Modesty Blaise: Bad Suki (Modesty Blaise (Graphic Novels))

This volume contains :

Bad Suki from 1968
The Galley Slaves from 1968
The Red Gryphon from 1968/69

Willie saves a drugged out hippie chick from breaking her neck - and given the pair's hatred of drugs, they decide to do some investigating, after getting some advice from a friend in the police.

Sometimes it is the little old ladies who are the evil bad guys in this, the most dated of the stories. Modesty and Willie are out to take no prisoners here.

3.5 out of 5

Modesty and Willie are taking a holiday with a wealthy friend who owns a nice boat. Unfortunately he has a bunch of others along for the ride who are snobby rich bitches, as Modesty puts it, and they give the cockney Garvin a very hard time. So the pair decide to bail out literally, swimming for a desert island.

Willie cannot believe his eyes after they have been there a short time, and he is making a raft - when he spots a Roman trireme. A movie is being made by director Eddie Grant, and he has chosen this island for location shooting.

Grant gives them a lift to civilisation, where they run into Gerald Tarrant - who is part of a CIA operation to recover a missing item the spooks want badly. The man who has it is an ex-acquaintance of the pair from their Network days named Lim - who has lost his panache, according to Modesty, and is now a ruthless criminal. However, he saved her life in the past which complicates things. And also leads to a bunch of film crew in chains rowing, and a battle on a trireme.

5 out of 5

Modesty is romancing a young Italian architect in Vienna - who is restoring an old building for a wealthy client. He comes across a letter in the process, belonging to an ancestor of a rival who takes his lineage very seriously. Two young street urchins get in the way, to Modesty's amusement - as they remind her of her. What they nick from her boyfriend, however, gets him killed.

Modesty wants revenge, and enlists Willie's help to pose as a man who can use a thermic lance to crack the secret of The Red Gryphon, and help her dispose of some human Viennese rubbish.

4 out of 5

http://freesf.strandedinoz.com/wordpress/2010/11/modesty-blaise-05-bad-suki/ ( )

Ah, that's more like it. Three stories - the first is Bad Suki, which is weird. Modesty and Willie are really on a hunt - this, I think, is the first place where Modesty's anti-pusher feeling is shown, at least so vividly. Well, it comes up in Mister Sun, too, but she expresses it more strongly here. And they're nicely snookered by Suki! The comedy of errors when Brookie shows up again is - quite realistic, actually. Good story overall, though a bit dated, as Walt Simonson says in the introduction. It is very firmly a hippie story, though it would work just as well with a less time-limited sub-culture. Nice story with neat tricks. And poor Brookie. Next is The Galley Slaves, which I enjoy. The settings are neat, Modesty and Willie encounter an old friend who isn't anymore (so we get a sideways glimpse of The Network), Tarrant gets sneaky, the final battle is wonderful - this one is great all around. Then comes The Red Griffon - it's good, but poor Max. The drawings of the boy annoyed me - he always has his mouth wide open! Ugly. Again, Modesty and Willie are outfoxed, but the villain is definitely fighting out of his weight class. With all the handicaps they're under, he still never gets close to winning except once by surprise. And then they call on Freddie again - I like when characters show up again, with a bit of continuity. Though just how Modesty got from Papeete to Venice - well, by plane I suppose, but why and where did she meet Max and all the rest. Oh well, it can't really be a day-by-day story. ( )

http://mscongeniality.vox.com/library/post/reading-2007-january-17.html ( )