On the Shelf: James Bond's Gal Friday goes solo, and other things

Time to do some catching up.

Last August, Dynamite released a 1-shot special showcasing James Bond's Gal Friday, if you will, Moneypenny. Eve Moneypenny, as she's now known in Bond canon, was a field agent before being moved into an office job. In this 1-off written by Andy Diggle, Eve, modeled after her current portrayer, Naomie Harris, gets back into the field, with minimal participation from 007 himself. Is it worth spending the extra dollar? Depends on how you look at it. It's serviceable, and entertaining.

Rating: B-.

Meanwhile, Dynamite made a big mistake entrusting The Spirit's latest miniseries, "The Corpse Makers", to one of the busiest artists in the business, Francesco Francavilla, who, while waiting for the green light on the next issue of Afterlife With Archie, is doing covers for other books. His attempt at emulating and paying homage to Will Eisner was fine, but being tasked to write and draw the 5 issue miniseries was asking for trouble, given his workload. The final issue came out 7 months after it was supposed to, and, as a result, the finish was underwhelming, despite the introduction in the series of an African-American detective who could end up being the Spirit's new police contact down the road if they play it right.

Rating: B.

Over at DC, the task of developing the origin story of Hanna-Barbera's Birdman in Future Quest Presents was given to Phil Hester. Steve Rude is doing some of his best work, and it shows. Hester's idea is to reveal that Ray Randall, aka Birdman, has lost chunks of his memory since gaining his powers. You know, that sounds awfully familiar if you're a fan of a certain X-Man. For some reason, in soliciting the trade paperback coming out in March, DC is leaving out the Galaxy Trio one shot from issue 4. Hmmmmmmm.

Rating: A.

DC also has included a preview of The Terrifics, debuting next month. Looks promising, and will he priced at $3 per issue. Mister Terrific returns to lead the new team, which figures to include Metamorpho, among others.

I was blessed at Christmas time, as my brother gave me volumes 2-3 of DC's Silver Age reprint trades of the original Justice League of America. The simple storytelling of writer Gardner Fox is lost on a lot of today's creators, although the closest one comes to Fox would be Bat-scribe Tom King. Later writers have rebooted some of Fox's classic stories, such as the team's definitive origin story, when it really wasn't necessary. Today, in order to get a handle on the JLA's history, you need these books, as well as a scorecard.

Rating: A.