James Bond ™: Hammerhead #1
Writer: Andy Diggle
Artist: Luca Casalanguida
Colors: Chris Blythe
Letters: Simon Bowland
Publisher: Dynamite
Available: October 12, 2016
A moonlit night in Venezuela, a man enters from the sky with all features completely hidden. He drops, takes out the guard on the roof with one shot, and removes his mask. It’s Bond, James Bond.
Venezuela is the location of a hacker’s hiding spot, a hired gun for the mysterious Kracken. It seems that information is the real target, although it’s information about the products of one Hunt Engineering, Britain’s leading arms manufacturer. Bond just missed getting their first solid lead to give up intelligence of any use, and is in more hot water than a tea bag with M.
Andy Diggle sets up a story of international espionage, information and arms dealing with his usual prowess. You can almost hear the crisp British accents in the dialogue, as well as the tone of disapproval in M’s voice. Obviously a genre he knows well, Diggle just needs to sail the ship, and he does so masterfully.
Luca Casalanguida’s art is in a style that compliments the story, and the movement is terrific – Bond fighting bad buys, talking with M, hitting on a pretty lady – it’s all masterfully done. If I had any complaints, it would be that I don’t recognize this Bond or this M. Bond looks a bit like Batman, and M looks like Chiwetel Ejiofor (who would be a GREAT M, nothing against Ralph Finnes), but other than that there are no complaints here.
A great team on this book will play out into a great Bond story, and I’m glad that The Powers that Bond are letting us enjoy 007 in this format from Dynamite. British persistence, pretty girls, cool agents, big guns – it’s everything you wanted from Bond.
I like this Bond, compliments to Dynamite… He’s every bit the smooth talking badass he’s supposed to be.