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…..