A never-ending cycle.
Creative Staff:
Story: Rodney Barnes
Art: Pierluigi Minotti
Colors: Adriano Augusto
Letterer: Social Myth Studios
What They Say:
James Bond continues to unravel the horror he’s uncovered as he makes his way to the center of it all – Wilhelm’s island – with the reluctant Sarah Richmond in tow. All the while: Kino continues to stalk the pair, awaiting his moment to strike!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The opening issues have spent a lot of time moving and doing, which has largely worked well even if I do wish they had some better recap since these things are monthly-ish in general. Rodney Barnes has a solidly put-together book as expected and has captured a good chunk of the voice and style of what I suspect Bond fans are looking for in the comics. I’ve liked the couple of things of his I’ve read over the years and he has the right ear to get a Bond story underway. He’s paired with Pierluigi Minotti for this issue whereas Antonio Fuso handled the first two issues. That’s always rare but it definitely looks good here with the solid design for Bond that lets us fill in our own vision of the man while the new cast and others look great. The settings are solid as well as we move about a bit and the action is really well done as it works over a few pages of material, especially with Adriano Augusto’s color design.
Part of what’s driving this installment is getting into Bond’s mindset about how he’s been around the world and seen a lot of things but understands that when he takes out most of these people or organizations, someone else simply steps in. He knows that there is real evil in the world and has faced it before and knows he’ll face it again. A lot of it is explored early on with a flashback to a sex trafficking group he dealt with a few years prior and the things he understood in seeing the women that were saved. He understands that the same thing is going on here with the information that Sarah has and he also gets it with the mercenary that’s been hired to eliminate them right now. He knows that it’s not something that can just be dealt with but has to be removed and eliminated.
It plays well as Bond and Sarah get some downtime and do talk things through, and that he does just have to trust her at this point, which he’s willing to do in order to serve the larger objective. The downside is the guy after them who has now caught up with them and is about to make everything a whole lot worse. It turns into a pretty good boat chase as they’re heading to the island and in turn a good underwater fight done in brief that with the narration really sells it. The whole of the book even as a part of a larger story really works well in showing the way Bond operates and how he views the world, one where he’s largely been involved in dealing with its darker parts. It’s almost to a point where you kind of want to see him just live normally for a while to see if he could adapt to the “real world” and all.
In Summary:
This storyline continues to move along well even if it does feel just a touch padded at times with what it’s trying to accomplish. The flashback sequence is overly long but it’s effective in the bigger picture of exploring who Bond is. The action sequences are pretty solid throughout this issue and Minotti handles the artwork really nicely with its designs, which the color work helps to keep similar to what we had before. I’m curious to see how things go when Sarah’s going to have to go all-in on what her plans are and if she’ll survive the experience.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Dynamite Entertainment
Release Date: December 8th, 2021
MSRP: $3.99
