The Secret Service
A lot of kids have dreamed about being pulled away from their life and then find out that due to extraordinary circumstances they were meant for something greater. Be it destiny to be a superhero, or royalty, Gary a young teen from South London is living through just that only his destiny is to be an assassin.
Just in time for the movie Kingsman, we take a look at it’s origins, Mark Millar, Dave Gibbons, and Matthew Vaughn’s The Secret Service.
Writer: Mark Millar
Artist: Dave Gibbons
Co-Plotter: Matthew Vaughn
Inker: Andy Lanning
Colorist: Angus McKie
Remember in the nineties when there were all those romantic comedies about the weird girl and the jock who would transform her into a hot babe and then they’d fall in love, and the movie was filled with cheesy nineties references? Well The Secret Service is definitely kind of like that only the references are very much a product of present time and instead of love as the happy ending, there’s a licence to kill. That being said there is some loving involved so not all is lost. But the story begins with a young man Gary, who’s been living in poverty his whole life with his mom, and nothing really looks great in his life. His mom’s boyfriend is an actual jerk, so he escapes it all by playing video games, stealing cars with his friends and physically fighting with cops almost recreationally.
After one particularly good fight with the police, Gary finally gets the attention of his rarely-present uncle who’s managed to escape the poverty-stricken life and is now too good for the slums of London. But this is the uncle who’s going to take him away from his crappy life and make his life worth something. He’s going to turn him into an assassin.
And much like our 90s rom-com, Gary doesn’t really fit in with the rest of the kids training to be assassins. He dresses oddly and his speech is even funnier. The only thing they agree on is that he’s gifted, but talent isn’t enough for their cut-throat (literally) industry. His uncle who refuses to give up on him, encourages him to prove his worth and gives him a makeover worthy of any secret service agent and he finally manages to help his mom out of the slums just like he always wanted to, it was his main reason for agreeing to take up his uncle’s offer in the first place. Of course it’s not all happy machine guns and rainbows, Gary does have some trials and tribulations to get over, plus there’s a couple of bad guys that need to get their butt kicked— the main one of the story intending to have a good portion of the population kill one another in a crazy attempt to save the planet from environmental destruction.
It’s honestly a good story with good action and minor gore/violence but not overly so, but enough to be expected from a story from Mark Millar, Dave Gibbons, and Matthew Vaughn. The art is tactfully done, with enough realism in the characters to make it believable and tell the story, but with bold colouring to still give it a story-like effect. The violence is reasonable and isn’t overly gore-y to the point of ridiculous and while there are panels that get bloody, there’s less blood than originally expected. Nudity as well is handled nicely, given only to keep with the story and isn’t added in just for lusty boys (or girls). That being said, it’s an incredibly testosterone filled story with only two females (aside from Gary’s mom) who make somewhat of a minor impact on the plot, and neither really get much panel time, and the one who ends up being topless gets a little more. More female assassin students or just more females in that industry would have been nice to see definitely, but the fact that there isn’t, isn’t a deal breaker. The characters come from a certain story trope but they definitely grow into their own which is what makes this story a good read despite what could or couldn’t have been.
What also makes the story engaging or at the very least amusing for readers is for its present day references. The story even begins with a kidnapping on Mark Hamill and the kidnappers interrogating him on his Star Wars preferences. Later on there’s talk of JJ Abrams’ Star Trek, David Beckham, and Ridley Scott. It’s so ensconced in our reality that it makes the idea of a secret service assassin school totally in our realm of possibility— it is secret after all, who knows what the government keeps doing.
Overall it’s a fun story, paced well with lots of good action. Given the creative team it’s not overly surprising. It doesn’t glamourize the spy game quite like a James Bond movie, but it makes it look cool all the same, while also making it clear that it’s not a career for everyone. But for a weekend it’s an entertaining read.
( Plus it’ll get you jived to see the movie which just came out and is directed by Matthew Vaughn no less. )
Just in time for the movie Kingsman, we take a look at it’s origins, Mark Millar, Dave Gibbons, and Matthew Vaughn’s The Secret Service.
Writer: Mark Millar
Artist: Dave Gibbons
Co-Plotter: Matthew Vaughn
Inker: Andy Lanning
Colorist: Angus McKie
Remember in the nineties when there were all those romantic comedies about the weird girl and the jock who would transform her into a hot babe and then they’d fall in love, and the movie was filled with cheesy nineties references? Well The Secret Service is definitely kind of like that only the references are very much a product of present time and instead of love as the happy ending, there’s a licence to kill. That being said there is some loving involved so not all is lost. But the story begins with a young man Gary, who’s been living in poverty his whole life with his mom, and nothing really looks great in his life. His mom’s boyfriend is an actual jerk, so he escapes it all by playing video games, stealing cars with his friends and physically fighting with cops almost recreationally.
After one particularly good fight with the police, Gary finally gets the attention of his rarely-present uncle who’s managed to escape the poverty-stricken life and is now too good for the slums of London. But this is the uncle who’s going to take him away from his crappy life and make his life worth something. He’s going to turn him into an assassin.
And much like our 90s rom-com, Gary doesn’t really fit in with the rest of the kids training to be assassins. He dresses oddly and his speech is even funnier. The only thing they agree on is that he’s gifted, but talent isn’t enough for their cut-throat (literally) industry. His uncle who refuses to give up on him, encourages him to prove his worth and gives him a makeover worthy of any secret service agent and he finally manages to help his mom out of the slums just like he always wanted to, it was his main reason for agreeing to take up his uncle’s offer in the first place. Of course it’s not all happy machine guns and rainbows, Gary does have some trials and tribulations to get over, plus there’s a couple of bad guys that need to get their butt kicked— the main one of the story intending to have a good portion of the population kill one another in a crazy attempt to save the planet from environmental destruction.
It’s honestly a good story with good action and minor gore/violence but not overly so, but enough to be expected from a story from Mark Millar, Dave Gibbons, and Matthew Vaughn. The art is tactfully done, with enough realism in the characters to make it believable and tell the story, but with bold colouring to still give it a story-like effect. The violence is reasonable and isn’t overly gore-y to the point of ridiculous and while there are panels that get bloody, there’s less blood than originally expected. Nudity as well is handled nicely, given only to keep with the story and isn’t added in just for lusty boys (or girls). That being said, it’s an incredibly testosterone filled story with only two females (aside from Gary’s mom) who make somewhat of a minor impact on the plot, and neither really get much panel time, and the one who ends up being topless gets a little more. More female assassin students or just more females in that industry would have been nice to see definitely, but the fact that there isn’t, isn’t a deal breaker. The characters come from a certain story trope but they definitely grow into their own which is what makes this story a good read despite what could or couldn’t have been.
What also makes the story engaging or at the very least amusing for readers is for its present day references. The story even begins with a kidnapping on Mark Hamill and the kidnappers interrogating him on his Star Wars preferences. Later on there’s talk of JJ Abrams’ Star Trek, David Beckham, and Ridley Scott. It’s so ensconced in our reality that it makes the idea of a secret service assassin school totally in our realm of possibility— it is secret after all, who knows what the government keeps doing.
Overall it’s a fun story, paced well with lots of good action. Given the creative team it’s not overly surprising. It doesn’t glamourize the spy game quite like a James Bond movie, but it makes it look cool all the same, while also making it clear that it’s not a career for everyone. But for a weekend it’s an entertaining read.
( Plus it’ll get you jived to see the movie which just came out and is directed by Matthew Vaughn no less. )
A Look Inside
