Velvet vol. 1: Before the Living End

As any veteran of Ed Brubaker’s “Captain America” run can tell you, the man really likes grounded espionage stories.  Using the Star-Spangled Avenger and his resurrected sidekick as a means to tell these kinds of stories in the Marvel Universe worked really well for a while.  The problem is that the moral ambiguity of the espionage genre and its dislike of genuine heroes became an increasingly uncomfortable fit for Cap and Bucky as the years and this particular run wore on.  Now, after the success of “Fatale,” Brubaker is firmly ensconced at Image and has teamed up with the original artist on his “Captain America” run, Steve Epting, to give us the story of a badass female secret agent in the 70’s.  Freed from the constraints of the superhero genre, this first volume of “Velvet” represents a welcome return to form for the writer.

The Allied Reconnaissance Commission is one of those secret spy organizations that doesn’t exist.  That’s how good they are at their job.  Everything is off the books and every mission is a black op.  They’re the best of the best in the world of intelligence, so when one of their own walks right into a deadly trap everyone in the agency is rightly shocked by the event.  This includes Velvet Templeton, currently working as the secretary to the agency’s boss.  She liked Agent Keller and the fact that he was apparently taken out by a retired ARC agent strikes her as a setup.

The woman is absolutely correct — only the setup is to put her in the frame for his murder.  While a secretary with a photographic memory may not seem to be the biggest threat in the world, Velvet’s desk job was actually a consolation prize for surviving years in the field in a career that dates back to WWII.  She’s as hard as they come, and nobody is safe until she gets the answers she’s looking for.

Yes, the premise may be a bit familiar but the execution is top-notch.  After a first issue that starts out heavy on the exposition before ramping up the action, the hunt for Velvet Templeton kicks into high gear and doesn’t really slow down.  The first volume takes us to plenty of exotic locales, has Velvet interacting with plenty of shady people, and inflicting her own personal brand of justice on those who deserve it along the way.  Brubaker clearly knows the story he wants to tell her and the man wastes no time in getting to the good stuff.  Said “good stuff” including a car chase through the streets of London, a prison escape in Belgrade, and flushing out a fellow spy during Carnival in Monaco.

As good as the execution is, things would’ve fallen apart if the title character wasn’t worth reading about.  That said, it shouldn’t be too surprising that Brubaker makes Velvet a most intriguing protagonist.  Having her be a professional ass-kicker and showing up her fellow ARC comrades is easy enough, though it’s the quick and inventive thinking she displays while approaching each problem that proves to be her defining aspect.  The woman isn’t infallible, but she knows how to read any given situation and improvise a plan out of it.  Usually this ends in some kind of gun or fistfight, such as when she tries to stop some masked assassins in Monaco, and the results are generally very entertaining.

While there is an attempt to build some mystery about why Velvet left the field, perceptive readers will figure out the reason here before it’s spelled out in a later volume.  My main issue with this is that it feels very conventional in the way that it’s based around intimate/romantic betrayal.  You could even argue that it’s a bit condescending in the way that it shows her to be a woman who’s shaken to her core by the thought of the man who was closest to her.  Still, the final page has her back on the warpath so it leaves me hopeful that the story’s climax won’t involve her holding a gun, in tears, as she agonizes about killing this man.  (Like all guys think a woman would — let’s try to break this stereotype, shall we?)

I’ve written before about how I think that Epting isn’t that great of a superhero artist in that his style is too grounded and tends to kill any of the awe and excitement inherent in the genre.  With that, you would think that he’d be perfect for a spy story set in the real world and around the darkest corners of the globe.  You’d be absolutely right.  Epting kills on every page, creating a world where nothing is as it seems and bad things are lurking right beneath its surface.  It’s also gorgeous to admire in its detail and along with Betty Breitweiser’s coloring job too.  The cast of the book are all distinct creations, and their “acting” is top-notch too.  Really, after this I hope that Epting chooses to stay in the “real world” and away from superheroes for the rest of his career.

It may not be the most original spy story ever told, but this first volume of “Velvet” is still an exciting read.  You’ve got a compelling character thrust into difficult situations and forced to out-think-or-fight her way through them.  That may sound like a simple enough thing to do, though plenty of other creators have failed at it along the way.  Not here with Brubaker and Epting.  These guys manage to put the memories of “Captain America” behind them and give us a story that shows what they’re really capable of.