The Mission

Wayne Shelton #1

by Jean Van Hamme, Christian Denayer (Illustrations)

Meet Wayne Shelton, the man you call when you want the impossible done. When a high-ranking official of a small nation in the Caucasus is killed in a car accident, the plans of a massive multinational corporation are derailed by one man: the unfortunate French trucker who caused the accident. Pressure from the unions in France and the military in Khalakjistan prevents a quick diplomatic solution. So, to secure its own interests, the corporation calls upon the one man who can break the trucker out of prison and disarm the confrontation: Wayne Shelton.

Genres: Comics, Bande Dessinée, Crime, Comic Book

56 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

Jean Van Hamme, is a Belgian novelist and comic book writer. He has written scripts for a number of Belgian/French comic series, including Histoire sans héros, Thorgal, XIII, Blake and Mortimer, Lady S and Largo Winch.

More on the brilliant, Jean Van Hamme:
http://lambiek.net/artists/v/van-hamm...

Reviews

[Grady · Rating 4 out of 5]

The art is great, the characters are distinct and interesting, and the set up of the heist is perfect - with everything either ready to go unexpectedly right or terribly wrong in the next volume. The main character is smart, but is shown to be fallible, so future troubles will be plausible. It’s not deep, but it is satisfying.

[Illumi · Rating 1 out of 5]

It should be marketed as humor. A pity they market it as a suspense thriller. Your sense of humor is as impeccable as ever Mr. Van Hamme.

P.s: The name of the heroine is Honesty Goodwill. How imaginative.

[Zare · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wayne Shelton, Vietnam war veteran, smuggler and mercenary is hired to plan prison break-out. Goal is not the prisoner himself but furthering the profits of the international company currently obstructed by the imprisonment in the first place (again not because of the person but because of international relations - companies base country (France) has imposed sanctions to the country that holds the man prisoner (since he is Frenchman) and this is causing great difficulties to the company).

Story is pretty standard adventure - bunch of mercenaries, smugglers and shady characters group up together in order to achieve their goal.

Minus side is that this is just first part, volume ends with he cliffhanger and actual prison break is to take place in volume 2 :)

Recommended to fans of thrillers and general adventure stories.

[Stephen Theaker · Rating 3 out of 5]

My enjoyment of this was greatly enhanced by reading Wayne Shelton's dialogue in the voice of Matt Berry.