Not quite a shot to the heart…
Creative Staff:
Story: Ales Kot
Art: Eoin Marron
Colors: Valentina Pinto
Letterer: Thomas Napolitano
What They Say:
On the run from a lethal antagonist, weaponless and wounded deep in the Highlands, Bond finds solace with a woman who exchanged her job as a doctor and a life in the city for a cottage and solitary life of a writer. Can Bond find a quiet peace unlike he has known before or will his life choices catch up with him?
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
With some light connected bits between these largely standalone issues, Ales Kot continues to deliver some really fun and engaging one-off works that I hope we get to see more of in the future. I’m enjoying the variety that Dynamite is coming up with for this franchise and experimenting in one-off stories under a an umbrella like this hits a sweet spot, especially with Kot’s work. This issue brings Eoin Marron on board for the artwork and I’ve enjoyed a lot of their work in the last few years which makes this an easy fit, particularly for this more earthy and naturalistic tale that’s very character driven.
With Bond having gotten some grief from M over what he did with the white supremacist guys the last time around, his latest assignment has him orchestrating a from the top mission dealing with an assassin looking to take out some European Union officials amid the various Brexit engagements going on. With the potential of those deaths causing a lot of problems, Bond manages the team going after the assassin, though they fall short which reinforces his belief that he should have just done it himself anyway. Even worse is that since his part of the mission is over and he’s being pulled out it doesn’t take long before he discovers that the assassin has somehow figured out who he is and is going after him in the wilderness.
What becomes the real problem, and defines most of the book, is that as he stumbles into the woods he passes out and gets help from a woman named Moira. She stitches him up in the cabin and takes care of him from there for a bit while he’s on instant guard for the assassin that may be staking them out. My mind first went to the idea that she’s the assassin, though Bond never seems to act that way in my view – though he’s wary to some degree. The book dances with this in the background to me as they spend some time waiting as he recovers and there’s some good character bits brought in with her backstory, again leaving you wondering if it’s an elaborate fabrication, until the truths of what’s going on comes out. It’s a great kind of “down” story in a way as it’s not high impact or excitement but has a kind of wary aspect about it that keeps it tense even as it’s coming across as more relaxed.
In Summary:
The Body has had a solid run so far and this issue is no exception. The white supremacist installment was a definite change from the first two and this one goes in its own direction as well, showing more of what Bond gets involved in without it being world ending missions that take him all over the globe. Kot keeps this moving well and Marron’s artwork is definitely right for this particular story of a cabin in the woods and its very closed in nature with two people in a small space staying alive and watching what may be coming from them. Definitely looking forward to more.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Dynamite Entertainment<
Release Date: April 18th, 2018
MSRP: $3.99
