Originally posted on Irish Comic News (27/Sept/2017)
Written by Jody Houser.
Line art by Jacob Edgar.
Colour art by Dearbhla Kelly.
Letters by Simon Bowland.
This one-shot sees Moneypenny and a group of other agents tasked with protecting their superior as he visits a college for a guest appearance at a lecture. As is often the case with the secret agent life, things never goes as planned. Moneypenny and the team must fight off the would-be assassins and uncover who is trying to kill him. Houser intersperses the main story with moments from Moneypennys past which helps to give a rounder picture of her. The story (and resolution) show exactly why Moneypennys superior chose her for the mission.
The line art by Edgar moves easily between the subdued moments to secret agent shoot-outs. There are also a couple of panels over the course of the comic that highlight how Moneypenny is ever alert, the one before the shoot-out in particular. Once the shooting starts, the line art is as the high energy action that you would expect to see in a spy comic. Non-verbal communication between Moneypenny and the team is conveyed well too.
The colours do their part in giving the comic its energy. A number of panels make use of a sunburst effect to really punctuate the action those panels. The comic also has an effective use of colours by Kelly to give the comic that little bit extra. I can only describe it as ‘spy vision’. The panels are washed with a green with areas of interest denoted by a red/pink, with potential attackers given an orange colour. It gives the reader a feel for how Moneypenny is viewing any given situation.
Bowland handles the lettering with easy to read dialogue and sound effects. I will say though that one page looked great in particular with how the lettering and colours worked on it. It’s a sequence in the shoot-out and the panels have lots of orange in them and the lettering is big with a strong red colour. The page looks like the best of what I’d look for in a spy comic.
It’s a good first comic for the Moneypenny character. It gives the character a distinct comic sensibility from that of Mr. Bonds.