Licensed to Bore

Book: The Secret Service
Pen: Mark Millar
Pencil: Dave Gibbons

There must be something called a “mogul complex”. There must be. What possesses men and women who take part in a successful collective effort to suddenly believe they can do everything on their own. Movie producers want to own studios; one-hit wonders start their own their own labels; corner shop owners dream of having their own chains. Highly talented and successful comic book writer Mark Millar wanted to be one and Millarworld was born.

Though started as a line to produce creator-owned comics that were an equal collaboration between him and various artists, the success of the movie version of Wanted made him dream bigger. Suddenly his comics became mere vehicles to a movie adaptation. The biggest causality, as expected, was creativity. The Secret Service is just that. A movie pitch with illustrations. Guess what, it is already being made into a movie. 

Gary is your standard-issue teenager. High school dropout with all the wrong habits, living with his mum and her abusive boyfriend; without a light at the end of the tunnel. Except that Gary has an uncle who, while not being around, still has the pull to get him out of jail. The uncle – Jack London – turns out to be a secret agent working for Her Majesty’s government. Jack sees a lot of potential in his nephew and decides to groom him to be an agent. Just like that.

Then we have another world-domination scheme thought out by a rich nerd that involves killing off 80% of the population. Why no one thinks of the stink caused by all those decaying dead bodies is beyond me. Anyway, Gary uses his innate street smartness to foil all dastardly plans and, along the way, take care of things at home and impress his uncle.

The Secret Service does have a few Millar flourishes, but they are very few. The trademark over-the-top violence seems terribly forced and the story never moves beyond juvenile. Watchmen legend Dave Gibbons draws, and there isn't a wasted line anywhere. Unfortunately, his faces are not very impressive here.  The idea is to make Jack and Gary look similar, the effect is Gary doesn't look a day younger than 40. 

The director Matthew Vaughn is credited as being the co-plotter. He is also the one who is going to direct the upcoming movie. Read what you will into that. But it is a fact that The Secret Service, the book, never feels like it is anything other than an intro to the movie. As a result, if judged on its own terms, the book is thoroughly dispensable.