King of Spies

King of Spies #1-4

by Mark Millar (Writer), Matteo Scalera (Illustrator), Giovanna Niro (Colorist)

The world's greatest secret agent has six months to live. Does he die quietly in a hospital bed or make up for a lifetime of bad decisions? He's been propping up an unfair system for over forty years. Now he knows where all the bodies are buried and has nothing to lose as he turns his guns on everyone who ever made a buck as they created the mess we're in right now.

Collects King of Spies #1-4

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics, Thriller, Comic Book, Fiction, Espionage, Graphic Novels Comics

136 pages, Paperback

First published May 11, 2022

About the author

Mark Millar is the New York Times best-selling writer of Wanted, the Kick-Ass series, The Secret Service, Jupiter’s Legacy, Jupiter’s Circle, Nemesis, Superior, Super Crooks, American Jesus, MPH, Starlight, and Chrononauts. Wanted, Kick-Ass, Kick-Ass 2, and The Secret Service (as Kingsman: The Secret Service) have been adapted into feature films, and Nemesis, Superior, Starlight, War Heroes, Jupiter’s Legacy and Chrononauts are in development at major studios.

His DC Comics work includes the seminal Superman: Red Son, and at Marvel Comics he created The Ultimates – selected by Time magazine as the comic book of the decade, Wolverine: Old Man Logan, and Civil War – the industry’s biggest-selling superhero series in almost two decades.

Mark has been an Executive Producer on all his movie adaptations and is currently creative consultant to Fox Studios on their Marvel slate of movies.

Reviews

[Jayson · Rating 3 out of 5]

(B) 75% | More than Satisfactory
Notes: Outright ugly, written smugly, ends a real dud, the art's a smash (so not all trash), a spongy concept soaked in blood.

*Progress updates: Preamble ◦ Issues #1-2 ◦ Issues #3-4

[Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Six months to live. Three in good health . . . Just enough time for a final mission. I'm going rid the world of all the old monsters and try to make it up to the people I let down . . . So listen up, all the presidents and kings, all you crooks on your thrones - you're going to pay for wasting my life like this. I might be going to hell for the terrible things I've done, but I'm taking you @#$%s with me." -- Roland King

Sometimes a book so nasty and nihilistic comes along that you may be repulsed, and wonder just how the hell it ever saw the light of day past the proverbial drawing board . . . and then there are days where this type of book is EXACTLY what the doctor ordered if you are in a cynical mindset. (Any guesses as to what type of day I was having at the time?) Millar's graphic novel King of Spies is one extremely dark and bleak piece of dramatic business, a very ultra-violent and action-oriented revenge fantasy featuring the septuagenarian British government operative / assassin Roland King - known worldwide in certain spy circles and feared for several decades - being handed his very own death sentence courtesy of a fatal illness diagnosis. Upon starkly realizing in his waning days that his puppet masters - those supposedly patriotic powers-that-be that regularly handed him assignments - are lately just as corrupt or evil as his former targets, he sets out to clean house in an international sense. No amoral or unscrupulous bigwig in any high political office, organized religion and/or the entertainment industry is safe as the ailing King hops the globe to 'terminate with extreme prejudice' using his deadly expertise. It was exhilarating like a great action movie, involving as any well-written short story, and even humorous, plus King's choice of quarries - especially those involved in child abuse, sexual assault allegations, and/or human trafficking - also topically taps into our 'in real life' frustrations with those powerful or protected folks seemingly beyond the reach of justice. Musician Toby Keith once sang "this big dog will fight when you rattle his cage", and with King of Spies a fierce hellhound is off the chain and gunning for those who have escaped their reckoning for way too long.

[Alexander Peterhans · Rating 1 out of 5]

Some thoughts..

1. I haven't read a huge lot of Mark Millar's work, but the couple of titles I have read haven't impressed me a whole lot. Generally they've felt kind of empty, and purely created to create a new Netflix IP. So that's where we start from.

2. So then I read the first issue, and there's the usual Millar stuff - ultraviolence and gore, men being manly (albeit in a slightly unconvincing ironic way), not a whole lot of characterisation. But then Millar introduces the idea that the main character wants to make amends, and it is tied to him having been a bad father to his son, and I'm instantly suspicious.. is Millar seriously trying to have an emotional layer, and a political layer..?

So, this is me:



Also, four issues feel likes a very tight fit for such a story.

3. The son is a bad man, and it is suggested that this is because his father (our MC) was a terrible father (and husband), but his son is comically evil. It's the kind of non-nuance I'm expecting from Millar.

