The Secret Service #2

Written by Mark Millar
Art by Dave Gibbons

Mark Millar's newest Millarworld title is holding up surprisingly well.  In this second issue, super spy Jack London has decided to recruit his screw-up of a nephew Gary into the British Secret Service.  The moments between these two family members are handled remarkably well, as Millar explores the class conflict that has always existed in English society, and how it rears its head whenever someone tries to better themselves.

This all happens against the backdrop of a growing, if vague, threat.  Someone is still kidnapping science fiction movie and TV stars (last issue had a cameo by Mark Hamil), and in this issue, they use some kind of mind control device on a mass wedding, turning it into a massacre.

There are few Millar-ian flourishes in this book, except for the graphic nature of the wedding scene, and the description of the sexual training that young Gary will experience in spy school.  I think that perhaps working with Dave Gibbons is causing Millar to rein it in a little, as he crafts a story that fits Gibbons's strengths perfectly.