Series
Description
"From the best-selling creators of CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER comes VELVET, a slick and sexy new take on the cold war spy genre. What if the secretary to the man running the world's most top secret spy agency was actually their most dangerous weapon, once upon a time? VELVET is groundbreaking new work from one of the best-selling teams in comics, and now Velvet Templeton's first major storyline is collected in one oversized deluxe hardback with behind the scenes extras and articles. A must-have for any Brubaker and Epting fan,"--Amazon.com.
Language
Original language
English
Physical description
11.1 inches
Publication
Image Comics (2017), Edition: Deluxe, 416 pages
ISBN
1632159155 / 9781632159151
Local notes
Also contains two historical essays by Jess Nevins on, respectively, the history of spy fiction and the history of female sidekicks.
Library's review
A tremendous spy thriller with the wonderfully simple but alluring premise -- what if the Moneypenny-trope character was blamed for the murder of the James Bond-trope character? Only this Moneypenny turns out to have quite the past, and might just turn out to be more Bond than even Bond.
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Fast-paced, exciting, with great character moments and great use of the genre. My only slight complaint is that the end feels a tiny bit abrupt and by-the-numbers compared to the rest of the tale -- but it's still quite good. Show Less
Similar in this library
Pulp by Ed Brubaker
User reviews
LibraryThing member LisCarey
Velvet Templeton is a secretary at the super-secret espionage agency, ARC-7, in London in the 1970s. Just a quiet, competent secretary, liked and trusted by her coworkers and the agents.
But Velvet has a past her fellow secretaries and most of the agents don't know, and when an agent is killed in
Velvet is a former agent herself, a highly skilled and dangerous agent, and her skills are still with her.
There's a reason she's not a field agent anymore; a reason she sits quietly behind a desk and very few know her professional past. And when she starts investigating the circumstances behind Agent X-14's death, she discovers that things she believed about that past were lies. That there's a bigger conspiracy than she suspected.
That she has no idea who she can or can't trust.
Velvet's past is revealed gradually, unfolding in well-crafted layers. We learn her career as an agent in the 1950s in flashbacks, and we follow her dangerous hunt for the truth of what happened then, and the truth of the death of X-14, and what is being covered up.
There's a lot of action, and a fair bit of blood, because neither Velvet nor her shadowy opponents are playing a game here. The character development is beautifully done, and the plot builds to a convincing climax. In memory, the images try to becoming moving images in my mind; something I watched rather than something I read. Velvet Templeton is going to stay with me.
Recommended.
I received a free electronic galley of this graphic novel from the publisher, and I am reviewing it voluntarily.
But Velvet has a past her fellow secretaries and most of the agents don't know, and when an agent is killed in
Show More
circumstances implicating another agent as a double agent, she's not about to sit idle. She starts investigating on her own.Velvet is a former agent herself, a highly skilled and dangerous agent, and her skills are still with her.
There's a reason she's not a field agent anymore; a reason she sits quietly behind a desk and very few know her professional past. And when she starts investigating the circumstances behind Agent X-14's death, she discovers that things she believed about that past were lies. That there's a bigger conspiracy than she suspected.
That she has no idea who she can or can't trust.
Velvet's past is revealed gradually, unfolding in well-crafted layers. We learn her career as an agent in the 1950s in flashbacks, and we follow her dangerous hunt for the truth of what happened then, and the truth of the death of X-14, and what is being covered up.
There's a lot of action, and a fair bit of blood, because neither Velvet nor her shadowy opponents are playing a game here. The character development is beautifully done, and the plot builds to a convincing climax. In memory, the images try to becoming moving images in my mind; something I watched rather than something I read. Velvet Templeton is going to stay with me.
Recommended.
I received a free electronic galley of this graphic novel from the publisher, and I am reviewing it voluntarily.
Show Less