The Middle Man: The Third Volume: Inescapability by Javier Grillo-Marxuach, art by Les McClaine
Viper Comics, $9.95, 108pp, tp, 9780979368011. Graphic novel.
Warning: this review contains some spoilers.
I wanted to be lightly amused, I wanted to find this book a pleasant diversion, in a somewhat condescending tone of voice. Well, I’m still new to graphic novels, and this one was named one of 2007’s “Great Graphic Novels for Teens” by the America Library Association.
Boy was I wrong. I loved it. Good story, decent art, lots of layers of interesting and amusing references, and characters I could relate to (well, those who were supposed to be real people, as opposed to the characters who were supposed to be parodies of movie characters—but even those parodies were very well done).
The Middleman is a super-secret agent, kind of like James Bond or Mr. Incredible, but working for a much smaller, more secret agency that may or may not be connected to some government. Actually, he’s got a lot in common with Batman, even down to having a sidekick who was (in the opening flashback) the Middleboy. Sadly for the Middleman (more so, I should think, for the Middleboy), he was killed by the evil Kanimang Kang. The Middleman’s new sidekick/partner/trainee is a girl (a hot one, at that) named Wendy, who, when she’s not learning how to save the world (or actually doing it while saving the Middleman’s neck), is a struggling artist. Of course, her two worlds intersect when she gets a last-minute interview to get into a wonderful gallery show just as she has to run out on another secret mission. Fortunately, Wendy’s curvaceous roommate Lacey can double for her at the gallery. Not so fortunately, Lacey doesn’t have a clue what to say. Fortunately, Wendy has the communications gear to talk her through the interview, all while fighting off a pack of ninjas in kendo armor. Well, that’s just an appetite whetter on their way to rescuing the kidnapped scientist, discovering that he’s already given the bad guy what he wanted, and then pulling several deuces out of convenient machinae to save the day. Oh, and Wendy does get the gallery showing, but Lacey gets the accolades. Bummer, dude.
If there was a James Bond movie they didn’t reference/copy/skewer, I’ll be surprised. And the “annotations” at the end of the book are almost as good as the story itself. If the writer and artist were actually considering everything they say they were, this book must have taken them a decade or two to put together. But it’s great reading.
You’ll especially like Wendy asking the Middleman “why are you wearing a complete wet suit with gloves, while I’m in the briefest of bikinis?” And the Middleman’s foreknowledge of every trap they walk in to is definitely a zen kind of James Bond thing.
I’m impressed; I like it; I want more. I wonder if they have the previous issues still available?