4. So the MC is an ex-spy who decides to take out all kinds of scummy people. That's a solid idea, but it's also strangely generic. It's also weird that the MC doesn't seem to care about collateral damage - he'll blow up the restaurant a bad man is in, and not just take out the bad man. This makes it that I don't really care about the whole redemption-by-murder thing, it feels like an empty gesture.

5. And then the whole thing implodes in the last issue. The last issue is terrible. One of the dumbest, most childish things I've read in a while.

6. There's redemption FOR EVERYONE! And there was much rejoicing. This ending is ridiculous, and thoroughly unconvincing. It's an embarrassingly childish idea of morality, even for a comic, even for Mark Millar. It's insulting to his readers' intelligence.

7. That the MC is called Roland King, and the book is called King of Spies just instantly makes me think of Alan Partridge.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ns8XQ...

8. Matteo Scalera's art is great, as it always is. The man knows how to draw an action scene.

[A.J. · Rating 4 out of 5]

A James Bond-like character recieves a cancer diagnoses and decides to take out all the bad people he took orders from/protected over the years. Pretty simple and well-executed concept by Mark Millar that leads to your standard spy thriller. This one does stand-out to me though, as it has some neat twists & turns, incredibly fun action, and hilariously over-the-top bad guys that all come together to make a cohesive package that just works. The art by Matteo Scalera is very scratchy and some may not jive with it, but I personally thought it was great. The action scenes were kinetic, and it just worked perfectly for the story Millar was telling.

This won’t change your mind on Millar if you already dislike him and/or think he’s a total hack who just writes movie pitches as comic books (which he totally does do btw), but it is fun enough that it never needs to be anything more than a fun 4 issue mini that’ll probably make a fun movie one day. I don’t regret reading this at all.

Pick this up if you like Mark Millar books or anything James Bond related, and skip if you are anyone else.

[✔️ JAVI ®️ · Rating 4 out of 5]

8/10 ⭐⭐⭐⭐
“Al mejor agente secreto del mundo le queda medio año de vida...
...y ha llegado el momento de ir a por los cabrones de verdad”

Cómic repleto de acción con resultado gore en más de un enfrentamiento. Recomendado solo para lectores adultos tal como dice la portada.
El superespía Sir Roland King es una especie de James Bond pero más duro y despiadado. Él solo contra el mundo. Tiroteos y explosiones imposibles... ¡Pero mola muchísimo!
Un solo tomo autoconclusivo formado por cuatro números que se quedan en 128 páginas. Para leer de una sentada.
Un buen guión de Mark Millar, no una obra maestra como dice la contraportada, pero buena historia. Matteo Scalera crea el impacto visual con su dibujo. El dibujo que cuando estás en la librería y abres el cómic te lo llevas. Ese dibujo que gusta e impresiona en los cómics de acción. Mencionar también el color de Giovanna Niro, se sale con los efectos de luz.

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[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.25 stars. Decent. So Roland King is one of the best spies in the business but not that great at being a father. He left his son and his mother behind. His son did however follow in his footsteps and got into the same field. But eventually, Roland gets hit with some big news. He has cancer. The tumor is already big and the doctors give him 6 months to live. Roland figures 3 months with good health. So he decides to use those 3 months to take out the real monsters. Priests, Hollywood execs, CEOs etc etc. All those that have committed the foulest acts but never go to prison for it. Now the powers that be are trying to figure how to stop him. In a crazy turn of events, his own son, Atticus has been tasked with taking him out. The book is short, only 4 issues, so it hits the ground running moving at a break neck speed. This hinders the book from doing any real character development or world building. Don’t really get a chance to get invested in what’s going on. So with that being said, the book still had some cool looking art and some dope action sequences. Ended up being pretty cool.

[Kadi P · Rating 1 out of 5]

Depressing and distasteful, this comic followed an unlikeable retired spy who acted abominably during his prime and as an old man spent his days drinking and berating his past self for actions he couldn’t change.

It was a relentless pity party and when the protagonist wasn’t spending his time endlessly whining about past choices he couldn’t change, he was pinning all the blame on others for his own choices that he consciously made. Then, in the most ludicrous and hypocritical move possible, the pot called the kettle black and the retired spy attempted to be the knight in shining armour that no one asked for. His misguided crusade to kill all the bad people in the world was simplistic, stupid, and unbearably sanctimonious.

And, as if that wasn’t enough, it was consistently crude for no reason other than to be inflammatory, the pacing was ridiculous and the ending made no sense at all. The only thing of partial merit to be found in this comic was its art, everything else was beyond poor.

[Subham · Rating 5 out of 5]

This one was so good omg!

This has gotta be one of my favorite reads of the year and its truly epic!

