Fire: Definitive Collection by Brian Michael Bendis (1999)
Requirements: CBR Reader, 107 MB
Overview: Imagine that you are a shy, quiet college student. Just an average guy trying to get through each day as best he can. Then your government contacts you. They want you to be part of an experiment in the art of human covert operations. Instead of creating an agent from someone within their own ranks, they want to create an agent from nobody, from scratch, from you Loosely based on events in the American intelligence community during the Reagan administration, Fire tells the unique and powerful story of a young man’s journey through the complex world of international intelligence. Fire was Bendis’ first major work and helped him attract and develop a new audience for crime graphic novels that he would further challenge in later works such as Jinx, Goldfish, Torso, and Powers.
- Your government does not want you to read this book!
Fire: Definitive Collection
- Brian Michael Bendis writer, artist.
Published by Caliber Comics, Image Comics, 1993-2001
- Should I set this book on "Fire"? Reviewed by Silkcuts on Feb. 11, 2011.
- I would like to state I have never read the original release of Fire so I cannot compare the remaster to the originals. I am mixed feelings about this book. The premise is cool, it is about a new type of spy. The older spies are outdated because of technology, the newer spies are orphans or loners with no attachments. This is a story about Benjamin Furst, one of these "new" spies form Project Fire. The problem I have with this book is Bendis’ writing. This is the oldest story he wrote that I know of and I admire a man who can write and draw, but there is something in his narrative where he looses me. Maybe it is the "snazzier dialogue" he updated in the book that was boring and felt out of place. Maybe it is the art itself, some of the layouts are wonderful and I really like it, but then there are panels where I can’t tell what is what because of the heavy black on white. There is also issues with the binding where some dialogue is hard to read being trapped in the binding. I really like the single sex scene and think it is the best scene artistically in the whole book. The ending was okay, I was expecting better. I would not recommend this as a key Bendis book, it is nice to see his more humble beginnings, but this book is not a must have, unless you are a Bendis fan.
Cheers
- – Silkcuts.
Early Bendis work worth a read, Reviewed by David Kozlowski (Alameda, CA USA) June 20, 2002.
- This is the seminal work by Brian Michael Bendis. Fire is an espionage/CIA thriller reminiscent of "Three Days of the Condor". Here Bendis tells the story of a young college student recruited into a dark corridor of the CIA and onward through his first several missions. Bendis uses flashbacks to pace the story, but it would have been just as effective told linearly.
The art is, well, just ok. It appears that Bendis assembled all of the elements via photo reference and traced them onto art board using an overhead projector, then embellished with Photoshop. That is just a guess, but I doubt that I’m far off. It gets the job done, but can be distracting at times. One of the characters is actually Candice Bergen (Murphy Brown), I know this because she is credited at the end of the story. Perhaps Candice is a family friend, because the role is less than flattering and I doubt she was used without permission.
While I may sound critical I am stunned that this was the work of a first-time writer. Bendis tells a simple story with a lot of subtext (loneliness, need for acceptance, government conspiracy). The story is obvious, but not terribly predictable. Anyone wondering if they should/could write a first short story or graphic novel should measure themselves against this work.
Download Instructions:
Fire: Definitive Collection — http://novafile.com/qfodyxmk7x88
- Mirror:
- Fire: Definitive Collection — http://oron.com/dgxn7l9dkvlx
