A rough time for Bond, but it’s great for the readers

Ian Fleming’s James Bond 007: VARGR tpb
Dynamite Entertainment
Creators: Warren Ellis, Jason Masters, Guy Major and Simon Bowland
Release date: 2018

I have a complicated relationship with 007. Most people seem to fall squarely into the “love it” or “couldn’t care less” camps when it comes to Ian Fleming’s creation. I’m more in the gray in-between area.

I never saw a Bond film in the theater until Pierce Brosnan was allowed to take on the role; I was a fan of “Remington Steele” growing up and was happy to see him finally be allowed to play the famous British MI6 agent. Brosnan’s four films were also the only Bond films I have ever owned on VHS, although I did not replace them when I updated my collection to DVDs.

While Brosnan rates a very high second-place, my personal favorite Bond is and likely always will be Sean Connery, the first and best. I have seen all of his turns as 007, some many times, but never in a theater and never did I feel the need to own them. But I’ve watched them all on television.

Timothy Dalton and George Lazenby never had much impact in the role for me, and Roger Moore’s Bond always seemed more tongue-in-cheek. Nothing wrong with that really. Bond has always had his humorous side, to varying degrees. But Moore seemed to take it to an extreme and to be playing the role more as a farce than anything else.

That just leaves Daniel Craig. Reportedly, his take on Bond is quite good, but again, I haven’t caught any of his Bond films in the theater. I want to see them, but I prefer to see them in order. And I still can’t find his version of “Casino Royale,” the first in which Craig played James Bond, without having to pay a high fee for the privilege. So I have yet to see any of the Daniel Craig Bond films, but I have seen and enjoyed Craig in other roles.


During my time as a comics collector, several companies have tried to translate James Bond in comics form. I’ve yet to feel strongly enough about any of them to purchase them, though, with the exception of a three-issue prestige format Bond tale that Mike Grell wrote and drew titled “Permission to Die.” I own that series, but bought it secondhand and still have yet to read it.

All of that serves as my introductory thoughts on the character when I heard that Dynamite was going to publish a James Bond ongoing written by Warren Ellis. Ellis can be hit-and-miss with me, but I happened to see a few preview pages online of the first story arc, “VARGR.” Both the name and the preview pages intrigued me, as they were meant to do. Those preview pages, by the way, are some of the 10-page opener for the first issue and serve as the Bond film-style opener that has nothing to do with the story proper. Bond pursues the man who killed 008 and puts that case to rest, then roll the opening credits.

What follows is a solid tale that has a number of twists and turns; appearances by a number of familiar Bond characters like Moneypenny, M and Q; the inclusion of bionic body parts (another intriguing aspect of the story); and several instances of sharp, quick-witted dialogue that seem perfectly in character for this famous British espionage agent. I could see this story being made into a film quite handily.

In fact, I liked this first 007 story arc enough that I have ordered the second trade, “Eidolon,” and another Dynamite James Bond trade from a different creative team, this one based largely on the name — “Hammerhead” — and the obvious aquatic theme.

Good job, all! I hope the future volumes continue the trend of quality.

Not Quite Ready For Television?!?

Global Frequency trade
DC Vertigo
Warren Ellis, writer
Brian Wood, Garry Leach, Glenn Fabry, Liam Sharp, Roy Allen Martinez, Jon J Muth, David Lloyd, Simon Bisley, Chris Sprouse, Karl Story, Lee Bermejo, Tomm Coker, Jason Pearson and Gene Ha, artists
*** mature content warning***

I'd never known much about this book when it was originally published as a 12-issue series of standalone comics by Wildstorm between 2002 and 2004. I think I'd read or heard a few good things about it because I was familiar with the name. All I can say I knew for certain was that it was rumored to be in development as a television pilot a few years back. I had a light month of ordering comics a few months ago, so I added the trade collection of the series to finally check it out.

I'm glad I did, and I'm also a little glad this series has yet to be picked up by a television network.

