'James Bond, Vol. 2: Eidolon' by Warren Ellis with art by Jason Masters collects a complete story from issues 7-12 of the series from Dynamite Comics. It works for the most part.

James finds himself scrambling to find weapons in this storyline as he travels to Los Angeles and has to borrow a gun from Felix Leiter. While in L.A. he runs across another MI6 agent under fire, and the strange word 'eidolon' which means ghost or spectre. When he is back in England, he finds the service is not allowed to use guns, and he is under fire from within his own government. James is deadly with or without guns, but can he stop a threat that seems elusive and so close to home.

I like this series, but I liked the first volume a bit better. This one sort of foundered for me in the latter half. It is still good to see Bond in this format and I look forward to reading future volumes.

I received a review copy of this graphic novel from Dynamite Entertainment, Diamond Book Distributors, and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this graphic novel.

As with the previous volume in the series, I thought the writing was unspectacular and the art superb. Unfortunately, this collection contained a horrid female lead with an infantile need to declare that she has to "tinkle" practically every time she appears.

James Bond is sent to Los Angeles to retrieve a spy whose cover was blown. On the way out, they were attacked twice and then a third time leaving Heathrow Airport in England. Digital forensics showed a money trail from Turkey into a secret account in MI5. SPECTRE raises its head once again only to be stopped again by James Bond and MI6. A very nicely crafted 007 tale!

Even better than the first volume. While this felt more like Greg Rucka's Queen and Country series more than James Bond, it's still a great spy thriller. Ellis writes snappy, snarky dialogue and as always takes some shots at us Yanks. The art is action packed. That ending was brutal; classic literary Bond. There's not really a big, bad Bond villain here and that's OK. What we do get is a high octane, espionage book. Highly recommended.

Not much to say about this one. It's James Bond, with the typical twists and turns, surprise evil-doers, and him stopping them, violently. I did enjoy this one more than the first story arc, though.

The plotting is well-written, if somewhat sparse. You can't get as much detail into a comic as a movie or book, but there's enough here to keep the story moving forward.

I'm looking forward to the next arc, Hammerhead.

Wow, what a change in quality from the first piece of dross Ellis put out as a 007 drama. This dabbled with being awkward only when trying to tag on to the more recent films, but works as a story on its own and is pretty cool for it. There's one action scene that's hard to work out (well, it is in the dark), and again some of the artwork doesn't really ring true, but on the whole the narrative flows, characters are strong (and not risibly stupid, like last time) and it all both entertains and makes sense. Certainly worth a look.

From the publisher: James Bond is trapped in Los Angeles with a MI6 agent under fire and a foreign intelligence service trying to put them both in bags... and possibly more than one foreign intelligence service. And things may not be any safer in Britain, with bodies dropping and ghosts moving in the political mist...

Collecting issues #7-12 of the ongoing James Bond comic book series written by Warren Ellis, the New York Times bestselling author of Gun Machine and critically-acclaimed comic book writer (Iron Man, Planetary, Astonishing X-Men), and featuring artwork by Jason Masters (Batman Incorporated).

I'm really enjoying these new James Bond graphic novels. With Vol. 2: Eidolon, Warren Ellis has written another entertaining Bond tale. When an undercover MI6 agent needs to be escorted from Los Angeles back to London, James Bond is given the assignment. However, what appears to be an easy job quickly turns bad. Bond and the agent are attacked on their way to the airport, and thus begins a race to discover a hidden Spectre cell, one with sleeper agents in multiple intelligence agencies, including MI5, Britain's answer to the FBI. As Bond and friends track hidden funds and off-the-books weapons caches, the tension mounts. Will they be in time to stop an episode of domestic terrorism?

Ellis does a great job capturing the characterization of the James Bond stories. There is humor, dry wit, action, emotion, and consequences. Bond, Moneypenny, and M are portrayed quite well. The villains, in this case Spectre agents, are sufficiently threatening. Their leader, Beckett Hawkwood, has an interesting backstory, and fits in with other Bond villains.

As I said about the previous volume, VARGR, Ellis has done a nice job creating a logical extension of the Bond stories and the more recent movies. I highly recommend James Bond Vol. 2: Eidolon. If you are a James Bond fan, this is a fun ride. Additionally, it can be read independently of the previous volume, as it contains a complete story.

I received a preview copy of this book from Dynamite and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

from what i could read so far, sleek illustrations and Bond-related story line was developping nicely ...

Thanks to netgalley.com, Warren Ellis and Diamond Book Publishers for the advance PDF file for my honest review.

The cool thing with technology and netgalley.com, you discover new genres for reading, graphic novels are something new that I started reading and really like the change of pace from reading traditional books.

I've always like the James Bond 007, Roger Moore was my favorite actor to portrait James Bond in the movies and have all the Ian Fleming books on my way too huge TBR list.

