By: Nathan Edmondson (writer), Tonci Zonjic (art)
The Story: There isn’t a whole lot to say about this comic except that it is really good. If you enjoy spy thrillers (and who doesn’t?) you should be reading this.
In the last issue, we met our main character: Jon Moore. He’s some type of ex-spy guy who is doing odd jobs for shady criminals. What makes him unique is that he has a guardian angel by the name of Jake Ellis who can get him out of nasty situations by telling him when the bad guys are coming and which way to run when the shit hits the fan.
This issue sees Jon/Jake digging deeper into Jon’s past, as he is taken captive by the French police. Jon escapes with a hostage (with Jake’s help) before “the Americans” can get there to take him into custody. In questioning his hostage, Jon is told that he’s some sort of ex-CIA agent who was experimented upon and that he needs to turn himself in (giving it a very Bourne Identity vibe).
The whole thing is very mysterious. If you’ve followed Nathan Edmondson, you just trust that he isn’t telling a derivative of The Bourne Identity. He’s too smart of a writer for that, so you pretty much know right off what Jon isn’t. But there are still about a million possibilities for who he could be. And, what about Jake Ellis? Is he a manifestation of some 6th sense that Jon Moore acquired? Is he the ghost of another agent who has been bound to Jon? And perhaps most importantly, does Jake have free will and an agenda of his own? It’ll be a LOT of fun finding answers to this stuff.
Zonjic’s art is just about perfect for this type of story. The style that he’s chosen is a less-is-more approach and the lack of detail plays into the mystery of the story. His Jake Ellis basically doesn’t “act” at all and his deadpan allows the reader to paint emotional possibilities over his character, which is a great technique for a thriller like this.
What’s Not So Good: Very minor things… I would have loved to know a little more about what Jon Moore was doing for a living before the events of this story. It may seem like extraneous information, but was he helping to bust terrorists on a freelance basis or was he doing more nefarious stuff? I guess Jon’s good-guy/bad-guy status is part of the mystery here, but it would help a little to know who to root for during these confrontational scenes.
Conclusion: A very smart spy thriller where mysteries abound. There are a LOT of possibilities for how this story could resolve itself and all are tantalizing.
Grade: B+ (with a bullet)
-Dean Stell
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