Global Frequency is the name of a semi-secret, semi-underground rescue organization. Global Frequency is headed by Miranda Zero, a name we are fairly certain is not her real one. Zero is a tough-as-nails, no-nonsense woman with a large number of skill sets at her command, and she is not afraid to get her hands dirty on the various assignments her organization takes on. The only other constant of Global Frequency is Aleph -- yep, another code name -- a young girl who can multi-task both in terms of managing resources and cyberdata. Aleph runs the central dispatch and processing functions that enable Global Frequency to function, and she is often the only contact others on the Global Frequency ever speak with.

What kinds of things does Global Frequency do? It rescues people from things the general public often knows nothing about. The situations in these twelve stories run the gamut from kidnapping, international terrorism, bio-warfare, alien invasion, secret government military projects gone wrong, you name it.

Talented as these two women are, they simply could not do all of these things on their own. No, they are joined on the Global Frequency by 1,001 agents with various skills and abilities useful in these types of situations. Aleph contacts the people with the specific talents needed given the emergency situation being addressed at any given moment. These people have their regular jobs, regular lives, and are connected only by the specially made cellphones they carry. Most are completely unaware of each other unless or until they are called into service. Some are computer hackers, some are government operatives or military personnel, some are expert drivers or smooth talkers, some are simply killers, and some are just really good at one single thing from cracking codes to solving riddles to traversing an urban setting in record time by looking at it like an obstacle course.

You can see why this type of concept might be attractive to a television network. It has been successfully broadcast in the past in the form of "Mission: Impossible" or "The X-Files" or really, almost any cop-themed show. You have a different threat each week being stopped by the heroes. Except most any example you can think of that has aired on television has one thing that sets it apart from Global Frequency -- a set cast of regulars.

Beyond Miranda Zero and Aleph there is no set cast in Global Frequency. Part of the charm of the series is that not only are the threats different each issue, but so are the experts. And because there are so many operatives working through the Global Frequency, they are expendable in terms of the storytelling. Global Frequency agents can and do die in the course of their respective missions sometimes. That ever-present risk ups the ante and the excitement level for this series, and simply can't be duplicated with a regular cast that must survive to come back each new episode.

I would be all for seeing new installments of Global Frequency, but I'm willing to keep looking for that particular fix to come back to comics. Oh, I'll watch it and hope for the best if the concept ever makes it to television, but I think it is being handled the best with this writer and a different talented artist for each standalone issue.

Let's Just Keep Them A Secret

Secret Avengers 16-20
Marvel Comics
Warren Ellis, writer
various, artist

I liked the first couple story arcs of this covert Avengers team operating under the guiding hand of a costumeless Steve Rogers. The book had several characters I like teamed for specific missions alongside series regulars Rogers, the Black Widow and Beast. They were fun team-book stories under the authorship of Ed Brubaker. Between Brubaker's tenure and the announced new writer, Rick Remender, taking charge, this title featured several done-in-one tales penned by Warren Ellis. I like the done-in-one concept, something all too often missing from today's comics, and there's no denying that Ellis is a fantastic writer. These five issues are imaginative, filled with both action and character moments, and the artwork provided by each creator matches the tone of the respective story nicely. And yet, these five issues left me feeling ... meh. The characterization for Steve Rogers seemed sometimes a bit too harsh. Cap is a soldier and has no problem giving orders, but he seemed a little on the cold and distant side, almost mean-spirited, in some segments where he is interacting with other members of his team. That is NOT Steve Rogers, at least not for me. That's a deal-breaker on this series for me.

Reviewing 'Em Old School

One of the duties I have at the newspaper for which I work out in the real world is to generate the opinion pages, a portion of which is devoted to various columnists. In my capacity as a page designer/copy editor, I absolutely hate columns that have no central theme, but are instead just a collection of random thoughts and musings on a variety of topics. For one thing, such columns make it very hard to write a concise, all-inclusive headline. But as a writer, I have to concede that not only do they serve an occasional purpose, such columns can be downright useful sometimes.

As I've stated previously, I don't intend to discuss absolutely every comic I've read in this forum — let's face it, with the amount of comics I buy, just one comic each week would be way too slow a reading pace; I'd be buried under unread books in no time — waitaminnit! I already AM buried under unread books!!

