Comic Review: James Bond Black Box TPB (Dynamite)

Dynamite’s new James Bond Black Box hardcover collects issues 1-6 from the recent series.

Writer Benjamin Perry and Brazilian artist Rapha Lobosco take us on a new adventure with James Bond. Mr. Bond’s current mission is to retrieve a black box, one that contains a lot of confidential, top-secret stuff. From the French Alps to underground bunkers, danger lurks just around the corner for our well-dressed spy.

If you are a fan of the Bond movies and novels, you will find this storyline familiar, but it’s all brand new and made current with today’s technology. It’s as if writer Perry has remixed many of Bond’s best scenes into a new story montage, with a few new twists. There’s the “better than average”villain, the foreign exotic female, lots of drinking and gambling, and so on… but those are the essential ingredients in the original Ian Fleming recipe, aren’t they?

The art by Lobosco is best in the fight scenes and is serviceable through this collection. Lobosco’s use of lights and darks is really effective in establishing a “spy” mood; his figures appear a bit stiff sometimes.

In addition to the collected story arc, this trade collection includes all covers and variants for the 6 issues, an interview with Benjamin Perry, and pages of his script with thumbnails from Lobosco.

Dynamite, $24.99, HC, 194 pages