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There are a couple if stories in there that I liked and more that I disliked. I guess that is the nature of an anthology where you invite most of the creators of previous series' to do one story in their style. F.e. I personally don't like the whole John Lee stuff, but I know there are people who do (although I don't think they post here :-D) and I guess they would enjoy that story.
And there is something to be said for a single graphic novel having both the first story, which is funny and sexy and fast-paced, but also the prison story which is a fucked up almost-horror descent into madness, and also so the story with Leiter you mentioned which is basically just harmless, almost sitcom level silliness. I kind of enjoy that story, but it misses the mark on who I believe Bond to be be quite a bit and it cannot be taken seriously at all, I agree.
So, I don't think it's horrible. There are things that fans of the various previous comics arcs might enjoy, but it's not something that is a must read by any stretch.
Perhaps I was a bit harsh on the quality of the work as a whole. It was definitely, as you say, a mixed bag both in terms of tone and entertainment value. The John Lee segment fell completely flat for me. A vaguely Oddjob-esque Felix Leiter-lite sidekick for Bond, complete with weaponized bowler hat? Was this a character from some other Bond comic? I know they revamped Goldfinger at some point so I'm assuming that's what this was drawing from. But without that frame of reference there wasn't much to get out of this story.
The one involving Leiter was very out of character for Bond. I actually kept getting shades of Bruce Wayne or Clark Kent while reading this one. But I did like the coda when he gets to the actual mission side of things.
The prison island story had an interesting premise, but again there were weird things going on with Bond's characterization, like portraying him as careless and inferior to another 00. I get that they're trying to push the character in new directions and portray him in different lights, but that really only works if you start with a strong understanding of who the character is and then put them in unusual circumstances. One part of this story was rather too Takashi Miike for Bond's brand, too. Again, by all means, do new and unexpected things with the character, but you have to keep it rooted in the brand.
Oh yeah, if you haven't read The Oddest Job, that chapter makes absolutely no sense. It is by far the one that is the most connected to the creator's previous run on James Bond. That one is much more a coda to the previous 12 issues Greg Pak did than an actual chapter in this particular project. I think John Lee is the only character who is original to a previous comic, who turns up in RoD. Everyone else is either from Fleming or turns up for the first time.
I personally don't like that Odd Job run, at all. I don't want to step on anyone's toes, but it seems quite obvious that the creators were much more interested in doing a story with their new character than doing one with James Bond. So it's more that Bond is Lee's sidekick than the other way around. Which might even be interesting, if the character weren't just "Bond, but fast-talking and Asian".
"Visitor Q Joins Q Branch"?
Better yet, "Visitor Q Meets Q'ute".
Potential sequel: "Ichi the Double-O Killer"
Not sure how to spin a Bondian title out of it but I'm thinking along the lines of Audition—the only Takashi Miike I ever saw, and that was enough!
I've seen quite a few TM movies and I'm not particularly interested in seeing him do a Bond flick. Oh boy. :p
We can make an educated guess. Graphic novel collections for Dynamite's Bond comics have all run for 6 issues. All of them, 6 issues. That # of issues just makes for a satisfying and affordable collection. I'd put $$$ on Agent of Spectre running for either 6 or (maybe, at the outside) 12 issues.
I could see Ms Jones being taken care of at the end of AoS #6 and Blofeld still lurkong for a future arc.
He's a masterful director, no doubt about that. Audition was one of the most intense, most stomach-turning, most heart-stopping film experiences of my life. And yet the gore itself was limited to just a few instances. A great deal of the film's impact was accomplished through suspense and suggestion.
But yes, I don't need TM-level violence in Bond either, haha.
On the other hand, very few directors have made films as disturbing as Audition, Ichi the Killer, or Visitor Q. Perhaps if EON produces a faithful version of You Only Live Twice they could let Miike direct the Garden of Death scenes. I don't think that'll happen any time soon.
