King of Spies #1 Review

King of Spies #1 Cover

"Happy to report my balls are still intact."--Roland King

Hi Pull-Heads, I'm a new reviewer on this site and I better make this good because the boss said this was his expected #1 book of the week. Maybe he's getting paid by Mark Millar to say that or maybe not. I just know that I need to be careful for I'll wind up out of a job fast the Donny Cates 6 (checks Twitter), now 7 interns.

Millar has certainly brought his A game with King of Spies. This is Millar's tribute to James Bond and other spy movies and it's fantastic. I imagine Millar outside of Barbara Broccoli's house (maybe flat, I dunno) with a boombox and a love ballad playing, pleading to be a writer on the next James Bond film.

In this first issue we are introduced to Roland King, a semi-retired English spy that is on his way out. Turns out, King only has 6 months to live and he is just tired of all the bullshit. He is like the old man standing on his front porch yelling "get off my lawn" but also realizes that this same old man is part of the what made the problem, the problem. He ultimate goal with six months to live and three months of good health, it to fix the problem.

Millar has written a fantastic story and chose the best artist and colorist to accompany him. Matteo Scalera on art and Giovanna Niro on colors are a triple threat with this story. Scalera has great pencils for this story and he gets the spy life with those. Then, you add in Niro's colors and I'm just blown away. That team is just fantastic and I feel like I'm in a Bond flick. Just gritty enough to be a spy thriller but not so gritty to turn you way.

I am totally here for King of Spies. Millar has proven time and time again that his books are worth picking up and Scalera and Niro just seals the deal with the artwork. Whatever Netflix paid Millar to create his Millarverse isn't enough. Millar keeps delivering with every story. Speaking of which, Magic Order 2 #2 is also out this week, so I'm going to do go read that now.

I know some folks do finger gun reviews on here. Should I go coffee, bourbon, donuts? I don't know but we will try them out and see what happens. Let's go 5 bourbons out of 5. This book is pretty near perfect. Go buy it.

You can find James on Twitter @comicaudill