The Secret Service #4

[superboyprime]

Comments

[korvar]

The thing that gets me about this series (from what I've seen of it on Scans Daily, anyway) is this genius spy/secret agent/black ops guy can steal the Queen's car, and evidently kidnap a drugs baron, without at any point being able to change his accent or learn how to blend in.

That seems... unlikely.

[sadoeuphemist]

I think the idea is that he's a natural savant at sneaking/infiltrating/breaking & entering/stealing, but terrible at anything social. You don't need to blend in if no one realizes you're there.

[cainofdreaming]

So, basically he's a computer rpg 'hero'?

[sadoeuphemist]

Well keep in mind I haven't actually read this series beyond what's been posted here. But in the scans from last issue, they brought up video games twice in reference to Gary. First as one of his only sources of cultural information, and second when one of his classmates said he was "amazing at all of the Call of Duty stuff" but terrible at everything else. So yeah I think that's a parallel Millar's trying to draw.

[akodo_rokku]

And then issue #5 is mostly about him learning to do the stuff he's bad at.

[icon_uk]

Agreed, he seems to be superb at anything involving the practical side of spywork, but anything involving the cultural/social side he's completely hopeless at.

Though he'd have to be careful because he's NOT invisible, socially, he's vastly noticeable, like a black hole in a bright sky. He'd stick out like a sore thumb in any environment that is even remotely upwardly mobile and/or requires social skills of any sort whatsoever.

[lissa_quon]

Do they ever actually show him doing any of the practical work? Or is it all off screen?

I'm just curious.

[thediiem]

I think this may be part of the point. I haven't read any of the background that Millar may have shared on the series, but at least with James Bond, Ian Fleming intended his titular spy to be a British everyman. However, looking back, Bond may have been an orphan and a scholarship student, but he still went to Eaton. Millar may be coming from a place arguing the British everyman is, at least in an honest literary/cultural perspective, very different than the older ideal. The core issues Gary seem to be dealing with here are ones rooted in classism from his 'peers' and instructors and ideas of his capability over his comportment.

[icon_uk]

Did Fleming actually use the term everyman for Bond? Because Bond is anything but, though that may be linked to Fleming's rather personally skewed concept of what an actual "Everyman" would be like.

Playing the numbers, surely an "Everyman" of Fleming/Bond time (the 1940's through 1960's) would be a married, hard working manual labourer with kids and responsibilities.

There's classism certainly in this case, but it IS more that than, as Gary really IS a liability in social terms; ignorant of anything beyond videogames and reality TV. He has a specifically useful, but very limited, skillset.

[wizardru]

I don't know whether I think this is great or terrible.

It's a common feeling I have with a lot of Millar's work. I am happy to see Dave Gibbons working, though. His draftsmanship is really underrated.

[icon_uk]

His draftsmanship is really underrated.

Is it? I've always thought he was one of the most widely respected artists going, for Watchmen if nothing else. I doubt there's a writer going who wouldn't jump at the chance to work with him.

[moetushie]

Wow, main spy dude gives off serious Don Draper vibes.

[starwolf_oakley]

My father once said a real spy would more likely be *serving* martinis than *ordering* them.

That could be where this series is going.

[lissa_quon]

Yea - the whole point of a spy is not to be noticed. A spy would be that weedy little guy in the corner no one is paying attention to. The one that no one thinks could be a threat.

Gary may be an idiot that sticks out like a sore thumb, but he is an idiot you would not expect to accomplish much. You'd be confused and baffled as he steals all your shit/stabs you in the back. Much like everyone is now as he steals a private jet.