COMIC BOOK REVIEW: Velvet #11

THE HUNTER’S COMETH

Suspense and spy thriller maestro Ed Brubaker starts another chapter of the femme fatale-on-the-run Velvet Templeton in the fast-pacing and ever intriguing run in Velvet #11. After the rollercoaster rides in the previous chapters, Ed makes good on his promise that his top American infiltrator returns to her roots: the United States of America. And boy, she means real business that she lets her erstwhile superiors know of her return without being both captured and/or located at all. Naturally, the writer adds a twist to his every eschewing spy narrating skills. He puts spymaster Maximillion Dark in the spotlight as the fulcrum of the new narrative. Though there is nothing novel here per se on this one, it is an interesting way of diverting the readers’ attention further on how Velvet truly knows to penetrate (both figuratively and literally speaking) her way to the nation she once served so well and sacrificed. Seriously, someone in Hollywood should pick this series and do a serious film adaptation on this over-the-top American femme fatale.

Ed’s Captain America collaborator Steve Epting shines as always with his precise and accurately drawn illustrations that drawn inspirations of the glory years of popular culture regarding espionage, subterfuge, deep throats, and of course, love making (Ed’s preferred wordings are “releasing the stem”). Epting’s detailed illustrations of the 1950s Paris and ultimately, skyline New York City are simply as such: breathtaking. His interior arts of the offices the female protagonist worked are equally meticulously drawn and virtually realistically grounded. Perhaps, that’s the price of working under the historically accurate-mind of Brubaker. But nonetheless, that is the true reward of reading Ed’s spy thrillers and digesting the artist’s painstaking detailed artwork as well. Even Steve’s sequential narrations and their paneling are highly accessible despite the fact that the Velvet creative team has already spilling some carefully placed Easter eggs and/or minute details that serve as the red herrings of the new arc. Even so, the last page alone serves the best indicator of the plot-twisting development that both Ed and Steve try to entice readers and fans alike to stick further with their femme fatale’s search of her targets despite the fact we are actually being played as willing pawns of their latest tale.

True, there are less actions but a couple of steamy and hot moments that the creative team can only deliver. Velvet #11 is great (as often) start of the new narrative that continues to unravel the continuing search of the perpetrators she wants to uncover, destroy, and most especially, move on (if the ending is such, but nothing is what it seems in true Brubaker [and noir] fashion). Velvet as a whole is a perfectly polished visual literary gem in the truest form!