James Bond fans the franchise is mostly known for it's books and movies but very few people talk about the comic books heck I doubt that alot of you Bond fans even know that there's a comic book series featuring the character well know i'm going to review the very first story arc for the series here is my review of Vargr.
The plot of the book is Bond has to stop a huge amount of drugs from entering the country and find out who's behind this new drug. I know I made it sound like there's a sub-plot with Bond going on here but there isn't and I have to say that the overall story isn't that good to me any 00 agent could have taken on this mission and the results would have been the exact same and Bond himself has no purpose to be in there it makes the whole story seem pointless.
Something that really bugged me about Bond in this story was just how cold he was yes Bond should always distance himself when his on a mission but this storyline takes that to the extreme and it serves no real purpose he comes across is a darker version of Daniel Craig in my eyes and even he knows when to crack a smile I don't think this version of the character does know how to do that at all.
All of the MI6 regulars are present and they all look very different some of the new designs so work like Moneypenny looking slightly like Naomie Harris and Q does look alot like John Cleese but I hate how M looks like a fat old man in this series and it's really jarring to see Bill Tanner does look decent altho he doesn't get alot of page time in this story so I can't really make a fair comment.
The writer for this story was comics giant Warren Ellis and i have to say that his writing is perhaps the best part of the book since to me at least it feels very bondian and his dialog again in my opinion is very quick and very snappy and it's very easy to understand and to follow which for any form of media is very important.
The art was done by Jason Masters who's pretty much a newbie in the world of comics since he's done really nothing of note and I have to say that for me his art in this story for me is very hit and miss for every panel that looked good you'd get one that looked terrible and M's office just looked really dull and un-interesting and it made me wish that they made it look like how it did in some of the James Bond films.
I might be wrong in saying this but for the first time an any James Bond media we actually have two henchmen who are a couple we have Bryan Masters who can't feel anything and Dharma Reach who lost both of her arms after a bomb she made to kill her commanding officers blew them off.
I have to say that having a couple be the henchmen for the story is an interesting idea it's just a shame that this story really doesn't do anything with that idea heck the characters themselves don't really seem that interesting and it felt like they could have done with a few pages just focused on them just to flesh them out a bit more this isn't a film so your not stuck to a time limit her you can spend as long as you need to so why they didn't flesh these two characters out is strange to me.
The main villain for the piece is Slaven Kurjak and I have to say his motivation for releasing this new and deadly drug to me is rather weak he basically wants to see England become a concentration camp I really feel that they could have come up with something rather unique to help make him stand out but as they don't do that he just becomes a forgettable bad guy.
This story arc does do something that I havn't seen done before it doesn't feature a Bond girl yes Bond fans you read that right there is no Bond girl in this story and given the amount of violence and how 007 himself acts that might be for the best and given that the story only lasts for six issues I don't really see how they could hit in another major character.
I'll admit I wasn't expecting this story to start of what is basically a pre-title sequence but what sets this one apart from the ones seen in the films is that this one is alot more violent and I mean alot more violent and i'm not quite sure how I feel about that because for me the James Bond pre-title sequence should be something that's a bit of fun not something that could possible give you nightmares but on the other hand it's refreshing to see this amount of violence in a pre-title sequence.
This does lead me to a major complaint tho the book for me is way to violent even for James Bond it's far to violent there are times where someone gets shot in the head and you see the inside of there skull i'm not saying that Bond shouldn't be violent but there has to be a limit to what is shown and this story to me reached that limit.
Overall Vatgr isn't the best James Bond story and it will push your taste when it comes to the violence but on the other hand it's rather interesting to see someone else's take on these classic characters and so with that in mind this book gets a 6 out of 10 from me.
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