Anyway, I have no intention of discussing every single comic I read. There are also some books I might wish to comment on, but for which I really don't have enough to say to fill up an entire post. So today, we have a collection of short thoughts on several recent reads, kind of like some of the older posts where I just did a collection of bullet-style reviews.

But enough intro, let's get to the comics; after all, that's why we're all here, right?

The Brave and the Bold No. 28 (DC Comics) — I really liked the relaunch of this book by Mark Waid and George Perez. After their initial run, the book became a bit more hit-and-miss, as anthologies often are. But J. Michael Straczynski has breathed new life into this book once again. This issue uses a Flash-Facts-type science experiment to drop Barry Allen with a broken leg into the past, specifically, a battle between Nazi soldiers and the Blackhawks. The World War II fighter pilots and contemporary speedster are far from an obvious pairing, but Straczynski manages to make the tale both done-in-one and great fun. The book combines all of the fun of a shared universe and a shared continuity, but without getting bogged down in all of the minutia that can often entail. I hope his run is long and prosperous on this book.

Warren Ellis: Wolfskin (Avatar) — This hardcover collection is not actually numbered, but it is the first collection of the first three/four issues of this gritty lone warrior tale. I believe there are very few actual bad comics; just because I don't care for a story or character doesn't mean that no one does. Some of what I like might not be your exact cup of tea, and just because I didn't care for this collection doesn't mean it will have no audience. It's not so much that this warrior's tale is so gritty or that the art is so graphic and bloody. That also describes Kick-Ass, which I did like. Rather, I just didn't care much for the central character or the dilemma he is faced with after wandering upon a village and slaying several armed attackers. Seems they attacked because they are at war with their neighbors and mistook the wanderer for one of their enemy's agents. By slaying so many warriors, our hero has now left this village at a severe disadvantage in their war, so he must decide if he will ignore their pleas or fight for them. Ellis is a good enough writer, I'm sure there is much more character development to come, but there's just not enough early on to make me care for this guy or wonder about him much. Without that initial interest, I don't care to continue buying to read more.

Gotham City Sirens No. 5 (DC Comics) — No surprises here. This title is just good comics, as I expected it would be. Paul Dini first proved his Batman chops on Batman: The Animated Series in the mid-90s. He not only GOT the Dark Knight Detective, but he seemed to have an affinity for some of the related-female characters. (He's much of the reason I'm looking forward to DC's upcoming Zatanna series.) This book features Catwoman, Poison Ivy and Dini's creation from BTAS, Harley Quinn, as the three femme fatales get an apartment together and enjoy Gotham City living. The book, like many of Dini's works, mixes drama, action and humor in just the right quantities to make a truly fun read.

Wonder Woman (third series) No. 37 (DC Comics) — I was really looking forward to Gail Simone taking over this book, but I've been kinda underwhelmed since I got that wish fulfilled. I like Simone as a writer. She was just as excellent as series creator Chuck Dixon on Birds of Prey when she took over writing that book. Her work on the Secret Six ongoing series is disturbingly brilliant, surpassing the excellent first mini and the somewhat lackluster second mini. Something just seems to be off with her portrayal of Princess Diana for me, though, and I can't put my finger on what it is. I haven't hated any of the story arcs, but I haven't been anxious for each new issue, either. Here's hoping Diana is returned to prominence in my collection when J. Michael Straczynski takes over with issue No. 600.

Heroes tpbs 1 and 2 (DC Comics) — These collections suffered in spite of themselves for me. I bought the first trade when it came out, sometime around the middle of Season 2 of the television show which inspired these web comics, but it went on the stack of trades that needed to be read sometime. A few months ago, the second collection was released, and I decided to go ahead and read both even though the third season of the TV show has lost me completely. There are some truly solid stories here, some featuring characters from the show, but many of the best tales in these collections have little to do with the actual characters seen on-screen each week. They exist in the same shared universe, but operate independently from the show, having little or nothing to do with actual episodes. But overall, these collections fell a little flat for me as the TV show has done.

That's it for this week, kiddie cops; more next time.