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James Bond: Hammerhead #1

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    Ian Jane
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  • James Bond: Hammerhead #1




    James Bond: Hammerhead #1
    Released by: Dynamite Entertainment
    Released on: October 12th,2016.
    Written by: Andy Diggle
    Illustrated by: Luca Casalanguida
    Purchase From Amazon

    The first issue of Dynamite Entertainment's second James Bond series opens up in El Torre De David, a slum in the Venezuelan city of Caracas. A man parachutes in under cover of the night, snipping a few guards on his way down. His mask comes off and it's Bond. Of course it's Bond. He tells someone on the other end of his radio that he's made a clean insertion and is going silent. He makes his way down from the rooftop and listens in on a conversation between a man named Saxon and a man named Kraken. It seems Saxon was paid to hack into something on Kraken's behalf but that he was compromised - they know where he is. Kraken also knows that there's a British agent listening in, and he orders Saxon to kill him.

    Bond smashes through the window, a firefight breaks out. He takes out the guards and heads to the computer but it's too late, the data has been purged. He chases Saxon through the building, narrowly preventing him from leaping to his death. Bond wants a name, he wants to know who Kraken is, but once the collar on Saxon's neck starts blinking, he lets him go. KABOOM!

    Cut to MI6 headquarters in London. M is chewing Bond out for not getting the info he was sent to retrieve.They need to know more about Kraken - they know he's anti-capitalist and that Saxon was hired to hack into Hunt, the UK's biggest arms manufacturer, but they don't know anymore than that.Given that Hunt has just been contracted to replace Trident, they figure this has to do with wanting access to the UK's nuclear deterrent. Bond, however, is taken off the assignment and redirected to Dubai where Hunt will be attending the arms fair. Given that Kraken has already identified him, M says it's for the best.

    Bond isn't happy about this at all,until he gets to Dubai and meets his contact, Victoria Hunt. She gives him a tour of the company's private VIP area, where she shows him their latest invention - a rail-gun they've named Hammerhead.

    Andy Diggle's story is clearly just getting started but it delivers everything you'd want from the first chapter of a Bond tale - action, intrigue, backstabbing, cranky superiors, exotic locations and a beautiful woman. Diggle's approach to the character mirrors what we've been seeing from Warren Ellis in the main Bond series in that here he's a no-nonsense character willing to kill whomever he may need to in order to get the job done.This is confirmed right away when he takes out the guards in Venezuela. He is, however, still witty and charming and coy, this is established in the back and forth between he and M, he and Ms. Moneypenny and of course, he and Victoria Hunt. The story gives us enough to ensure that we want to know where it's going from here,there's obviously a lot at stake even early on in the series.

    Luca Casalanguida's artwork is solid.The line work and inking is thick but it works. He does a nice job using shadow and light to create some pretty dramatic panels and his backgrounds are nicely detailed as well. The action scenes have a good flow to them, there's a nice sense of movement in that opening sequence, and his layouts are appealing and interesting to look at.Chris Blythe handles the coloring here and he too does really nice work.

    All in all, this is off to a pretty great start - and if that weren't enough, check out the fantastic cover piece from Francesco Francavilla!





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