I have fond memories of being underage where along with my brother and several friends, we had a two theater movie house, we would purchase tickets for one of the movies, then sneak into R Rated movies and got to see both 'For Your Eyes Only' and 'Octopussy' that way.

With this graphic novel series, your getting the old James Bond story's that are modernized. It's easy to follow, I liked it, but for me I'll always like the original more and it's definitely worthy a read.

Having read vol. 1 of this series, I generally feel like vol. 2 improved in a lot of ways. The story is consistently stronger, and the characters are more developed and more memorable. The humor, the plot, the characters, the jokes, the action - much of what is in this volume is well-executed and in the true spirit of classic Bond. At the same time, it is a distinctly modern view of the character with a grittiness that hasn't always been present in earlier versions of the character.

However, there are some distinct elements of this volume that did not work for me. The artistic style is a little difficult to follow during some of the action scenes. My main complaint, however, is that this version of Bond feels occasionally disconnected from the spirit of the character. The torture scene at the midpoint of the book, while it might have worked with other characters or in a non-Bond story, feels like it crossed a line that these particular characters would not have crossed without good reason. Similarly, the execution of an unarmed character near the conclusion feels out of place for the larger story.

In summary, I have distinctly mixed feelings about this volume. Much of it is done very well, but the places where it falters are strong enough to disrupt my enjoyment of the overall story.

On an advisory note:
The content is generally acceptable for an older teen audience, though the violence tends to be stronger and more graphic than some may associate with Bond.

When I came across the new James Bond run by Dynamic, I was intrigued to see such an iconic character in this medium. With so much blood and action, I wasn’t sure how it would translate to the page.

James Bond, Vol. 2: Eidolon is the compilation of the Eidolon story arch. It takes Bond from London all the way to Los Angeles on an extraction mission gone terribly awry. As with any Bond film, you spend much of the movie trying to figure out what the title is referring to. This run of comics is no different and I won’t be the one to give it away.

Let’s talk Moneypenny. She was fantastic! Always on the sidelines, Moneypenny has rarely been given the credit she deserves. Eidolon gives her that focus and all the credit, made this story a standout. The appearance of Felix Leiter in LA was also a nice familiar face to bridge the worlds.

The action scenes were my favorite part. The way they showcased the action made you see the movement without taking you out of the story. Starting with an up close of the villain before getting to the title page and credits made it feel like you were “watching” a film. I loved the way that set up the story. Eidolon as a mystery didn’t intrigue me that much, but all the added components made this story enjoyable.

The next run of James Bond: Black Box has already been added to my pull list and should be added to your list. I can’t wait to see what Bond does next. And maybe, just maybe we’ll get a few more catchphrases.

006 out of 10 (I couldn't give it 7 just to make the pun work).

Warren Ellis and Jason Masters nail two of the Bond staples: the action scenes (the rapid succession of panels burns through pages but gets across an impressive sense of speed and brutality) and the wit ("You're going to leave a loaded gun in a bin?" "It's America. I don't have time to give it to a child or a mentally ill person, so I'm leaving it in a bin for them to find"). And I love the fact there's a proper Bondian prelude before the title/credits/copyright pages.

Where it struggles is in its domesticity and overfamiliarity. The first issue aside, the entire volume takes place in London and the Home Counties. That's not necessarily a problem in and of itself – "Moonraker" is one of Fleming's best Bond books and the only one to take place entirely in the UK – but bringing the threat home, making MI6 itself the target of some facially disfigured former intelligence official, is getting really old now.

Equally the trip to the Box Tunnel bunker – which is a real place, "The Secret State" by Peter Hennessy has an entire chapter on it if you're interested – looks like it'll shake things up a bit but ultimately serves as nothing more than a backdrop for a fight. Think how much more "GoldenEye" did with those Cold War relics.

The serial format is new to this 64-year-old franchise so the shoes were always going to be uncomfortable for a bit. And, in fairness, I've not read the first volume of Ellis and Masters' series so it may be this book is counterbalanced by some exoticism there: like a cool dry martini to chase up a rich shot of espresso. Every problem I had with "Eidolon" could easily be unique to this volume – everything I liked surely speaks well for the whole series.

