I've been looking forward to G.I. Spy for several years now, and the finished product is pretty solid. It's not what I expected, as Jack Shepherd is more a hapless jock type than a deadly trained spy, but it's a lot of fun, an action-comedy with a nice blend of both and very impressive artwork to boot. Imagine the feel of True Lies transplanted to a World War II era spy tale, and you've got a general idea what to expect from G.I. Spy in tone, if not in plot. In plot, the story is a maybe a little rote, with a guy and girl spy (and the requisite sexual tension) and an arrogant scientist with a master plan, but the spy genre is one that sort of benefits from familiarity, and if G.I. Spy offers little in the way of new except for its time period, it hits all the genre conventions and basic necessities of an entertaining story very well.
As I said above, in a lot of ways, G.I. Spy plays out like you would expect from something in this genre. Three pages and an ominous double splash of the villain's plan developing, an action-packed introduction of our hero, a "meet cute" with his partner (complete with quick action sequence where we see their levels of skill), the first run-in with the bad guys and of course, a cliffhanger style ending. It's a classic structure, and it works, because amidst a familiar structure, there's really fun dialogue and solid action sequences, and it doesn't hurt that it all looks great.
Matt Haley is someone whose art I've always liked, but it's been all too rare that he's working on a project that I've been interested in. G.I. Spy holds my interest from a story point of view, and Haley has no trouble holding it from an art point of view. His work has a nice realism to it without being overly photo-referenced and stiff, and he clearly has as much love for the more outlandish concepts (like a Nazi battlesuit or Jack's magnetic boots) as he does for the regular people and places stuff. A large part of the charm of Jack and Kaitlin, however, does come from the way that Haley draws them, and I especially loved that Kaitlin's sarcasm and amused disdain for Jack comes through so well in her visuals, as when she rolls her eyes at him during their surveillance.
Actually, the Jack and Kaitlin banter might just be my favorite part of the book. Jack is the hero, but Kaitlin gets a lot of the really good lines. "Guess it's log-proof, too" and "Rule number one in the spy game, Jack. It's always a bomb" are two of my favorite lines from the issue, and they both belong to Kaitlin. I'm particularly pleased that without using a phonetic accent, Cosby manages to make Kaitlin "sound" English in my head. Cosby's comedic timing isn't just limited to the interaction between these characters either. Jack's reaction to his scientific insight from Einstein (another cool period touch) cracked me up, for example.
G.I. Spy is the kind of thing that is tailor made for feature film or TV, but we should be thankful that it's come to comics instead. Jack and Kaitlin are fully realized without having to be tailored to a particular star, the special effects are sharp, believable and unlimited of budget and the story can seem a little familiar without just feeling like an "also ran" copy of James Bond. Fans of the late, lamented Crossgen book Kiss Kiss Bang Bang especially should give G.I. Spy a look, but anyone who is in the mood for a good action/espionage tale with comedic touches should try it out as well.
Note: This comic has not yet been released, but should be available in comic shops soon.
