ACTION MAN STRIKES! The U.K.’s one-man answer to G.I. Joe breaks mission to search for Dr. X–the villain who killed Action Man’s predecessor. But does young Action Man have the experience to pull this off?
Writing
One of the characters in this book has an X on his belt, meaning Doctor X is behind the plot. The absurdity of this is actually called out in the book. Ian is supposed to be the Action Man, the best secret agent around. Yet his decisions make him come off a bit too inexperienced to really showcase that he is ready to hold the title.
There is talk of a traitor on the team, which helps to perk up the plot a bit. Sadly this doesn’t come until the end of the issue. With any luck, John Barber will be leading with this idea from here on out and it will aid in the stories need for intrigue. Also, either show more flashbacks or less. The two pages at a time to show how Ian became part of the Action Man program is getting to be redundant, and is only distracting from the main story.
Artwork
After the first issue where IDW decided to have two artists split up the work, they ending up sticking with Paolo Villanelli on art and Joana Lafuente on colors. The book looks better for it and holds a great consistent look throughout. The scenes where Ian is throwing himself into the fight really come off well thanks to their combined effort.
Conclusion
The book is slowly starting to move forward, but just so much. Hopefully from here it will follow this traitor storyline and see how far it goes. Then the comic will increase the stakes and from there really help to establish itself as a spy comic fans will flock towards.
