Broken Frontier

Nick Walker is a major action hero…and a spy. Can this James Bond for the 21st century keep his hidden life secret long enough to complete an even more secret mission?

At most there are 11 people in the world who wouldn’t want to be Nick Walker. Handsome, charming, and quick with the comebacks, he’s one of the world’s top box office stars and number 12 on People’s 50 Sexiest People list. But it’s all a cover. Only a handful of people know that in Nick’s case, life definitely imitates art. He not only portrays an action hero in his movies, he’s also one in real life. He’s a spy, many of his films chosen because the shooting location is near his mission locale. He’s also gay, which he keeps as deep cover as his real occupation. Consequently, the rumor mill around him is glowing white hot, and his co-star Kim Carlisle is very curious about his enigmatic life. So curious, in fact, that when she follows him one night, hoping to get the real deal on Nick, she gets much, much more than she expected or can handle.

Imagine if all the rumors about Tom Cruise were true. Then imagine that instead of Scientology rants to Matt Lauer, Cruise’s time off-screen were spent very much like they are on-screen. It’s a perfectly packaged concept for a comic, and one of writer B. Clay Moore’s trademark moves is taking pop culture icons and concepts and tweaking them beyond our expectations, then adding a healthy dose of dry or surreal humor to make it all click. No less is true of The Leading Man. The high concept powers the first issue more than the story itself.

On the positive side, the premise is strong enough to generate suspense around the fairly obvious arc of this story—that Nick’s public and private lives will clash in ways that will make his mission tougher than it should be. With a really interesting main character, the prospect of this sort of conflict would bring me back for issue #2. But Nick isn’t very interesting on his own, and that’s just one thing to put in the "on the negative side" column. Neither side of Nick’s life is very interesting in itself. He has no compelling wrinkles and no depth. And in setting up this first issue, Moore renders his main character as both a typical star and a typical spy, as if the atypical mix of the two is enough to lock us in. It’s not. Further, Nick and the supporting cast of characters all suffer from a glibness that’s all too real in both worlds. Consequently, it’s hard to connect to any of them. This is true even of Kim. Her spunk and curiosity are appealing, but both are motivated only by her desire to get in Nick’s pants, which in this case is like ordering beef in a vegetarian restaurant.

Moore’s lazy characterization is a flaw in this issue, but its biggest weakness is that, while we see Nick in action as an action hero, when it comes to doing the real thing, we don’t see what makes him as great a spy as he is a star. He even gets trailed by Kim when he goes out on his mission. It’s a necessary plot point in Moore’s script that her curiosity should lead her dangerously to the truth, but the sequence doesn’t unfold well and leads to a lackluster cliffhanger. Still, it does raise some interesting questions. Is Kim good enough to tail Nick for miles, and thus not all she appears to be? Or is Nick not that great of a spy? For the sake of this series, I’m hoping that the answers are for the former question, and not the latter.

The Leading Man will be Oni Press’ first color comic. However, my review copy was black-and-white shaded and inked for color. No problems with this at all, though, as Jeremy Haun’s art is tight, a perfect fit for the spy/thriller genre. Nick has flare to spare, and the reader sees confidence in his every move, thanks to Haun’s dynamic pencils. His lifework is controlled and expressive, his images tell the story well, and his framing chops are dead-on. Most of this issue involves talking-heads setting-up the characters and conflict, but Haun takes the two action sequences he’s given and runs with them like a thoroughbred.

It’s hard to recommend The Leading Man as anything more than an impulse buy for lovers for the genre, but everyone should keep their eye on the artist. I’d love to see what Jeremy Haun can do with a script that worthy of his pencils.