It was a terrible book. I wouldn't advise anyone to buy it

Now this is the book I was hoping for with Ellis' first outing, VARGR. Eidolon has a much better story--SPECTRE has been defeated, but it has left behind small, rogue cells in a number of the world's intelligence services, including MI5, the CIA, and the Turkish service, MIT. These cells have been discovered through the careful auditing of accounts by a British agent housed in the Turkish embassy in Los Angeles and in response, a kill team has been dispatched. Luckily, James Bond gets there just a few minutes faster. From there, we are treated to a fast-paced story where it is never clear just who can be trusted. Along the way, Bond investigates a secret reserve of steam-powered railway engines, set aside just in case of a nuclear war and the accompanying EMP that might wipe out modern engines, and a tense meeting between Bond's superior, M, and his counterpart in MI5 is scheduled at an out-of-the-way country house. The main villain, Hawkwood, is convincingly scary and more than a match for Bond. This is a story that could easily be turned into a very exciting movie, and would make a lot of sense, following on the heels of the most recent Daniel Craig outing, as the remnants of SPECTRE attempt to regroup and find their way. Excellent artwork throughout by Jason Masters.

Vast amounts of dirty money is being laundered through MI5 at the same time MI6 - Bond’s division - has been disarmed. Eidolon has infiltrated the highest levels of British intelligence. Eidolon: another word for ghost… or spectre...

Warren Ellis and Jason Masters’ James Bond series gets better with their second book, Eidolon!

The story features almost everything you’d expect from a Bond adventure: sex, guns, car chases, Q - though no fancy gadgets unfortunately. Ellis’ dialogue is as biting as ever: “You’re going to leave a loaded gun in a bin?”, “It’s America. I don’t have time to give it to a child or a mentally ill person, so I’m leaving it in a bin for them to find.”

Masters’ art looks superb throughout. The action is well choreographed and very brutally depicted - he shows you exactly what a licence to kill means! There are a number of wordless sequences too where he ably carries the narrative forward, showing off his strong visual storytelling skills.

The villain isn’t particularly memorable and the story could be called fairly generic but mostly I found Eidolon to be a tightly plotted, entertaining and well-executed spy thriller that fans of the genre and this character will definitely enjoy.

Rogue agents within multiple security services converge on a forensic accountant who's uncovered their network, and 007 has to protect her despite MI6 being disarmed within the UK. The balance of Bond-ness with real world espionage remains much more satisfactory than in the recent films, but the ultraviolence is rather compromised by that ridiculous old comics colouring convention of black blood rather than red.

(Netgalley ARC)

Whilst I've been a fan of the bond movies ever since I was a child, this was my first foray into a James Bond graphic novel. Written by comic book master Warren Ellis, the graphic novels plays out like a mini movie. A self assured and cocky Bond comes up against Eidolon an off shoot of Spectre. Violent, funny and fast paced, the medium lends itself well to the super spy and I no longer have to wait years for a new bond fix.

Warren Ellis and Jason Masters have succeeded in creating a Bond graphic novel that has everything that makes James Bond a popular icon - the charm, the action, the humor, an attractive and compelling heroine and a villain worthy of Bond’s time.  Originally, I had my doubts.  It isn’t easy to pack so much in a limited number of pages.  Eidolon blew me away.  The graphic style is a perfect match for the cinematic action sequences and the well developed story is pure Bond.  Eidolon has it all - fights, car chases, explosions and just a hint of sex.

If you like Bond, you will definitely enjoy Ellis and Masters’s graphic version of the eponymous hero and his adventures.  James Bond V.2 Eidolon is best suited to teen and adult fans of the series.

5/5   

I received a copy of James Bond V.2 Eidolon from the publisher and netgalley.com in exchange for an honest review.

—Crittermom

Classic Bond, But With An Updated Sensibility

This is Volume 2 of the Warren Ellis/Jason Masters interpretation of the James Bond canon. Volume 1 was titled "VARGR". It collected the first six issues of the comic book series and was a complete story. This volume 2 collects issues 7 through 12 and is, again, a complete stand-alone story. )(There is a third Volume set for release a few months after this one, but that set of episodes has a different writer.)

Here we have a tale of moles and double agents and financial hanky-panky. The vague 60's throwback sense we got from Volume 1 is pretty much gone. This is a modern setting and while Bond is still Bond, he has been updated just enough to keep him from being just a caricature or parody of his old self. I liked Volume 1, but it did feel just like a comic book reworking of the same old plots and one-liners, and it didn't feel like the character was going to have much of a future.

Now, the women are smarter and more assured. The spy agencies and Bond's handlers aren't as one-dimensional. The pace is quicker. The repartee is a little fresher, (and the Bond females get more of the best lines). There is a more modern sense of humor. The bottom line is that Bond updates and ages well even as he retains the best parts of the cold , violent, and borderline psycho of the original Fleming character. That's important because I think most people read these for Bond and his actions and reactions, not for some compelling plot.

I was actually a kid in the 60's when Bond mania was at its height and I have great affection for the whole Bond phenomenon. It's good to see him being treated so well, and in a fashion that remains both true to the Bond spirit and entertaining. A very nice find.

(Please note that I received a free advance will-self-destruct-in-x-days Adobe Digital copy of this book without a review requirement, or any influence regarding review content should I choose to post a review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.)