A strong conclusion.
Creative Staff:
Story: Ales Kot
Art: Hayden Sherman
Colors: Valentina Pinto
Letterer: Thomas Napolitano
What They Say:
The beatings. The virus. The assassin. The secrets. Everything comes together during a terror attack that may not even exist.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The Body miniseries has definitely been one of my favorite projects to come out of Dynamite Entertainment handling the James Bond franchise. While the early books put out a couple of years ago had me a bit wary, the shift to various miniseries was the smart move and it allowed some great creators to play with a character that’s hard to get your hands on. Ales Kot has definitely put in some great work with these connected yet standalone stories and he gets to close it out with artist Hayden Sherman, someone who has continually blown me away with his work in the last year or two that makes me want to see him on a ton of projects. I’ve really enjoyed this run as a whole with The Body but this issue feels like Kot and Sherman just connected in a very different way.
What makes it even more enjoyable is that it really does come down to the most simple of stories that’s playing out here in the space of just under three minutes. A virus is about to be unleashed in Trafalgar Square that would kill anyone in a ten kilometer radius quickly and cause quite a lot of devastation. Bond’s chasing the guy that has the bomb in a backpack but they’re not sure if the virus is already inactive and they just need to get it into water. That has Bond giving chase and the other guy fleeing and that’s really it. There’s some trouble along the way to be had just in going through the crowds but also coming across a cop that’s trying to defuse both of them from whatever fight it looks like from his point of view. And really, that’s it.
But it works on a whole other level in a couple of different ways. First, Sherman just absolutely nails the dynamic of this in terms of the chase. With a lot of great aerial shots, some creative tracking moments, and just the nature in which the action is moved forward at times is exhilarating. It’s not a book you burn through fast because there’s more to it than just that but it gives it an incredible amount of tension. The other part is that Kot’s script for it with it essentially being narrated by Bond is just excellent. It has him pushing himself beyond his limits and dealing with pain to take the guy down but it has it presented in some intriguing ways, such as him being just one body amid a greater number of bodies that make up the body of the world. Yeah, it sounds a little trite but Kot brings it out in such a strong way here and combines it with the artwork in a way that enhances the action that it just left me floored with it.
In Summary:
I really enjoyed this series a whole lot because we got some great standalone stories that connected together in interesting ways. And we got to have a range of great artists taking a stab at Bond and showing some really interesting interpretations, all of which left me wanting more from them on their own dedicated miniseries. I loved the concept behind this and Ales Kot nailed the execution perfectly in each issue and with each artist. The finale here is as strong as it is simple and the end result just delighted me from start to finish. Hayden Sherman is one of the best new artists I’ve encountered in the last year or two and I can’t wait to see every project he’s involved in. This was a great one for him and hopefully he, and Ales Kot, have more Bond in their future.
Grade: A
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Dynamite Entertainment<
Release Date: May 16th, 2018
MSRP: $3.99
