Inside The Secret Service - Part 2 of 2

Overview: A six-issue comic book series published by Icon (Marvel Comics) and released April 2012 and finished up this month. The series teams writer Mark Millar (Wanted, Kick-Ass) with Watchman artist Dave Gibbons, to tell the story of Gary, a young hoodlum headed towards a life crime until his uncle steps in and offers Gary an opportunity at a better life. Matthew Vaughn, Andy Lanning, and Angus McKie round out the creative team as co-plotter, inker, and colorist, respectively.

Note: Although every effort will be made to keep them at a minimum, any spoiler alerts will be noted ahead of time.

Go, Go Gadgets!

Whoa! Gadgets everywhere!

The Secret Service boasts many gadgets throughout the series. The gadgets, such as jet packs, cyanide spikes, poisonous gas gloves and suits, were reminiscent of 1960s Connery gadgets, while the pen lasers, neural disruptor and the video-linked spy glasses (they incorporated a webcam/microphone/earphone into black rimmed sunglasses), seemed more at home within the Brosnan era of Bond. Both Jack and Gary often resort to gadgets to help them out of particularly sticky situations. In fact, Jack resorted to a gas suit, neural disruptor, and his voice controlled car to escape from a Chinese military building. And Gary, in fighting just one henchman, had to utilize a laundry list of gadgets: the gas glove, stun grenade, dart-firing watch, cyanide spike, and laser pen-knife.  

The use of all these gadgets is not in keeping with Craig’s filmic and videogame Bond. Craig mostly used his smart phone, and there is only one instance in which it seems that Jack may have used his smart phone to hack a person’s diary (calendar). With limited use of gadgets, Craig’s Bond depends more on his ingenuity. Much of The Secret Service follows Gary’s story, so even though he depended on gadgets, there were several instances where he relied on his resourcefulness that he learned from growing up with a rough crowd. For example, when Gary wakes up to find himself in some South American country with no clothes and 24 hours to get back to English soil, he is able to commandeer a patrol car, weapons and ammunition, storm a drug lord’s home and hijacks his plane so he can get back home.

Gazelle knows a thing or two about gadgets

In the case of The Secret Service, the gadgets complimented rather than detract from developing the characters in the story. The gadgets incorporated provided a welcoming variety of potentially realistic contraptions to the most absurd, rather than falling into the limitation of one gadget, the smart phone, which happens with recent Bond videogames (such as 007: Blood Stone  and  Quantum of Solace). And, as mentioned above, the gadgets provide many nods to its original source material, James Bond and Q.

Damaged Birds

The portrayal of women in The Secret Service fair rather badly, in comparison to their Bond Girl counterparts. There are three women identified by name and are drawn with detailed features, but only two that are fleshed out. As it happens, they are both not without their issues.

Sharon and Jack fight over what money can buy

Gary’s mother, Sharon, is a single mother living with her unemployed boyfriend Darren in an estate flat in a bad part of London. Darren is the father of Gary’s young brother Ryan, however Gary’s father is never mentioned in the series. Unfortunately, all three are regularly abused by Darren through his overbearing, controlling personality. Sharon’s attire is bland; basic shirt and skirt in solid colours. Her hair is always pulled back into a ponytail. Her facial expressions are often haggard and run down. Her relationship with Darren is unhealthy and she unable to discipline Gary in the opening pages of the series. She is powerless and without any apparent control over her life. Added to that, she is apt to blame society for her woes. She is not Bond girl material, nor is she expected to be. She is dependent on the men in her life: Jack to spring Gary out of jail, Darren to put a roof over her head, and Gary to provide her a home. There is promise that perhaps she will gain a certain amount of independence and sense of responsibility for herself and Ryan, but the reader can only speculate.

Then there is Ambrosia, the other most developed female character. She is the lover of Dr. James Arnold and has been with him for some time. She knows about Arnold’s plans for the world, but she is not compelled to take any action until late in the story. Although her attire is not glamorous, she does live an affluent lifestyle provided for her by Arnold: traveling around the world and shopping for instance. Her hair is flowing and free, not pulled back and kept. She is beautiful and attractive, not tired as Sharon is portrayed.

