Creative Staff:
Story: Vita Ayala, Danny Lore
Art: Brent Peeples
Colors: Roshan Kurichiyanil
Letterer: Ariana Maher
What They Say:
Big. MISTER Big.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
I’ve struggled with this incarnation of the series since the first issue and have been frustrated by that, coming off of Ayala’s strong run on Xena just before this. The story just didn’t grab me and the movements of it in a monthly book didn’t click well, which was made harder by the pandemic slowing down releases even more. The final wraps things up in a pretty decent way and feels more focused than prior issues and Brent Peeples is delivering some solid artwork here both in the up close and personal aspects of a fight but also some of the distance once. Keys and Bond are the main draws, however, and both of them make out pretty good in the art department here.
Perhaps it was clear before but my level of Bond-knowledge isn’t too deep or near the surface for me, but drawing from Live and Let Die isn’t necessarily a bad thing since it’s an underrated film and one that didn’t use a lot of things from the books. With Big being the main villain from there and used here as Bond has a history with him, bringing them together for a fight over that means Bond is compromised from the start. And his handlers know that and aren’t keen on him going in alone, willing to send even Keys after him because even in regards to Big the CIA are just as compromised. Material from that book were used in the film of the same name and the two Timothy Dalton books so having Big here in person finally at the end, or at least proper recognizable at this point, is a nice moment.
Keys has been one of the more interesting parts of the storyline and having her coming in, not quite guns blazing but providing some support and stepping up as needed, works well. The book also opens well with a nod toward the kind of interactions Bond and Big have so that we know just how much bad blood there is there. But it’s the kind of story where, in the end, Big gets away for the moment but not without a little extra luck for MI6 in dealing with him. It denies Bond the kind of revenge that he wants, which is fine since that’s not part of the job, and reminds us that he’s in service to MI6 and not as rogue and lone-wolf as he imagines himself to be at times. His time with Keys is decent but the whole thing just draws me back to the larger story with all the art forgeries and so forth from earlier issues and how I still can’t quite pull together a coherent story to latch onto as a whole.
In Summary:
I really don’t know how to feel about this Bond series. It reminds me of the initial works that Dynamite put out where it has the right elements but it doesn’t come together in a strong enough way to click and work. I liked a lot of the pieces but the throughline to it all just doesn’t quite exist. I’ll admit some of that is probably pandemic related so hopefully those that pick up the trades and the like will get more from it. Peeples’ artwork throughout was great and I loved the addition of Keys while also enjoying some of what’s pulled from one of the novels. The finale is one of the stronger parts of the storyline overall but that’s partially because it’s almost all forward momentum material.
Grade: B-
Age Rating: 15+
Released By: Dynamite Entertainment
Release Date: July 29th, 2020
MSRP: $3.99