Roland king, super spy finds out he has a few months to live and he is in his mid 60s and thus he goes on a mission to get rid of the monsters in the world and we see him take down corrupt politicians and bureaucrats are corporates and what not and its epic and I love how action oriented it is and it feels like a movie omg, I love the thrills here and him being chases by British intelligence and his son Atticus on the hunt for him and such a great plot and then seeing his past in flashbacks and then in the present what happens with his son and how he goes out and a long lost daughter also..?

Umm yeah its a lot to take in but its actually a movie the way its written and its awesome, its like Pierce brosnan's James bond came out of retirement and had one last epic adventure and I love it for that plus what happens to the British royal palace lol, its kinda weirdly tarantino-esque and yeah for that alone a must read and also the art is just gorgeous!! <3!

[Al · Rating 4 out of 5]

At one time, I was as big of a Mark Millar fan as anyone. I suspect I still am. But in recent years, he imagines himself some kind of Stan Lee ‘fountain of content’ guy.

Now, one side effect has been the expected diminishing returns that comes with being over prolific. But another outcome is that I don’t know that I recognize the Millar brand anymore.

Which is odd because there’s no doubting the success of the Kingsman franchise, but I’m not picturing Millar writing this right away.

Spies (even over the top hard boiled spies) seems more the province of Ed Brubaker and others. Garth Ennis recently wrote a Peacemaker comic and I’m not sure anyone would notice if you switched the two out. Go down the list and there are a number of writers - Greg Rucka and Tom King, for two- who seem more likely paired to the title.

That said, there are some common Millar tropes (the ultra violence of Kick A$$, the Superman story of Huck) and oh this is Old Man (James)Bond, isn’t it?

But that’s not a bad thing. Matteo Scalera isn’t a bad pairing as artist. It won’t be everybody’s cup of tea, but I like the mood that comes with the pairing.

King of Spies is an enjoyable read and if you are a Millar fan, you will like it. The focus on one character and the story surrounding him works well. Millar’s story certainly feels like a Rated R Action movie.

That said, the plot is such an overused trope that the book just kind of blends into the environment. Definitely works against the book being a stand out.

(Read as single issue comic books)

[Rod Brown · Rating 1 out of 5]

Mark Millar's movie pitches in comic book form are always worth a look, even if they are misses more often than they are hits. Alas, this newest one is very much a miss.

An aging James Bond type is dying from a terminal illness, and in his bitterness he decides to pull the people he used to work for into the grave with him. If you've ill will in your heart for George W. Bush, Pope Benedict XVI, and Prince Andrew, you'll maybe get a momentary chuckle, but the rest is a tiresome and increasingly ludicrous series of action set pieces duct-taped together with father and son issues straight out of Harry Chapin's "Cat's in the Cradle" song.

Pure dross.

[Robert · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well done as it is, it's still a derivative copycat of half a dozen others that did it earlier and better.

[Shannon · Rating 2 out of 5]

Individual issue reviews: #1 | #2 | #3 | #4

Total review score: 2.25

[OmniBen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this again recently and it was NOWHERE near as good the second time around. Hmmm. 3/5

(Zero spoiler review) 4.75/5
James Bond is a franchise circling the drain. You can likely guess why, it's 2023 after all. Truth be told, despite a few select films, the Bond franchise has never appealed to me all that much. The OTT cheese and absurdity of so much of it has always bothered me. Brosnan was good, but that fell apart at the end. Craig was good too, but like I said, it's 2023. And you know what, I could care less about Bond's spiraling demise, because King of Spies is everything a Bond movie should've been, and then some. Start making good King of Spies movies and it would be 'James who' for all eternity. Make it animated, too. Just clone Mateo Scalera, who must be the greatest artist in comics today, have his army of clones draw the whole thing and you would be diving into a pool of money, Scrooge McDuck style.
Bloody and brutal and far more grounded, and with some of the most lavishing and evocative art you will ever see in a comic book, this is how you do it. A violent story of revenge and retribution, with enough smarts and heart along the way to round it out and stop it from being just another bland and plot deprived action movie. The only criticism's I could really throw at it are the fact that its four issues and out, seemingly. We've already established Roland King as something of an asshole until his crisis of conscious, so a prequel of him being said douchebag to continue the series isn't going to be to many peoples liking. That and the twin assassins seemed a little underdone and disposable, but those are minor gripes. And there's nothing wrong with telling a great story and letting it rest there. Let's be honest, how often are the sequels better than the original? A few, but not many. Just enjoy this for what it is. Four of the best issues of comics to be printed in a very long time. 4.75/5


OmniBen.

