bond after losing his right arm and his left leg. He’s whole with them to be sure and fully capable, but it’s not exactly the same and thankfully they’re not making him into a superman or anything. Because of everything that’s gone down recently, Felix is now working as a private detective out of Key West (memories of License to Kill here) and scraping by in his own way. Of course, when the CIA calls in for some help with something that only he can do, well, it’s something he can’t resist because he certainly does need the money.
The fun of this is that we get him in Shinjuku in Japan where he’s tracking down Alena, a woman he knew from years ago and had quite the rough and tumble relationship with in a way that he’s still fairly intoxicated by her. What she’s been doing is removing her digital footprint from the world and his knowing her means he’s one of the few that can identify her by sight, so he’s on loan to help out. The timing is certainly bad as his encounter with her, one that certainly takes him down a few pegs and shows just how far he’s fallen, comes at the same time that a new terrorist attack is underway in the city with a lot dead. The connections are likely going to be obvious with a few twists, but the book spends its time more on Felix and where he is at this time as well as digging into the really intense relationship that the two have had over the years, which is a solid foundation to launch this miniseries with.
In Summary:
The opening installment of this series reaffirms by hope that Dynamite would attract some solid talent in order to tell more varied tales as miniseries rather than an ongoing. A Felix miniseries with a nod toward Bond along the way launches things in a very good way here and I’m excited at the potential of exploring other characters, and perhaps even previous femme fatales and Bond girls, to tell their stories. Robinson has a solid story setup underway here and it’s made even better with the design and roughness of Campbell’s artwork that delivers an engaging and intriguing Shinjuku. Combined with the darker color work that complements it perfectly, I’m very excited to see what’s to come.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Dynamite Entertainment
Release Date: January 11th, 2017
MSRP: $3.99
