Product Description: Your government does not want you to read this book! Imagine that you are a shy, quiet college student. Just an average guy trying to get through each day as best he can. Then your government contacts you. They want you to be part of an experiment in the art of human covert operations. Instead of creating an agent from someone within their own ranks, they want to create an agent from nobody--from scratch- you! Loosely based on events in the American intelligence community during the Reagan administration, FIRE tells the unique and powerful story of a young man's journey through the complex world of international intelligence. Fire was Bendis' first major work and helped him attract and develop a new audience for crime graphic novels that he would further challenge in later works such as Jinx, Goldfish, Torso, and Powers.
Any work by Bendis is worth your time. OK, the title of my review basically says it all. I've never read any Bendis book or comic that didn't entertain me enormously. "FIRE" may be Bendis' 1st work but you'd never know. It's filled with all the great dialogue and "speak like people speak" style of writing that Bendis is associated with. I've read in other reviews, people not being all that crazy about his artwork in this book, but if you're a fan of ALIAS from Marvel comics, the style is very similar to that books artist, Michael Gaydos. The only negative to speak of is the usual crappy editing and lack of spell checking that seems to go along with all of Bendis' independent works. I read somewhere that his wife is his "editor". He might want to start hiring out of the family:) I wouldn't call "FIRE" Bendis' greatest work (try ALIAS or his current run on DAREDEVIL) but it is definitely worth picking up if you are a fan of his.
Early Bendis work worth a read This is the seminal work by Brian Michael Bendis. Fire is an espionage/CIA thriller reminiscent of "Three Days of the Condor". Here Bendis tells the story of a young college student recruited into a dark corridor of the CIA and onward through his first several missions. Bendis uses flashbacks to pace the story, but it would have been just as effective told linearly.
The art is, well, just ok. It appears that Bendis assembled all of the elements via photo reference and traced them onto art board using an overhead projector, then embellished with Photoshop. That is just a guess, but I doubt that I'm far off. It gets the job done, but can be distracting at times. One of the characters is actually Candice Bergen (Murphy Brown), I know this because she is credited at the end of the story. Perhaps Candice is a family friend, because the role is less than flattering and I doubt she was used without permission.
While I may sound critical I am stunned that this was the work of a first-time writer. Bendis tells a simple story with a lot of subtext (loneliness, need for acceptance, government conspiracy). The story is obvious, but not terribly predictable. Anyone wondering if they should/could write a first short story or graphic novel should measure themselves against this work.
Anything Goes Trivia
Megaton Man
Trevor