[Dakota Morgan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I mean...it's Mark Millar. The man's untethered from the bounds of reality. In King of Spies, an aged British spy/assassin is given six months to live, so he decides to take out all the villains he's ever encountered. "Villain" being a term used broadly here.

The action is, of course, insane. In a flashback, the spy jumps otf a skyscraper, slams into the roof of a car, and then hops up as if he merely stepped off a curb. Matteo Scalera's artwork is so perfectly suited to Millar's storytelling style that it's almost literally mind-blowing. The plot is, of course, nonsense, but the art and pure wackiness more than make up for any gaps in logical storytelling.

If you've liked any previous Millarworld tales, you'll dig this one too. Simple as that.

[Guilherme Smee · Rating 2 out of 5]

Lendo Rei dos Espiões finalmente tive um estalo e entendi sobre o que tratam a maior parte das obras de Mark Millar: sobre a crise da masculinidade e a crise da meia-idade. Duvida? Vamos pensar os títulos do Millar em sua fase independente. Kick-Ass é sobre um guri que não se sente guri e precisa apelar para a violência descabida para que possa, finalmente, se tornar pleno. Procurado é sobre um bobalhão que se frustra com o trabalho e vira um vilão porra-louca. Jesus Americano é um menino bozinho demais pra ser macho, tem que ser o diabo, que aí sim ele é macho de verdade. Starlight, Legado de Júpiter, Rei dos Espiões, todos eles lidam com homens velhos resolvendo seus problemas de crise de masculinidade e da velhice metendo porrada nos outros pra recuperar a juventude (e a macheza) perdida. Kingsman, assim como Rei dos Espiões, é baseado em 007, mas são espiões deprimidos e preocupados com seu status que caiu em desgraça. Passando a mensagem do "macho alfa" para outros homens se sentem vitalizados novamente. A Ordem Mágica também lida com essa lógica. Crononautas traz homens no melhor estilo bonvivant e playboys, assim como muitos outros títulos de Millar como Nêmesis e MPH que apostam na narrativa dos superricos para vender suas HQs. Superior, além de trazer a mensagem do homem adulto como sujeito realizador também traz uma menagem capacitista. O mesmo pode ser dito de Huck. Mesmo os quadrinhos que trazem mulheres como protagonistas, tais como Imperatriz e Renascida, também lidam com crises de meia-idade e um machismo enrustido. Quem sabe uma hora eu faça uma análise mais acadêmica e profunda sobre isso, mas acho que encontrei o cerne da questão do Millarworld...

[Theediscerning · Rating 3 out of 5]

When the dust settles on a risibly OTT action scene, we see the British superstyled secret agent concerned, who turns out to be someone who could have walked out of the Kingsman series, via Ennis' The Boys. With a fine flair for his idea of justice, he's about to put the world to rights when he collapses, and is told he has six months left alive, max. The honed sense of justice then turns him into a full-on vigilante, intent on stopping the world going to hell in a handcart, offing all the people he had been employed to protect and get to power, and so on. The only person who can restore the status quo? His errant son...

I don't know what handicaps this more. It might be the need to mention dodgy American presidents, British royal princes who need shutting up, someone who caused a car crash that killed a princess (??!!) and more, and yet all without the ability to name real names. It might be the fact this is ye olde Mark Millar, and a complete hodge-podge of yawnsome ultraviolence with something that might be pitched as The Dark Kingsman Rises. The very average artwork, the stupid characters, the reductive politics that lead nobody anywhere – all this smacks of Millar treading water yet again.

[Connie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read a digital copy of this book.

I read this book alongside the Nerd Herd Comic Book Club, here's the episode link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ca_nf...

King of Spies follows Roland King, the world's best secret agent (think James Bond but cruder) after he is diagnosed with a terminal illness and given six months to live. What do you do when you know you're going to die? You make the world "better" of course. In Roland's case, this is taking out those that deserve it with him. Roland goes on a spree across the world, leaving a trail of blood on his tail and the agency wants him dead. Who better to send after a King than his own son?

This cat-and-mouse, or really cat-and-cat, chase was dynamic, interesting and actually in the end, quite emotional. Roland and his son have been estranged for a while, and his son is determined to be as different from his dad as possible, never recognising their similarities. Yet, in the end, we almost get a forgiveness arc between them, even though well...the six months come to an end. We see emotional moments throughout the book too as Roland checks in on his daughter who he has never really known and who doesn't know him, and honestly, it was just a really good and quick read.

[Katherine (Kat) · Rating 3 out of 5]

#1: 2.5/5
#2: 3.5/5
#3: 4/5
#4: 2.5/5

Thank you Scott for recommending me this!

