By Dustin Cabeal

When I saw that Dynamite was only giving Moneypenny one issue, I was instantly disappointed. I’m a fan of the new Moneypenny and so reading her back story intrigued me a lot, but a one-shot pretty much assured that it would be a big hit or a miss. It’s, unfortunately, a miss for me.

The story is quite dull. It even says that it’s going to be dull as it jumps around in the timeline showing Moneypenny as a kid briefly and then mostly as an adult. Her current assignment is that of a babysitter for a grown ass man. The outcome is predictable, and though Moneypenny is supposed to come off brilliant and awesome, it’s all a bit safe for her character. She’s super human esque, and that makes the story even more boring. The bit with her childhood didn’t make much sense nor did it have anything to do with the rest of the story. Unless I missed something, but I couldn’t see how a story about racism feeds into a story about babysitting a dude.

The writing, while solid, is dull. None of the characters have any personality through their dialogue. Think about that; no one has any personality. It’s so dull that you’re almost happy that these characters don’t speak often and when they do it’s short and to the point. If the point is exposition. That’s right, what little dialogue there is, is mostly exposition. “Tell us, Moneypenny, when did you know?” And then she explains it.

The art is great. It’s the best I’ve seen on a Bond book, and I’m not talking about the covers. It’s just that there’s so little going on in the story that the artist ends up illustrating people sitting around and talking, sometimes they’re walking. The action is a bit of a letdown because we don’t see it. It’s all just reaction shots, pun intended. I’m sure that came from the script, but it’s a shame that we weren’t treated to more action or at the very least more of the artist’s talents.

If this one-shot is to test the waters, then I hope that they’ll do another test with a different writer. Keep the artist, but try someone else. When a story states that the assignment will be dull at times and that ends up being the best description for the comic, then you have a problem with your comic. If you want to hear, me rant about this more check out the Comic Bastards Podcast this week.

Score: 2/5

James Bond: Moneypenny #1
Dynamite Entertainment