By Jigounov & Renard
Publisher: Cinebook
ISBN: 9781905460595
Comics can be trivial and frivolous (and that’s not always a bad thing), but they can also be thoughtful and intelligent and Alpha certainly falls into that second category.
Assia is a young gallery owner from Moscow visiting Paris to secure new pieces, although she also has deeper, darker reasons for travelling, meeting up with some shady individuals to discuss enormous deals involving Russian currency. It’s a very serious and dangerous situation, but her innocent cover of searching out Western artistic talent is allowing her to make many such trips. Unfortunately, the amount of money involved, and the criminal organisations she’s selling to, aren’t going to go unnoticed.
While in Paris she stumbles into a painter, Julian Morgan, who flashes his portfolio at her and charms his way into her daily routine for the days before her return to Moscow. Julian isn’t all that he seems, and is in fact a CIA operative tasked with getting close to Assia, although he’s been kept in the dark as to the full extent of the mission due to still being a relatively unknown quantity in the field. All this changes when Assia attempts to exchange billions of roubles at a luxury spa and the meeting is stormed by gunmen. Assia escapes by the skin of her teeth, but the certified cheques and their huge worth appear to be lost. The only person Assia feels she can turn to in Paris is Julian, placing her in perhaps the best position for her safe passage from the city.
The volume is actually a combination of the original first two books, so the second half moves the action to Moscow where we meet Assia’s older and very well-connected husband who is in the heart of the Russian establishment. We also learn of the Russian mafia’s involvement and the desperate measures being taken to retrieve the billions of roubles. Suspicions are rampant, accusations are flying, and bodies are piling up, and into this maelstrom strolls Julian, freshly briefed of the wider situation, to reacquaint himself with Assia and get some answers.
This is what you want from a good thriller. Well-paced, well-plotted and well-executed. It heads down a path that’s unusual enough to grip your attention and avoids treading on the overly-familiar aspects of the genre. Julian, so far, isn’t gung-ho or cocky, nor is he one of those strong, chisel-jawed action men. He seems almost ordinary, a little fresh-faced, and quite likeable. A very different character from Van Hamme’s XIII, which I think is quite deliberate, giving us a character with youth and inexperience but with a growing competence and what appears to be a fantastic memory. He’s intriguing enough that you’re interested to see how he’ll grow and cope with the situation.
Pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed Alpha and, like Cinebook’s The Scorpion, wish I’d picked it up sooner.
And if you liked that: Pick up volume 2
No comments yet.