Secret Service #4 – Review

By: Mark Millar (writer), Dave Gibbons (art), Matthew Vaughn (co-plotter), Andy Lanning (inks), Angus McKie (colorist)

The Story: After some setbacks, a young spy-in-training gets taken under his uncle’s wing.

Quick Review: This was a pretty sharp issue.  It is well-paced, has an enjoyable story and a sharp sense of humor.  Getting art from Dave Gibbons isn’t hurting things either as the whole product looks very nice.

If I have a complaint about the issue and series its that we are still watching this young spy-to-be working his way through training.  We’ve been on this story for a few issues now.  To recap, the basic story of Secret Service is that England’s #1 spy (James Bond, without the use of that trademarked name) who brings his lowbrow nephew into the spy agency as a way to “save” him: he saw the teen growing up in a lousy environment, with lousy alcoholic divorced parents and decided to get him “out of there” before he turned into another useless street punk.  It’s much the same thing as when at-risk kids in the U.S. join the military.  Thus far, we’ve seen that the kid is highly capable at the physical tasks, but lacking the spit and polish to be a truly successful spy.  Even though we’ve kinda been stuck in training mode for a few issues, the final challenge they come up with for the kid and his resolution are so cool that I didn’t really mind that much.  It’s almost like Millar had this one more “awesome” scenario to convey and since it’s his book, he was able to tell it.  It was also very cool watching the kid get fashion tips from his uncle.  Hopefully some of the comic fans reading the issue will pick up a tip or two…..

The Secret Service #3 – Review

By: Mark Millar (writer), Dave Gibbons (art), Matthew Vaughn (co-plotter), Andy Lanning (inks), Angus McKie (colors)

The Story: The nephew of England’s best secret agent goes through his training to become a super spy.

Review: This is a very solid issue.  It isn’t something you’ll be telling your grandchildren about someday, but it isn’t one of those comics that you read and think, “Why am I buying this crap?” either.

Mark Millar does series with an eye towards movies.  You’ll hear a lot of fans peeing all over that concept, but I’ve never heard a good rationale for why that is inherently bad.  Of course…none of us likes to read a failed screenplay that was turned into a comic.  That’s just insulting.  But Millar’s comics (like Secret Service) are really entertaining screenplays turned into comics.  Fun stories are fun stories.

It does seem that Millar has two types of stories though.  He has the vulgar, over-the-top comics that will need a LOT of editing on the way to becoming a film (Kick-Ass, Wanted, Nemesis) and then he has his series that play it pretty darn straight and even gives the series a lot of heart (Superior which could totally be a Stephen Spielberg movie).  Secret Service is more of the latter.  There are a few moments where Millar might toss in something a touch vulgar, but it’s just make sure you’re paying attention.

The Secret Service #1 – Review

By: Mark Millar (writer), Matthew Vaughn (co-plotter), Dave Gibbons (art), Angus McKie (colors)

The Story: A little, Kick-Ass-style deconstruction of the superspy genre?

Review (with SPOILERS): Much like Kick-Ass asked the question, “What would really happen if people tried to be spandex-wearing superheroes?” Secret Service is having the same type of thought about the James Bond/superspy genre.  That genre of entertainment is just about as silly as superheroes since there’s no way a James Bond or Jason Bourne character could really pull off all those amazing stunts and escapes because the bad guys are almost never that inept and humans just aren’t that durable: we break and die.

That point is driven home during a surreal first scene where some bad guys have kidnapped Mark Hamill (a.k.a. Luke Skywalker).  A superspy shows up to save him and we go though all the Bond-esque stuff: amazing feats of marksmanship, cool technologies against henchmen, etc.  But, when the time comes to jump the snowmobile off the cliff and open the Union Jack-themed parachute  (ripped right form that thrilling scene in 1977’s The Spy Who Loved Me with Sir Roger Moore as Bond), you wait, and you wait… Then SPLAT!  And, you know what?  That’s probably about how it would work in real life.  Even the world’s elite warriors and spies just can’t string together 20 incredible feats in a row.

All of this is backdrop for a bigger story that the creators want to tell us.  It features as a main character a British superspy…a colleague of the guy who went splat.  We come to learn that although this guy is very Bond-esque in his mannerism and customs, he grew up poor.  And not poor in the sense of “workman takes his lunchpail to work everyday…” We’re talking about what we’d call in the United States “redneck trash”: uneducated, lousy teenage juvenile delinquent teenage kids, unstable families, recreational drug use by the parents, little kids rolling joints for the parents, mothers shacking up with loser guys, etc.   So, this guy somehow bettered himself and “escaped” from this vicious cycle of poor education and low expectations.  However, we’ve seen this movie before: The lowbrow family is always having problems that require the protagonist to step away from their better life to “fix” one of their problems…..and he sighs, rolls his eyes, but helps out because he loves his family even if he DOES think they are a bunch of losers.  Millar has this theme nailed.

Kick-Ass – Movie Review

There is always a little skepticism when you go to see a movie that is based on a book/comic that you really enjoyed.  I always break the worry down into three areas: (i) that the characters won’t look/sound the way you had imagined them, (ii) that the creative team will make massive departures from the source material and “ruin” the story and (iii) if they do change the story for the movie, you’ll be constantly tempted to remind people, “Well, that’s not the way it happened in the book.”

So, with all that baggage I went to see Kick-Ass on a Sunday morning when everyone else was in church.

I really enjoyed this movie and think that the director and cast hit all the important notes from Mark Millar and John Romita, Jr.’s book.  There are only a couple of major deviations from the source material that I’ll discuss below.

The first hour or so of the film is almost 100% faithful to the comic source material.  The main character, Dave Lizewski, is just as awkward and dorky as he was in the comics and his buddies are just as nerdy.  Dave’s life, back story, desire to become a vigilante, budding relationship with the hot girl, first meeting with Big Daddy and Hit Girl are all ripped straight from the comics.