Sometime recently, John Byrne must have decided that he wanted to write and draw a James Bond comic, as there's really no other explanation for Cold War, the new series published by IDW. It is, undeniably, an outright relabeling of the mid-20th century 007, depicting the exploits of a British secret agent named Michael Swann in the midst of the espionage-heavy conflict between Western powers and the Soviet Union. Swann is arrogant and bullheaded, prone to causing high levels of collateral damage and often preoccupied with the art of lady seduction, yet ultimately he's really good at his job. Sound familiar? To top it all off, he even looks like a hybrid of several of the actors who've played Bond on the screen. Read Full Review
And then there's the Michael Swann of the latter part of the book. Unlike his other self earlier on, this vision of the super-spy is firmly rooted in the James Bond tradition. The life of a spy is its own reward, offering plenty of sex and a life of leisure. The Bond archetype glamorizes the genre, and it's never something that's appealed to me. Furthermore, while the premise of a possibly defecting rocket scientist suits the period in which the story is set, it seems like rather mundane fare as compared to the dark, death-defying adventure in the first scene. Read Full Review
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