Modesty Blaise - The Young Mistress by Peter O'Donnell and Enric Badia Romero
| Modesty Blaise - The Young Mistress by Peter O'Donnell and Enric Badia Romero | |
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| Category: Graphic Novels | |
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Reviewer: John Lloyd
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| Summary: Three more welcome stories from the archives, but here featuring a slight shortage in the surprise department. | |
| Buy? Maybe | Borrow? Yes |
| Pages: 104 | Date: May 2014 |
| Publisher: Titan Books | |
| ISBN: 9781781167090 | |
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Modesty Blaise is slowly becoming like an old flame of mine – just popping back into my life every few months to regale an adventure, have a catch-up and be on her way. This latest fleeting visit shows Modesty, the most ironically-named brunette in the world of solving crime, having old flames of her own – although she calls them 'escorts'. They're prevalent in the first and title story, where her doctor lover has a patient with whip marks, which leads into a full-blown action adventure regarding art forgeries. Her American 'escort' wants to replace the doctor, but has to wait for a story all of his own, when his own prize racehorse is a target for criminals. And in the third story there are a lot of returning characters – but not all are as they might at first appear…
The whole point of having an old flame is that of familiarity, and with Modesty's adventures having run for almost thirty years at the point of these tales, there's definitely some old habits we can see coming back most recognisably. There're the usual attempts at globe-trotting, family-friendly espionage action, with the whole oeuvre of the creators providing for such great variety one must at least congratulate them for keeping things relatively fresh. There's typical action here – Modesty dressing and undressing for it beforehand (or even during, in one strip), and always with her friendly Willie on point. And from the pictorial side of things there is the typical Blaise artwork, with stalwart illustrator Romero already five years into his second extended stretch on the job.
But talking of extended stretches… Whereas before I've marvelled at how the writing by Blaise creator O'Donnell can be concise, and create his inventive tales to perfectly fit the rhythm of daily comic strips (with an optional page for those who wanted it just five days a week and not six), here there is a little lag. All three stories are to the picture the same length, and perhaps that is a little problem. Certainly the second story suffers from it, in that we know too early what the problem is, causing a dearth of a surprise, yet spend far too long in the build-up. Add character (in this case a returning child prodigy of Modesty's) and factor in the calm before the storm, but the daily comic spent almost a full fortnight getting nowhere. Just as the welts on the patient in story one somehow leads to a night-time parachute drop and Lord knows what else, there is a sense of the scale of this expanding from the doors of a small British Dojo to America, but it's a little too much.
In contrast with that is the best of these three, the final one, where we cannot be sure for some time why the crime is being committed. It feels like the baddies and their victim get more attention than is perhaps usual, so we see the complexity of the case fully, but there is also a lot of derring-do for Modesty, Willie and a new French counterpart to undergo.
To go back to the old flame shtick, there is also the 'old' part of that to consider, and unfortunately, for the very first time that I've seen, some of the panels in this collection have aged too badly, and only poor reproductions have been managed. The crisp line of the fully restored work is still brilliant, and so recognisably Modesty Blaise, but some are muddy and look like they've passed through one or two too many photocopy machines. It's a pity that this old flame doesn't look or act at her best, then, but I know from the story checklist at the back there's still nine more years between us, and while she cannot exactly surprise me as she used to on this evidence, I'm not leaving her at this juncture.
I must thank the publishers for the chance of the date.
Compare and contrast the above with The Secret Service - Kingsman by Mark Millar and Dave Gibbons for a much more modern look at crime comix - hard to believe they're the same beast at times.
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You can read more book reviews or buy Modesty Blaise - The Young Mistress by Peter O'Donnell and Enric Badia Romero at Amazon.com.
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