<< SPOILER ALERT – SKIP PARAGRAPH TO AVOID STORY REVEAL >> As the villain’s girlfriend, she is a source of information. Jack pursues and charms her; they make love. Afterwards, Jack tells her he will not insult her intelligence, and she responds that she know that he is looking for information against Arnold.  Guilt arises from her reflection of what Jack must think of her (a loose woman), rather than the fact that she has cheated on Arnold (again, after promising not to). Ambrosia ultimately responds like a conquest of Bond’s, she turns against Arnold, demanding at gunpoint that he abandon his plans. Without hesitation, Arnold orders one of his henchman to kill her and he does. This is not new ground for women in this kind of story. If applying the trope that bad girls must be punished for being promiscuous then Ambrosia was punished with her life.

She knew what Jack wanted

The third named woman is Teri, the Deputy Training Officer at the spy school. She appears briefly in Issues 3 and 4 as one of the authoritative figures that vocalizes disbelief that Gary is spy material. Although a young, slender blond woman, she does not stand out and is too underdeveloped as a character. 

One aspect of the spy school that wasn’t revealed until Issue 6 and that is the existence of co-ed dorms where a couple of female spy students were present. After going back through the other five issues, there in Issue 2 was the presence of a couple of women in the school uniform, participating in maneuvers alongside their male classmates. However, when one of the school tests involves going to the local club to grade their flirting and love making abilities, it was all the male students out for the night. One has to wonder if the female students were in attendance as well, being graded on their ability to charm the opposite sex? Does seem that if they sleep and work out at school, then the women should have been amongst the crowded club scene. It would have been very difficult to tell since the female spy students in the Issues 2 and 6 were devoid of distinguishing facial characteristics: it was the clothes and the indication of breasts is what gave away that there was a female presence at all!

Attack of the 50’ Nerd and An Unemployed Bully << SPOILER ALERT – ENTIRE SECTION >>

Should the villain have a sensitive side? 

The megalomaniac behind the mysterious kidnapping of celebrities (a lot of them sci-fi, which should have been a clue right there!) is a geeky nerd. His empire, base on cellular phone technology, supported his darker vision: to transmit a certain frequency on cell phones that would cause people to kill each other. Thus, by drastically reducing the burgeoning world population, his actions would turn back population numbers to the early 1800s. His justification: he was saving the rest of the human race. Kidnapping celebrities, such as Mark Hamill and a Bond actor, resembling Pierce Brosnan, was because they were his idols and he wanted to save them from death. Saving the human race was a bit fantastical, especially since he couldn’t watch the death caused when testing of his frequency out. Playing god isn’t a new concept for the Bond villains, but usually it’s for greedy reasons.

There were a few twists to the villain. In one scene he is chastised by his henchman Gazelle for being insensitive by giving nicknames to his subordinates based on a deficiency. For instance, Gazelle was a double amputee fitted with special legs, all paid for by Arnold. One of his other henchmen wore a patch over his missing eye, so Arnold nicknamed him Cyclops. And, Arnold misplaced what was important. He worried about what to wear when meeting Ridley Scott, but he should have been more concerned about Ambrosia’s motives for cheating on him.

Darren and Sharon 

Like many of the more recent Bond films, there was a second layer of villains. These were the ones that personal to Jack and Gary. Darren’s cronies challenge Jack in Issue 2 when he is meeting with Gary in the local pub. Gary witnesses as Jack beats all of the cronies into submission. The fight is symbolic for gaining Gary’s freedom from the neighborhood, which will later be revisited in Issue 4. In this second showdown at the local pub, Gary must face Darren and his cronies on his own. Darren has been Gary’s personal nemesis, particularly with regards to how his mother has been mistreated and disrespected by Darren. The fight represents a rite of passage for Gary because although he has just transformed physically into the secret agent protégé, can he ultimately break away from what Darren represents: the old way of life? 

