The Spies who I love: Velvet and back
by rick olivares
How can I not be a fan of
the cloak and dagger genre when I was routinely bombarded from three different
media?
There were the James Bond
films that were a must watch film not only for the action and stunts, the
incredible gadgets, and larger than life villains but also for the gorgeous
women. There was Robert Ludlum’s Jason Bourne series that my parents read and
secretly picked up when they weren’t looking. And lastly, there was the Modesty
Blaise comic strip that I eagerly read in the newspaper.
As much as I love Bond,
I’d give a lot of credit to Peter O’Donnell’s Modesty Blaise for fermenting my
love for the genre.
In only three or four daily
panels, Modesty Blaise held me in her thrall. The newspaper strip brought
readers to different locales. And perhaps even more incredibly, it didn’t shy
away from sex and violence. I have never seen a central character run around in
her underwear as much as Modesty and for a young impressionable child like me
back then, unable to access Playboy and Penthouse, Peter O’Donnell’s heroine
was my Bettie Page; a black and white goddess.
I used to cut out the
Modesty Blaise strips but noticed how sometimes the newspaper editor would jump
ahead of the story presumably cutting out the sex and violent scenes. So when I
recently purchased a couple of the collected Modesty Blaise editions it filled
gaps in the story that remained a mystery for decades. But it was nonetheless,
a joyful and poignant re-acquaintance of a childhood favorite.
In between, Dark Horse
sought to fill in the gaps with their own line of original James Bond stories.
The one limited series that I collected because I felt it was faithful to what a
Bond story should be was “Serpent’s Tooth” as written by Doug Moench and drawn
by Paul Gulacy (who also both collaborated on Marvel’s Master of Kung-Fu).
Today, the espionage genre
recently made a huge splashing return to the four-colored medium with Image
Comics’ Velvet. Written and illustrated by Ed Brubaker and Steve Epting
respectively, Velvet reunites the duo that revitalized Captain America for the
new millennium with its spy thriller feel. One of the seminal arcs of their
run, The Winter Soldier, was the basis for the recent hit Captain America sequel.
So you know the capabilities of this tag team.
The plot is essentially, “What
if Ms. Moneypenny was framed for the murder of James Bond?”
In expanded terms, it
tells the story of a retired spy, Velvet Templeton, who finds herself on the
run when she is framed for the murder of one of British spy agency, Arc-7’s top
agents. Set during the Cold War, the story moves with Jason Bourne like pace –
fast and with a lot of over the top action. It’s a complex web that Velvet
finds herself caught in but she’s determined to come out on top.
The allure of Velvet is
not that the middle-aged protagonist looks like SHIELD’s Contessa Valentina
Allegra de Fontaine (for the white streak in her hair) but because of the
artwork of Epting and the moody but gorgeous palette of Elizabeth Breitweiser
who also joined the duo in their famed run on Captain America.
When I used to collect The
Avengers, I wasn’t that big a fan of Epting’s work. I loved Operation: Galactic
Storm but I felt that his art looked too messy. Like a poor man’s Marc
Silvestri.
With Velvet, it is as if I
stepped out in a Time Warp or am watching an HD version of some old Bond flick.
The art literally jumps out at you. There is no need to point a gun at your
head to require your attention, you have it from the moment you spot the cover.
Now I know what Epting is fully capable of. And if he doesn’t jump to superstar
status with his work on Velvet, I’d call for a hit on the industry awards body
that should rightfully acknowledge his greatness.
There are stylish elements
that remind me of Gulacy’s work – a little imperfect on the human anatomy that
adds to the comicbookness of the book – but I love it. I have always believed
that a woman’s imperfections add to her sexiness and desirability. And so it is
with Gulacy’s work in which there are traces that can be found in Epting’s
oeuvre.
The moodiness of the art is
perfect as it adds a lot to the shadiness to the espionage storyline. And
there’s an element of cool as we those classic Aston Martins and Renaults to
name a few of the slick cars we see.
And thus, Epting easily
turns in the best work of his career. Knowing that the book is solicited
intermittently to allow Epting enough time to finish these killer pages, it is
well worth the wait.
As for Brubaker’s prose…
he is simply one of the best to come out in the last decade. A man who can do
no wrong as he has turned out great stuff on X-Men, Daredevil, Fatale, Captain
America, and now, Velvet.
The first arc collects the
first five issues of the surprise-hit series in trade form under the title,
Before the Living End.
Suddenly, it is like
Modesty Blaise all over again albeit in waiting periods of months rather than a
day.
Velvet is a keeper. And
indeed, like a diamond, it is forever.
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Check out Velvet at your local comic book specialty shop.
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