October 28, 2003
VALENTINE: FULLY LOADED
Written and Drawn by Daniel Cooney
Published by Red Eye Press
Young, attractive, and uber-deadly, Dana Valentine has begun to morally question her life as an assassin. However, in the world of espionage, there isn’t much room to question anything, particularly when loyalties shift at the drop of a hat or the ring of a cell phone. Unfortunately for Dana, she’s going to have to sort it all out rather quickly, because her possession of an incriminating disk that details an upcoming Presidential assassination attempt is going to put two different groups of spies and killers on her tail, as well as the regular police. Can she figure out whom to trust and save the life of the President in time?
You can probably guess the answer to that last question.
VALENTINE is a book that can give a reader a whole lot of cognitive issues. Plenty of it feels cliché-ridden. “Spy caught in the middle with no one to trust” has been beaten down like a rented mule enough times that it takes a real fresh approach to make the story
interesting. I never felt like that this graphic novel had that element of freshness. There are some elements that do work, particularly in her personal life dealings, but there’s a huge problem there: VALENTINE bears some very strong resemblances to the pop culture smash ALIAS.
That isn’t the fault of Dan Cooney. The stories collected in this volume began seeing print as early as 1997, well before J.J. Abrams brought Agent Sydney Bristow to our televisions. However, the familiar stuff is striking: young female agent working for one agency and playing mole in another. Constantly trying to determine who is telling the greater truth. Early on, Valentine tells her boyfriend about the fact that she’s a killer and a spy and (seemingly) destroys his vision of who she is. She’s even a brunette with a killer fashion sense, much like the fetching Jennifer Garner.
So VALENTINE is stuck battling those comparisons from the start. Tough break. Throw in a plot that actually seems to make less sense as it goes along (though the character work gets a bit stronger), and this book just struggles along its way. I liked Dana, and I was interested in reading further stories with her in them, but this just wasn’t the best way to go. In the back of the book, there are notes that further issues of VALENTINE have been published, but not collected in trade form. I’m open to taking a further look.
On the flip side, Cooney does a decent job of melding his script to his art. The exposition is handled reasonably well, and Cooney eschews boring narrative captions that don’t involve a bit of first person perspective. So the trap of overwriting in that way is deftly avoided. Artistically, Cooney is somewhat inconsistent at doing faces, but his storytelling is effective. He overuses medium shots and could use a bit more of a broader perspective at times, but it’s solid stuff with no “flash” to it, which is nice. He also draws Dana with realistic proportions and clothing, making this a book that won’t likely offend the female reader.
So, VALENTINE straddles the line for me. I liked the character and art, but was left wanting by the story. I’d give the story a C+, and the art a solid B, so I suppose I’ll split the difference and say: Grade: B-
Should It Be A Movie?
It’d need a different title, thanks to the awful horror flick from a couple of years ago, and it would need a few story and character tweaks, just to make sure that people wouldn’t call it an ALIAS rip-off and ignore it. But yeah, I think this could be a decent film.
Between ALIAS, LE FEMME NIKITA, and the coming ELEKTRA, there’s a growing market and desire for female-driven spy/assassin stories. The key element, as always, would be casting, and I suspect that agents across town would be sending their 20ish female clients in droves to try and get this part.
Obvious candidates that come to mind include Jessica Alba and Jaime King, but this character just about screamed “Eliza Dushku” as I read the book. Dushku is primed and ready for a franchise of her own, and a character where she can put some polish and refinement on her screen image. Keeping her kickass persona and throwing in the classic spy elements would give her a chance to stretch a bit and find the huge mainstream success she’s looked ready for now for quite some time.
It’d likely be a mid-level budgeted production with a good chance for strong overseas grosses and long DVD life, so seeing the possibility of a VALENTINE flick hit the theatres isn’t out of the question. Best of luck to all involved.
A Bit Of Activism
I’m asking for feedback here, and I will pass on that feedback to all parties involved, okay? Here’s what I want you all to do:
One of my happiest moments in reading the monthly comics solicitations is when I discover that a book that has never been put in trade paperback or that has been long out of print is finally getting a spine and an ISBN number. DAMNED is a perfect example of that for me. There are other books floating around out there that I think need to get that treatment. I think that the `80s classic THE TROUBLE WITH GIRLS needs to get back in print, and I’d love to see someone like Larry Young and Ait/Planetlar help out fellow San Franciscans Will Jacobs and Gerard Jones in getting that wonderfully hilarious series back into the eyes of comics readers. On the flip side, Peter David and George Perez’s SACHS AND VIOLENS appeared as a four issue miniseries in the early `90s and has vanished into limbo since. Seeing the marvelous job that Cyberosia did with DAMNED, it seems like they (or someone like them) would do a perfect job of getting these two respected creators’ work back into print.
So, what’s out there that you’d like to see back in print? Don’t cheat and use things that are tied up legally like MIRACLEMAN; think smaller. I’m looking forward to hearing what you have to say.
E-mail on the subject can be sent to the address below. Review copies can be sent to: Marc Mason, 1756 S. College Ave., Tempe, AZ, 85281. See you all next week.
E-MAIL THE AUTHOR |
ARCHIVES