Observations

One of the biggest departures from Bond is revealed as Jack explains to Gary the wall of framed newspapers. Jack collects the following day’s newspaper as a memento after each mission. While the headlines report on some celebrity event or some other inconsequential event, Jack has risked his life saving the day while the everyday person lives their lives in ignorance. While one would think that Jack might be frustrated by the lack of acknowledgement of his duty to God and Queen, Jack isn’t. He tells Gary that what he does is a service to help people from the behind the veil of secrecy – that’s his job satisfaction. It’s his driving philosophy for being a secret agent, a value that he instills in Gary.

Gary has a lot to learn about the art of love

Another observation was the limited interaction between either Jack or Gary with women. Jack has an afternoon with Ambrosia for the purpose of securing information against Arnold, but he isn’t portrayed as a bed-hopping spy. Nor does he seem to have a regular girl friend. Gary is also without a girl friend. In fact, he is inexperienced with wooing the ladies. For example, while Gary surpasses all expectations with the various trials at school, it is the night out to test and hone their flirting skills that baffle Gary. Perhaps Gary is still too young; he reacts with disgust to having watched and listened to Jack and Ambrosia have sex. Gary does focus his attention on his mother, providing her with a better living environment, because he has the means to take care of her. However, at the end of the series, Gary remains alone, having never hooked up at least with one of his female classmates.

The Secret Service pay homage to many aspects of James Bond – the suave spy, the myriad of gadgets, the sporty car with deadly extras, the villain and his henchmen, and women – but Mark Millar also explored the boundaries of being a spy, such as motivation, and gave depth to an otherwise guarded and secretive Bond inspired Jack London. The representation of women is still problematic and familiar tropes of the genre are employed. That said, Gary’s desire to help his mother in spite of her shortcomings is admirable. It reveals Gary’s sense of maturity to forgive and to help those in need without the expectation of anything in return. These values are emphasized and reiterated multiple times leading one to believe that the moral to this tale is one of compassion towards others.

Inside The Secret Service – Part 1 of 2



The Secret Service was a 6 issue miniseries



Overview: A six-issue comic book series published by Icon (Marvel Comics) and released April 2012 and finished up this month. The series teams writer Mark Millar (Wanted, Kick-Ass) with Watchman artist Dave Gibbons, to tell the story of Gary, a young hoodlum headed towards a life crime until his uncle steps in and offers Gary an opportunity at a better life. Matthew Vaughn, Andy Lanning, and Angus McKie round out the creative team as co-plotter, inker, and colorist, respectively.

Note: Although every effort will be made to keep them at a minimum, any spoiler alerts will be noted ahead of time.

As I mentioned in my previous entry, I wanted to start with comics that have been inspired by Bond and what better series than Millar’s The Secret Service to get the dialogue going? Millar intertwines stories that are laced with 21^st century concerns and provides a few plot twists along the way while incorporating several Bondian tropes to round out his storytelling. For instance, there’s the suave secret agent, a sporty silver car, gadgets aplenty to rival any Bond film, a beautifully troubled woman, a couple of unique henchmen, and of course a villain. Inspiration from the Bond franchise is readily apparent. In this installment, I’ll start with the Bond spy characteristics and automobile tropes, and in my follow up, I’ll look at gadgets, the villain, and the women of The Secret Service.

London. Jack London…And His Nephew,  Gary

Jack London

The reader is first introduced to Jack London while he is dining with a distinguished older gentleman at a posh London restaurant, discussing a recently failed mission of another secret agent. Jack’s physical appearance is reminiscent of 1960s Sean Connery’s James Bond. Like Connery, Jack is clean cut, smartly dressed, and exudes an air of importance associated with a person who is comfortable and at ease with their surroundings. There is a sense of entitlement arising as a member of the privileged class. The man of mystery façade is soon peeled away when Millar reveals that Jack has a struggling sister and two nephews, Gary and Ryan. An urgent text from his sister leads Jack to step into Gary’s (the older nephew) life and fulfill the role of uncle, and more importantly, as surrogate father, at a crucial juncture in Gary’s life: either he becomes a fully fledged criminal or go to spy school and follow in his uncle’s footsteps.

