Recommended Reading - Velvet

Genre - Spy Thriller
(W) Ed Brubaker (A) Steve Epring

Have you ever wondered what a female James Bond story would be like?  Well, wonder no more because if you like Cold War era Sean Connery Bond, then you are just about to discover your new favourite title.

And it's from the same creative team who brought you Captain America: Winter Soldier.  It doesn't get more high calibre than that.

Velvet Templeton is a 40-something secretary in a British Spy agency.  When an agent is murdered in suspicious circumstances she decides to open up her own non-sanctioned investigation.  Pretty soon, she finds herself standing over another dead body, framed for murder and surrounded by countless agents holding her at gunpoint.  Game over right?

Well, no.  Otherwise there wouldn't be a story to tell!  Turns out that she has been a secret agent all this time and she may be the most dangerous woman in the world.  Bad news for those surrounding her as she easily out fights and out manoeuvres them, and makes her escape.  She must know use her particular set of skills (!) to go on the run, track down the killer and u ravel the conspiracy.

This is the closest thing to early Bond movies that I have ever read.  Set in the 1970's, it perfectly captures the Cold War era.  It was a time when spies had to rely on their wits and intelligence, their gut instincts and wilyness.  No phoning to base to reposition satellites or use smartphones to find someone's location looking at their Facebook profile.  Just good old investigative work.

It's also a refreshing title in that the female spy is a woman of experience.  She is not a supermodel in her 20's who is learning as she goes.  She is experienced, intelligent, highly sexual and a match for any man she comes across.

This is an excellently told story which takes place over 15 issues, or three trade paperbacks.  I really cannot recommend it enough.