[Bill Coffin · Rating 1 out of 5]

Hoo, boy. Let’s start with the good about this tale of the world’s deadliest British superspy who receives a terminal cancer diagnosis and decides to spend his final months assassinating every powerful person who deserves it. Matteo Scalera’s artwork is tip-top and high-octane, capturing action scenes with special energy and style. Seriously, this book is a joy to look at. It doesn’t hurt that our protagonist, Roland King, rocks an especially awesome and dapper look. But that’s where the good vibes go suddenly, savagely off the rails.

King of Spies is Mark Millar at his Mark Millar-iest, and not in a good way. Lazy ramblings about how everyone in power is a bastard worthy of a bullet to the head? Check. Contradictory wanking over free-range superpower stuff so you can then pillory free-range superpower stuff? Check. Bastard characters we’re supposed to hate but Millar can’t stop indulging himself with them to make them truly difficult to love? Sudden personality reversals among key characters without any convincing explanation? Check. Handwavy final-moment resolutions that deflate any sense of narrative stakes? Check. And worst of all, a disturbingly recent phenomenon: Strip-mining older-better stories of his own to tell a tale that feels like he dashed it off in a single weekend? CHECK.

I decided this year I would try to write only one- and five-stat reviews. Five stars for the books I totally live, and one star for the books that aren’t just bad but actually bug me for committing some narrative sin (usually, cynical half-assery or a repugnant view of humanity in general). With King of Spies, my one-star review is mostly for cynical half-assery, but it is more than that. The more Millar does his thing, the more hollow and hypocritical it all feels. One gets the feeling he didn’t kill the Queen in this one because she was about to die already, but that would be a convenient excuse for copping out on his own story at the highest possible level.

But the real crime here is that Millar is so much better than this. I get it; he’s got to keep the lights on and the fridge stocked, but churning out beautifully drawn stories with less plot than a Mack Bolan novel is gonna chew up one’s own credibility along the way. I have another Millar graphic novel on my to-read pile and I am convinced I will see the same shortcomings there as I see here; the only question will be the degree of their severity. Perhaps Roland King’s self-loathing in this story is Millar��s own cry for help over where his writing career has taken him. I sure hope not; that would be terribly sad. But even sadder? Seeing how it could be plausible.

[Matt Graupman · Rating 3 out of 5]

This comic is, as the kids are saying nowadays, really “mid.” “King Of Spies” is very stylish, courtesy of Matteo Scalera’s lively art, but Mark Millar’s AARP-James-Bond-with-cancer-and-a-conscience revenge tale is too cliched to keep up. It’s violent, it’s sorta fun at times, I guess, and it’s been done better elsewhere. Maybe it’s because of the world we live in lately but I’m pretty sick of angry old white men.

[Chalupa Batman · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of Millar’s best stories in quite some time…thoroughly enjoyed it.

[Thomas Bruso · Rating 4 out of 5]

Revenge is best served cold. I love Millar's work.

[Karthik M · Rating 5 out of 5]

Old Man Logan meets James Bond.

[Sananab · Rating 1 out of 5]

mark millar king of subtlety

[Daryn Moore · Rating 4 out of 5]

If this was a Bond film, then maybe I'd be a Bond fan.

Super enjoyable espionage action from Millar with goddamn killer artwork by Scalera.
Seriously; the art is absolute gold and some of those action sequences had me staring at panels for extended periods of time as I contemplated just exactly how the hell he achieved such visuals.

It only lost 1 star because I felt the ending was a bit abrupt and the overall story/series could've actually used maybe two more issues to make the narrative pace feel a bit less rushed.

[Brendan Mckillip · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book gets 3 stars from me only because of the outstanding art from Matteo Scalera. Otherwise it would be a 2. Because when you look past the art you get writing that is smug and a story that is hollow. Characters that are paper thin and make decisions that don’t make any sense. But damn if this books doesn’t look fantastic. It’s too bad Scalera didn’t have a story worthy of his talents to illustrate.

[Jesse A · Rating 3 out of 5]

Feels both rushed and talky at the same time. Like a rough draft of a movie (that I'd definitely see). The art was good.

[Christopher Funk · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is what Mark Millar succeeds at: hyper violent cathartic experiences. The ending was expected but still hit as hard as ever. What a wonderful ride.

[Richard · Rating 2 out of 5]

Solid art and decent action. As others have said, the story isn't really anything to write home about, but it's a solid and short bit of entertainment.

[Kaelyn H · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the storyline of our main character Roland and his way to seek revenge after getting his life-altering news; take out all the bad guys. I do with this story had more build-up and plot before and after the diagnosis.