Gary getting bailed out again by Jack

Gary has moved around a lot with his single mom, Sharon, who is currently in an abusive relationship with an unemployed veteran of the Gulf War (Darren) that is the father of her second son, Ryan. Apparently Darren does not confine his dysfunctional behavior to Sharon and Ryan: he has knocked Gary around, physically and emotionally. They all live in a tiny flat in a poor housing estate in London, so Gary naturally hangs out with a rough crowd, where trouble is Gary’s constant companion. And, each time that Gary gets in a jam, Sharon has reached out to her brother Jack to bail Gary out. And each time, Jack has helped, but this time, he knows that he needs to get Gary out of the estate and on a path in which he can make something of himself. Gary will accept Jack’s help, but climbing out of the tentacles of poverty will prove to be a difficult road.

Gary has a difficult time fitting in with the other cadets spy school. Jack is not surprised that Gary’s street sense propels him to the top of the class. However, Gary's character flaws arising from his education deficiencies to his lack of taste in bourgeois clothing, lead him to be the brunt of criticism by his peers. Is Gary spy material? Several times the school’s superiors compare Gary to Jack. Both grew up poor and carry similar emotional angst. When it seems that Gary will be expelled from school, Jack intercedes with tough love. With his emotional barriers shattered, Gary is guided by Jack through the final transformation of becoming a spy.

Uncle Jack's spy fashion tips

Image appears to be everything in becoming a spy. Jack provides style tips to Gary as his appearance is made over so he can take his place beside Jack as his apprentice. While the fashion components are in line with the James Bond look, giving the reader a “behind-the-scenes” is not.  This is not what you would see in a Bond movie; you might see Bond get outfitted for gadgets, but when was the last time Bond was shown at the local barber on Piccadilly? What is interesting about the makeover in The Secret Service is that regardless of the spy school training, it is the physical image that seems to make the man, not unlike Bond proper.  Gary’s whole demeanor up to that point is of an economically disadvantaged young man playing at spies, but when the mantle of clothing, haircut, and shoes are donned, Gary becomes the epitome of a secret agent. From that point on, Gary steps into Jack’s world and makes it his own. Here, Millar moves away from Bond and makes the physical transformation a pivotal moment for Gary and the larger role he will step into for the rest of the story.

Jack and later in the story, Gary, are typical Bond characters, physically. Image is very important for the Bondian spy. In film and in this comic, image represents control over one’s destiny and a sense of power that seems to position them outside the society that most of us have membership in.  In the case of The Secret Service, Jack acknowledges that although there are great perks to being a spy – the nice car, the gadgets, plenty of women (read: be Bond) – there is another side: a responsibility to helping others, which comes without fanfare. That, according to Jack, is what should matter and what gives a man real value.  It’s a value that Gary reiterates later in the story almost verbatim, and it is here where Millar departs from the familiar Bond tropes and gives emotional depth to Jack and Gary.

A Fine Set of Wheels

Automobiles are not extensively featured in The Secret Service and really, the car that really matters in the series is Jack’s. Like with the Bond films, the car is an extension of his persona and hence, part of his physical image. Just as Bond is a man of mystery, so too is the silver Aston Martin. It may look ordinary (okay, an Aston Martin is never ordinary!), but in fact, Bond’s car is equipped with an ejection seat, rocket launcher and other various sorts of goodies to stop pursuing henchmen. Jack’s car is silver and bears a striking resemblance to Bond’s Aston Martin.  It has the ejection seat, the rocket launcher, an oil spray, is bullet proof, disposable wings for flight, and can be voice controlled (remember Pierce Brosnan’s remote car in Tomorrow Never Dies?):

Jack makes his escape

Although the car is an inanimate object, it is a supporting character to Bond and to Jack. When the occasion arises, the car is at the ready to serve, a trusted steed. Just as gadgets are often a necessary part of being a spy, so too is the car.  The automobile’s sporty and sleek shape make it stand out as unique; not unlike the driver. In Bond’s universe, the viewer does not see a real attachment, but in the series, Jack is very protective of his car. In fact, at one point Gary takes the car for a joy ride and winds up launching a rocket in the city, causing several thousand pounds worth of damage. When Jack talks with Gary afterwards, he’s not upset by the damage, but he is very angry that Gary took his car. While it is a tool for his work, it’s also something more: his pride and joy. This is not something that would be openly acknowledged by Bond (the death scene of Bond’s car in Skyfall may not have affected him, but for car aficionados, that was a true crime!).  

