James Bond: Case Files (2018): Case Files Kindle & comiXology

The first two stories were ruined by the inferior graphics, especially the second one, the story about Moneypenny, the story wasn’t bad but the artwork was appalling, whoever the artist is badly needs to go back to Art College & learn basic drawing skills but the third & fourth stories were good graphics & excellent storylines ~

“James Bond – Case Files” collects four 30-page one-shot stories featuring various permutations of Bond, Moneypenny and M, by four different writer/artist teams.These are –“Service” – is a Bond solo story in which the Special Relationship is tested, and we get a tour of the Imperial War Museum.“Moneypenny” – is a look at Ms Moneypenny’s rise through the ranks intercut with a “babysitting” mission looking after M.“Solstice” – is an off-the-book mission for Bond, taking care of some family business for M.“M” – is a solo mission for M, off the books again, when a ghost from his past army service in Ulster comes back to haunt him.These are reasonably good stories, some rising to excellent, with artwork that again swings from reasonably good to excellent. Bond smiles too much, though.They are all excellent character pieces, filling in background for some of the lead supporting characters, though Bond is not the Daniel Craig version, coming over as more of a stereotype. Fortunately the other characters are allowed to be more human.These were all entertaining stories though.

I knew of this series of Bond comics from Dynamite, but hadn't checked any of them out until this one. Seems like a good entry point, since it's basically four stand-alone stories of about thirty pages each. Each story is handled by a different writer/artist team, and they have slightly different flavors as a result. (Note that the cover is by someone completely different, and none of the interior art is as interesting or sophisticated as the cover.) Two of the stories feature a generic tall, dark, and handsome Bond, and the other two feature key supporting characters Moneypenny and M."Service" involves Bond foiling a plot on British soil to kill the new American Secretary of State while on a visit to the Imperial War Museum. It's a pretty straightforward action story with some rather cardboard baddies, with one or two nice gags built in. The artwork by Antonio Fuso combines high-contrast with sharply angled features that fall uneasily between realism and stylied, and the overall effect was a bit awkward for my tastes."Moneypenny" stars M's personal assistant, as she heads up the security detail for M on a trip to the U.S. Mixed into the storyline are wordless flashbacks to the moments in her life that led her to work for MI6. This is all a little basic and not very subtle, and so, for that matter, is the artwork (by Jacob Edgar), which feels generic and unrefined. Naturally, Moneypenny is called into action, and when the bullets start flying and she's running around, I had to wonder why on earth she would be wearing a flowing floor-length dress and high-heeled boots for a security detail assignment? Overall, this entry was a bit of a dud."Solstice" opens with Bond on a sabotage mission where his gadget watch fails him, and then transitions to M asking him to unofficially deal with a Russian agent who has honeytrapped M's estranged daughter. This leads to a trip to Paris, some elegant clothes, fancy car, a baddie who's quite the match for Bond, and a nice callback to an earlier plot point. Here the script and art are both by Ibrahim Moustafa, and while the script is strong, the artwork is again, fairly generic.The book closes with "M", which opens with M giving a 00 agent a bollocking for a sloppy job. It then takes him on a personal mission to Belfast, where he must confront ghosts from his past as a soldier during the Troubles. More specifically, a UVF leader who appears to have some kind of leverage over him. This story (by Irish writer Declan Shalvey) is definitely the most sophisticated of the lot, toggling back and forth in time, and ending with a very dark reversal. The artwork (by Belfast-based PJ Holden) is grounded in real locations, and it shows. The best of the "bonus materials" at the back of this collection is a page-by-page commentary by Shalvey, and is well worth checking out.