Written by
Brendan Cahill and art by John Burns (1-3) and Lauren McCubbin (4)
So there’s a
new Dominic Fortune in town for this story.
Is he a new person taking the name? Is he the original deaged? Let’s read and see.
The story opens
with Silver Sable on a mission that goes wrong and it’s part of a string of
failed missions. Sable is furious and
dissolves the Wild Pack certain she has a traitor or two. She tracks down a missing
team member and finds the phrase “Single Malt Sunrise”.
She’s off to
his last known location in Monte Carlo where she hears someone else try to
order a Single Malt Sunrise. Turns out
it’s Dom, and if it’s a new guy he’s just as good a gambler as the original.
He introduces
himself and Sable says “Wait..Dominic Fortune? As in Brigand, adventurer? Circa
1930? That Dominic Fortune? The years have been kind. “
Dom’s response
“You might say that.” Neither gives a hint that they worked together 20 years
ago (as seen in Web of Spider-man 71 & 72).
Dom reveals
that he got to Sable’s contact before he was killed and can tell her where her
rogue agents are. Agreeing to work with
him, Sable and Fortune rescue a kidnap victim but are being watched by our
criminal masterminds, the kidnap victims are important. There ends issue 1.
Issue 2
Turns out the
kidnap victims are Manchurian Candidates – brainwashed to become killers with
the right command and someone has given the command to the hostage they have
rescued. He attacks the pair but they
knock him out and offer him the chance to help as computer support. They track
a suspect and as Dom does the sneaky stuff as Sable provides a distraction, but
Dom gets caught and shot as Sable jumps out the window to catch the data that
Dom has stolen. There ends issue 2.
Whew after that
cliffhanger, Sable catches the data, shoots a grappling line and rescues
Dom. Jasper the rescued kidnap victim,
works to decode the heavily encrypted data. They discover the network of Manchurian
Candidates and the location of the handover to the buyer.
Jasper tags
along and we discover that “Single Malt Sunrise” is a verbal trigger for the
condition and he attacks Sable and Fortune, allowing the villains to mount an
offensive. Sable and Fortune manage to stop the triggering of all the agents
and destroy the laptop. Dominic gets caught on camera and the pair decide to
form a partnership using Dominic’s goodwill for the rescue caught on
camera and Sable’s knowledge and
contacts.
That’s where
issue 3 ends and issue 4 opens with Dom meeting a woman in a bar, she tells him
she lost her job in marketing and he tells her about his boss (Silver Sable)
and how they tracked down the final few sleeper agents. And wouldn’t you know it, the woman in the
bar is the final assassin they have to track down. They deactivate the programming and Dom
suggests that they hire her as their new marketing manager.
The End.
It appears that
there were some problems with the miniseries, Issue 1 was labelled as 1 of 6
but issue 2 was 2 of 4. And the fourth and final issue had a different artist.
The letter
column in issue three says that “circumstances dictated the miniseries be cut
down but the final two issues were a stand alone story.” And that John Burns had to return to the UK
for pressing matters. No further details were given.
I’m ok with the
shortening of the miniseries – sales may not have justified running the full 6
issues. I do have more of an issue with
the replacement for John Burns.
Burns is a UK
artist who worked on many comic strips based on TV series like UFO, Dr Who,
Mission Impossible, Magnum as well as stories in 2000 AD and Judge Dredd and
most interesting to me Modesty Blaise.
For this series he has a painted realist style that just looks
lovely. Burns just recently announced
his retirement.
Stylistically
McCubbin couldn’t be more different. I’m
not saying it’s a bad style (and I am intrigued by Quit City that she drew for
Warren Ellis’ Apparat line of comics) but it is a very different style. More cartoony, abstract and
expressionistic. Where Burns paints,
McCubbin uses heavy lines. Burns uses a
dark and rich palette, McCubbin (and her colourist) use pastels. It’s a tonal whiplash and while I wasn’t
asking for an artist who imitates Burns, I would have preferred one that had a
closer aesthetic.
