Written by Jeff Parker
Art by Javier Pulido
Published by Valiant Comics
It’s a joy to read this title.
The previous two issues set the bar high for Jeff Parker’s solid spy thriller set to Javier Pulido’s inventive sequential art.
MI6’s agents have all been exposed by a group known as Daylight, led by someone known as Kingmaker.
After encountering mutated hitmen who derailed a train to get them, former MI6 agent Ninjak and current MI6 agent Myna headed to Scotland to find Neville Alcott, a former leader of MI6.
Ninjak’s violence remains swift, elegant under Pulido’s draftsmanship.
Who else could zipline from a moving plane, kick an assassin, catch his assault weapon in mid-air, and then swing in a circle while shooting that assassin’s comrades, all in one motion?
Ninjak can. With all that sociopathic detachment, to boot.
We get a new spin on the trope of the old spymaster relaying information and the next piece of the quest.
But in a superhero universe, we get lab-grown body decoys and secret labs where people were experimented on to create agents who can kill with their minds.
Pulido’s art continues to keep me on my toes. He demands taking in the entire page first before reading. The shapes of the panels point to the order in which to read them, while also giving all the energy of serial comic strips dribbling out suspense and information.
Among the many flexes Pulido employs, Ninjak and Myna’s descent into that secret lab is a masterful display of direction, as the figures’ climb correlates with a drawing of the lab on a cliff. It begs to be seen, just as this comic begs to be read.
My only knock is that I don’t have issue #4 yet!
