Broken Frontier

Matt Fraction and Gabriel Bá have made a huge splash on the scene with their spy thriller Casanova. Now that Image has released a collection of the first seven issues, Broken Frontier presents a few reasons why you should care.

The greatest thing about Matt Fraction’s high-octane spy thriller Casanova is that it gets it all wrong. It seems Mr. Fraction forgot that if you’re going to craft a title such as this one, a title that combines James Bond style secret agent action with genre-bending dimension changes, you have to make it difficult on the reader. Make them struggle with the aspect of being in a different dimension, with characters that are both mysterious and at times mutant, and high level government black ops agencies. But by no means allow them to follow along so effortlessly.

And that’s where the comic goes wrong. Picking up the series – which if you haven’t you’re in luck as the first seven issues are about to be collected – any reader will find by the end of the first issue that they understand almost everything that has happened. And it’s not like nothing happens in that first issue. No, Matt Fraction manages to pack tons of action and dialogue in an under whelming 16 pages per issue. So much action, that it puts most of the other issues on the shelves to shame.

And again, with all the action crammed into each issue, the series never gets lost; the dialogue never manages to cover up the beautiful artwork by Gabriel Bá.

Casanova follows the adventures of agent Casanova Quinn, a suave James Bind type of secret agent. At the opening of the series, Casanova has estranged himself from the rest of his family, whom it turns out is quite the family. His father, Cornelius Quinn, runs the top spy agency in the world: E.M.P.I.R.E. An agency he has eschewed, unlike his sister Zephyr who happens to be E.M.P.I.R.E.’s top agent.

As the story progresses, Casanova finds himself under the thumb of arch-enemy Newman Xeno, who is in charge of the evil organization known as W.A.S.T.E. As the story progresses, he finds himself in a double spy lifestyle, not sure how to act in each specific situation, only that he has to watch out for number one: himself.

While the plot twists and turns in some very unforeseen ways, the main appeal of the series is the characters and the associated dialogue. Casanova looks and acts like your typical suave James Bond super spy, constantly looking his best while pulling down some prime pieces of real estate, all the while deftly making off with the secret disc that was the target all along. However, his methods aren’t always so pristine and roe model-worthy. Casanova knows that he’ll need to kill a few people, spread a few lies, and take a few drugs. And, unless I missed it, I don’t remember Mr. Bond ever getting friendly with his sister.

Beyond Casanova, the rest of the cast are just as memorable. Xeno is a sadistic taskmaster who spends his time wrapped up in Bándages like the invisible man. Cornelius is a Nick Fury style leader on steroids. And Zephyr is the requisite sex bomb secret agent, who uses her looks as a weapon.

The series manages to avoid the standard spy thriller trappings by mixing in a bit of the strange and the fantastic. Without giving away too much, there is: dimensional travel, locations that are controlled by the mind-altering drugs, mental telepathy contests, and high tech aborigines. And all of that is covered in a scant 112 pages.

Helping complete the package is Bá’s amazing artwork. While the comic is done in a monochromatic scheme, it’s the detail that Bá adds throughout the series that really makes the story, deftly adding any visual cues to flesh out whatever details Fraction may not cover through his dialogue. The artwork is clean and simple keeping the action to the forefront of the page, leaving it right there in the open without anything to cover up the action, which can run from slow and plot-thickening to Errol Flynn style swashbuckling action.

It really isn’t fair to the rest of the genre that Fraction and Bá have released this series. Once someone picks up this collection, and sees that a story can be presented in such a manner that is at both times easily understandable AND fun, they’ll expect it out of all of the other spy books out there.