Hello, I'm Richard Nicholas Nimz, prospector of the written word. I love comic books and I've been on a bender recently to read more superhero books, such as Batman: Year One, X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills, and Iron Man: War of the Iron Men. However, there are other graphic novels out there, like any artform, to varying degrees of quality, I just usually stick to superhero titles for reasons of escapism. On the one hand, you have good stories like Spider-Man: The Death of Jean DeWolff, which tells a story about mental illness and the justice system versus vigilanteism and Iron Man: War of the Iron Men, about ethnic tensions and the dangers of weapons made for defense falling into the wrong hands. On the other hand, you have this.
Citation: Horowitz, A., Johnston, A., Damerum, K. i., & Takasaki, Y. i. Skeleton Key. New York: Philomel Books.
Plot: After being made a target by the Tongs for uprooting a gambling operation at Wimbledon, teenaged superspy Alex Rider is sent on an assignment with Americans to investigate a former Soviet general planning something in Cuba. However, his American companions leave him behind to investigate on their own, leaving Alex in the dark as to their mission. Thus Alex conducts his own investigation, finding nuclear weapons and plots to overthrow the Russian government. Even worse, said general has his eye on Alex for some purpose of his own.
Impressions: I freaking hate this thing. The pacing is good, the artwork is good, and the mystery is actually pretty interesting, but there's just too much stupid in it. This has little to do with the premise: I'm a James Bond fan and I want to see a more lighthearted James Bond. Furthermore, I grew up on Pokemon and I could buy minors getting involved in saving the world if it was made to seem normal; I understand wish fulfillment. However, when the author says that only Great Britain has teenage superspies because Americans think that the idea is too dangerous, which it is, then suspension of disbelief no longer exists.
This leads me to another sore point: Anthony Horowitz seems to think that Americans couldn't find water if they jumped off the Titanic. Alex Rider's two (adult) CIA partners leave behind a proven secret agent, constantly don't involve him, and then get themselves killed off-panel. Their sole purpose is to make Alex Rider look good in comparison. I repeat, two American, adult, presumably more experienced secret agents, are unceremoniously killed off to make the British snot-nosed punk look intelligent in comparison. By contrast, the James Bond films had Felix Leiter, Jack Wade, and several American Bond girls to look respectable and balance out any anti-American stereotypes they used. Even when Felix Leiter was maimed by a sharks in License to Kill just to kick off the plot, his near-death had dramatic impact because James Bond and Felix Leiter were portrayed as equal partners and close friends, not as antagonists where one had to die for dignified comic relief. Even then, you had the CIA and Pam Bouvier. In a book that has the Americans make the most sense, this is a bit of a problem.
Finally, several characters take very... odd actions. One of which is a airport security guard whose superiors do not think their guard is dead even though the gunshot that killed him takes up a fifth of a panel even with a silencer and he had a wire on him! HOW DO YOU MISS THAT! The villain is alright, with a rather sad backstory, but his plot is kind of ridiculous for reasons I can't spoil. This line, however, you must see to believe:
General Orlov: Nobody will suspect the truth.
James Bond, Jr.: Yes, they will! The CIA knows you bought uranium! They'll find out their agents are dead-
Here it comes...
General Orlov: Nobody will believe the CIA. Nobody ever does.
...I have no words. I don't know if this is true, but it just sounds too mind-numbingly stupid. And this is coming out of the bad guy's mouth. The man plotting this whole thing. Actually, his plot kind of makes sense now.
Not all of the book is bad. The artwork is nice and colorful (Skyfall, take note), the comic has great pacing, and I was actually interested in seeing what comes next. If I stocked this, I could easily include this as part of an event showing the impact the James Bond movies have had. Of course, that's if I stocked it, and I think I'd rather look for other books with less jarring breeds of stupid in them.
Second opinion: "This is an immensely entertaining romp, hitting all the thrill-buttons for an ideal summer blockbluster, even though it’s told – and very convincingly – from the viewpoint of an uncertain boy rather than a suave, sophisticated adult... These books and their comic counterparts are a fine addition to [Great Britain's] fiction tradition."
Source: Wiacek, W. (2010). [Review of Skeleton Key: the Graphic Novel - an Alex Rider Adventure, by A. Horowitz and A. Johnson]. Now Read This!. Retrieved from http://www.comicsreview.co.uk/nowreadthis/2010/05/14/skeleton-key-the-graphic-novel-an-alex-rider-adventure/
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