The latest issue of Bubbles O’Seven from Bounce Comics eased through its Kickstarter at the end of last year and this fourth adventure sees our simian spy head East to the land of the rising sun.
There’s a suitably epic opening as Bubbles gets dropped off form the skies above Japan and floats into his latest mission of tracking down another former subject of the same program he emerged from. The subjects created by MI7 seem to span the globe and as the Eastern element takes centre stage there’s soon a whole cast of new apes for Bubble to weigh up and identify his allies & enemies.
The familiar elements of gadgets, Bond-themed humour and some big set pieces are there in Grainne McEntee’s plot but much like the previous issues there’s some key details of the program & Bubbles’ past sprinkled into the mix too. That gives the release the sense of a building mythology as we are gradually finding out more about the main character as he goes about his business of saving the world in as slick a fashion as possible.
Phil Buckenham takes on art duties this time around and he does an amazing job of capturing the all-out action & momentum of the main plot with those finer details in the backstory that help punctuate the direction of the whole series. Phil captures the scale that’s needed and the Eastern theme is a tangible element thanks to the mix of his art & the colours from Charlie Hogg who helps the pages glow yet again. Mike Stock does a fine job on lettering too with a better balance of narration/dialogue in this issue. That cover from co-creator Matt Rooke is a thing of beauty too and I HAVE to mention the parody of Mr Wint & Mr Kidd through the brilliant Mr Milton & Mr Keynes who look to be making a return in the next issue too…..glorious addition!!
It’s another stellar issue of Bubbles and having the art style change for each issue helps make each issue feel like its own self-contained world. The plot balance is just right yet again with the hints of Bubbles’ past slowly coming to the fore between those set pieces and mission struggles.
You can catch up with all the latest Bounce Comics titles & news over on the website & Twitter pages and get onto the Comichaus website & app for the previous issues.
8/10
G-Man
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