In my follow up next week, I’ll discuss the gadgets – there are plenty – the villain, and the women of The Secret Service.

I like factoids. And, there were a couple that I read while at the Wikipedia entry for “James Bond” as I was drafting my Call for Papers a few weeks ago. As I was reviewing the various ways that culture has been impacted by the franchise, I noticed an astounding tidbit – that it was estimated that a quarter of the world’s population has seen at least one James Bond movie – wow! That information was reported by Klaus Dodds in a 2005 issue of Geopolitics, which makes me wonder, if with the release last November of Skyfall, if that figure has been pushed up a bit more now. It helps that there are 23 films spread out over five decades, but still, it goes to show that a tightly woven marriage exists between Bond and popular culture. One cannot delve into a single media form and not find at least one effort inspired by Bond – I kid you not, even poetry (look for Kimmy Beach’s The Last Temptation of Bond, published by University of Alberta Press and available at Amazon). All this leads to how James Bond has inspired our world for sixty years if starting the clock with Ian Fleming’s release of Casino Royale in 1953.

One venue I was feeling on shaking ground with regards to finding Bond’s presence was in the world of comics. However, after attending Wondercon 2013 in Anaheim, California two weeks ago, I was pleasantly surprised that Bond’s spirit was alive and well. For example, IDW’s oversized, multi-volume treatment of X-9 Corrigan spans several decades, writers and artists and is probably the longest running spy oriented series. Another blast from the past was Boom! Studios series Steed and Mrs. Peel, written by Grant Morrison (New X-Men, Final Crisis) and Anne Caulfield. The comic art style and colour palette, rendered expertly by Ian Gibson (2000 A.D.’s Judge Dredd), give homage to the original 1960s British television show. The television series had espionage and spyfy elements, so I’m anticipating the comic book series will as well.

The Secret Service, penned by Mark Millar (Kick-Ass, Civil War, Wanted ) and illustrated by Dave Gibbons (Watchmen, Green Lantern) in which a late teens hoodlum gets plucked by his secret agent uncle to attend spy school is a contemporary story that just ended this week with issue six. Apparently, there is a movie adaptation expected for release next year. And, Danger Girl kept popping up at various vendor booths at the con, with some issues being crossovers with some familiar characters: Batman, G.I. Joe and yes, Army of Darkness (I have got to read this one!). The covers reminded me of Pussy Galore and her lethal group of female pilots, proving women can hold their own in the spy world.

Matt Kindt’s Super Spy (2007) published by Top Shelf stood out from the others (see photo), Partly because of the smaller press format, but also the art rendering style. However, after attending a Wondercon panel in which Kindt was interviewed by author/educator Travis Langley (Batman and Psychology), Kindt revealed that he had completed an extensive reading list of all Ian Fleming books (he professes to be a Fleming purist), contemporary spy books and World War II materials. He systematically eliminated what had been written, which resulted in Super Spy as a collection of spy stories comprised of spy stories that had not been told before.

I’m sure there are many others that I have yet to discover, but in the meantime, I’ll be spotlighting the offerings mentioned above, starting with The Secret Service since that series just finished up and was a rather quick read. After going through the comics mentioned above, I’m thinking of heading onto anime. I’ve been watching Najica Blitz Tactics (I cannot believe how many underwear shots there are in this one!) and Darker Than Black. I haven’t picked up Gunslinger Girl or Master Keaton yet, and I still have to research further for more examples  in order to determine just how far reaching Bond really is in anime.