Codename: Action

• Title: Codename: Action #4 (of 6)
• Comic Vine: link
• Writer: Chris Roberson
• Artist: Jonathan Lau

Together Operative 1001 and Black Venus infiltrate the secret facility of Hexagon to rescue Operator 5 and get to the bottom of the shadowy organization’s plan to replace leaders around the world with doubles in an attempt to start World War III. However, they find far more than they expected.

Along with showing us the fate of all the missing heroes, including American Crusader (who offers some insight into the group’s experiments), the latest issue of Codename: Action offers the infiltration of a secret base, a mad scientist (who apparently is far more than just Hexagon’s head of the doppelganger program), torture, and plenty of action.

Codename: Action #4 ends with a late reveal and a cliffhanger that suggests Dr. Thorpe has his own agenda outside the plans of Hexagon as the mini-series moves into its final two issues with our heroes coming face-to-face with the series’ true face of evil. Worth a look.

[Dynamite Entertainment, $3.99]

• Title: Codename: Action #3 (of 6)
• Comic Vine: link
• Writer: Chris Roberson
• Artist: Jonathan Lau

The world is becoming a very strange and dangerous place. Black Venus has refused orders she know will plunge France into war and Operative 1001 finds himself on his own when Operator 5 is kidnapped and whisked away to an undisclosed location in the South Pacific at the mercy of the mad scientist who created the doppelgangers trying to push the world to the brink of war.

Each following their own leads Operative 1001 and Black Venus finally meet and, after a brief misunderstanding, discover they have been investigating the same strange mystery. Meanwhile, the forces behind the plot also capture The Spider while targeting various masked vigilantes who they are willing to take down, dead or alive.

Codename: Action #3, as a middle issue in a six-issue mini-series, works in continuing to push the storyline forward. The lethal combination of Black Venus and Operative 1001 should cause some problems for the mysterious enemy organization known as Hexagon. Worth a look.

[Dynamite Entertainment, $3.99]

• Title: Codename: Action #2 (of 6)
• Comic Vine: link
• Writer: Chris Roberson
• Artist: Jonathan Lau

After surviving the attack by unknown foreign agents thanks to their convertible submarine car, Operator 5 and the agency’s newest recruit Operative 1001 begin working together to try and discover who is behind the push for war and who wants them both out of the way.

Believing correctly important world leaders are being replaced, the two spies try to get one-step ahead of their unseen enemy by having Operator 5 replace a senator and try to lure the villains into the open with a speech before the United Nations calling for the end to nuclear proliferation. In France Black Venus and her team get their own bad news as the Prime Minister has called for the agents to publicly assassinate Soviet Operatives in Algeria, pushing the Cold War one step closer to igniting.

Issue #2 once again captures the feel of a cold war spy tale that also gives us an unexpected cameo from the Green Hornet and Kato that plays on larger themes of the comic but still seems a bit out of place. Worth a look.

[Dynamite Entertainment, $3.99]

• Title: Codename: Action #1 (of 6)
• Comic Vine: link
• Writer: Chris Roberson
• Artist: Jonathan Lau

Set during the Cold War, the first issue of the new six-issue mini-series from writer Chris Roberson and artist Jonathan Lau is an old James Bond-style spy thriller. Codename: Action #1 introduces us to newly appointed Operative 1001 who will work with the much more seasoned Operator 5 to stop a hidden force pushing the world to the brink of World War III by replacing influential figures on both sides of the Iron Curtain with doppelgangers determined for war.

Codename: Action #1 works as a spy thriller, although I’m not sure how the super-hero element (such as introducing Captain Action at the end of this issue) is going to work without changing the tone of the mini-series.

I have mixed feelings about Jonathan Lau’s art, but the action scenes definitely have a spy flavor to them and work better than the less action-packed panels. With Operative 1001’s graduation assignment, the car chase, and an aerial training manuever by a bevy of French female spies, there’s plenty of action for a comic with the word in its title. Worth a look.

[Dynamite Entertainment, $3.99]