That's why Leiter has prosthetics. The events of Live and Let Die happened.
I mean, you could just go into reading these comics without the prior set up in mind and just experience each issue as they print as something different. They hinted at SPECTRE's return for a while, but I thought bringing Blofeld back meant he was going to seek revenge on Bond.
Nope.
Instead they are meeting for the first time.
Who knows, maybe there will be a twist later toward the end where it's revealed the Agent Of Spectre Blofeld is the one from Thunderball, and the one from OHMSS and YOLT was a clone that Bond forgot about because the amnesia he suffered from at the end of YOLT?
But in all seriousness, I'm just a little disappointed in the direction they've taken the series. Everything was pretty solid up until The Body, which wasn't the worst thing, but still...I will keep reading to see where it does end up going.
I was critical of Hammerhead at first, but upon re-read I would say it's probably the Bondiest of the bunch. I greatly enjoy Kill Chain as well, but that is maybe a tiny bit more Mission Impossible than Bond, if that makes any sense. Same kind of goes for Eidolon. Strongest story overall might actually be Felix Leiter, but that is not that Bondy as well (and of course only has a small cameo by Bond himself).
Hammerhead takes some inspiration from a Fleming novel, has some over-the-top but not silly moments, a good local ally in the Colombo, Kerim Bey, Marc-Ange Draco vein, some high society elements, an interesting female lead and some fun (if not extraordinarily creative) twists.
Was that the premise of VARGR? I have long given up on the idea of trying to connect all of the comics into one sensible timeline, let alone connect that to the Fleming books.
Mr. Big was somehow attacked by sharks because of Bond, who seems to have thought him dead, but there are multiple allusions to Bond sacrificing fellow agents on an island to go after Big, which is not what happens in the novel.
Goldfinger, I think, is a completely new acquaintance in The Oddest Job, but I don't remember that one that much, because I didn't really care about that entire book. Odd Job seems to have existed in the past, but all we know is that he crippled another 00-agent decades back.
SMERSH is in Kill Chain, but in a fully new version and given that SMERSH existed in some way in real-life the connections are tenuous, I'd say.
SPECTRE exists in Eidolon but in a very, very different way than in TB and also different to the SPECTRE in Agent of SPECTRE. In Eidolon, if I recall correctly, it is a bit like Operation Gladio. A stay-behind operation after World War II that now has morphed into something different, but still uses the cell structure we know from the novels. Agent of SPECTRE seems to return it to it's Thunderball-roots, only that it apparently wasn't founded by Blofeld who only has taken control in recent years.
Thanks, I'll give it a go.
Seems to be the closest they've got to an actual Bond title too!
EDIT: Solstice was very Bondian.
Totally forgot about that! Yes! Solstice is great and my favourite out of the single-issue stories.
I am a fan of Ibrahim Moustafa. His turn on Origin (issues 10-12 I think) is also pretty good. Sadly he might be one of the creatives who had a political problem with Dynamite a while back...
Those are brilliant.
It says in the description that it’s the penultimate issue. So it looks like 5 issues for Agent of Spectre.
https://www.amazon.com/James-Bond-Agent-Spectre-4-ebook/dp/B08Z4D271F/ref=sr_1_4?dchild=1&keywords=James+Bond&qid=1616004860&refinements=p_n_publication_date:1250228011&rnid=1250225011&s=books&sr=1-4
https://previewsworld.com/Catalog/APR211100
https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/photo/year-old-man-dressed-up-as-james-bond-in-royalty-free-image/130835039
So it'll be five issues total.
I am still not really convinced and given that there do seem to be only 5 issues, this should get going a bit more. I can't really put my finger on it, but it just doesn't really exite me all that much. The structure is strange. The mixture of action and exposition feels off to me.
What do you think?
Agree on the art, too. I usually like Casalanguida's work on Bond, but Tatiana Jones especially is drawn strangely here. Shades of Cruella deVille almost.