You can love gold, but you can’t love gold.
Creative Staff:
Story: Greg Pak
Art: Eric Gapstur
Colors: Roshaw Kurichiyanil
Letterer: Ariana Maher
What They Say:
“GOLDFINGER” A friendship is finished. The world is in peril. And Goldfinger wants diamonds. The modern Bond epic continues by GREG PAK (Planet Hulk, Firefly) and ERIC GAPSTUR (Batman Beyond, The Flash: Season Zero).
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
I’m still of mixed mind when it comes to tackling the familiar from previous works and re-adapting them in a new way. I thoroughly enjoyed the Casino Royale standalone graphic novel as it adapted the novel, but giving us a new Goldfinger story here and playing with familiar pieces in new ways is both intriguing and complicating. Greg Pak has some neat little twists to work with here that make a lot of sense and Eric Gapstur does a wonderful job of bringing it to life. I really like the way he designs the characters and moves them across the page and combined with the color work it’s all distinctive and appealing throughout. Add in some pretty good settings and some fun in a casino and there’s a whole lot to like.
The book focuses on getting Bond close to Oru Prime, aka Goldfinger, and that means a proper setup at the casino that Goldfinger is in. It’s delightful watching the banter between Bond and Moneypenny as things move toward that as the two definitely click with the right kind of friction. But the game itself is one that’s a mix of fascinating and frustrating in the short way it plays out. We essentially have Goldfinger losing in order to pay the man he’s playing against for a job but once Bond sees that the cards are being revealed through the high-tech glasses Goldfinger is wearing, Bond sets it so that electronics throughout the casino go down. That, in turn, allows him to win for a while and make the kind of awkward introduction that works well as he plays someone that has inherited wealth and wants to move it around under the table. That Pak reworks some key and memorable pieces from the film is nicely done but it’s also something that takes me out of it, which is my general fear in using these familiar pieces.
Having Bond drawn into Goldfinger’s world further by coming up with a way for him to sell some random gold to him touches on Goldfinger’s obvious love of gold and there’s a nice little twist that comes from it all. Discovering that his actual event that’s being worked on involves diamond mines throw the team off at first but it’s made clear that he loves gold so much that he’d never get rid of it, in essence making a diamond mine heist his walking money. What really complicates all of this is that John Lee and Aria are both working directly for Goldfinger at this point and it’s only a matter of time before Bond gets made. There’s some plausible reason why he wouldn’t but even that stretches things a bit more than I care for here. I do like the eventual John and Bond dynamite that we get but like other pieces of this book, it just feels out of place.
In Summary:
I’m definitely intrigued by this arc and I really enjoy the way Greg Pak writes all of the characters as it pretty much oozes Bond. There are elements that I’ll easily admit feel weird and a little off to me when you get down to it but I’m enjoying it at the same time so I’m conflicted but curious. Gapstur’s artwork is spot on here with a whole lot to like that delivers a great look with the characters and settings and handles the limited action we get in this installment just right, especially with a strong color design associated with it. It has all the right tone and feel of a proper Bond storyline but the familiarity of some aspects of it just keeps taking me out of it. That said, I’m eager for more.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Dynamite Entertainment
Release Date: May 15th, 2019
MSRP: $3.99
