“Velvet,” published by Image Comics, is your next spy thriller addiction. It is written by one of the best crime fiction writers that comics has ever known, Ed Brubaker. And he is teamed up with one of the best artists he’s ever worked with, Steve Epting. This new series blasts away from the start. We have the dark and moody color palette that Brubaker favors, provided by colorist Elizabeth Breitweiser. We have the nondescript lettering, as if out of typewriter or teletype machine, provided by letterer Chris Eliopoulos. Yes, this comic is like a good martini, shaken, not stirred.
And we have the femme fatale, Velvet Templeton. Now, before you peg her as a stereotypical love-on-the-run jaded killing machine, which she most likely is, Velvet is also much more than that, including just being undoubtedly good pulpy fun. She’s at the center of a crisis at a most elite off-the-books U.S. black-ops outfit. This group is so cool and so badass that only a few know for sure that it really exists. But it has clearly seen better days since, as of late, its best men are being killed off. And the prime thing that these men have in common is that each one was once Velvet’s lover.
That’s a pretty hot premise. Add to it that we have a lot of open questions and you’ve got all you need to kick off a whole mess of good story action. Forget Bond, for a sec. This comic is enigmatic conflict and high concept mystery, where yesterday’s ally can turn into today’s enemy, who can turn into the future’s ally. It is high-powered entertainment, like Showtime’s “Homeland.” Similar to the show, there’s an agency and a director and staff leading missions, with personalities emerging from the depths, amid a background of high level tension, and mistrust.
Check this out, you get lead-ins like “PARIS – 1973” and “NEW YORK – 1968” and you get real follow through. These super cool cats go places, do things, do things to each other, and it adds up. And we’re just into the first issue.
“Velvet #1” is available as of October 23, 2013. Visit our friends at Image Comics.
