Writer: Xavier Dorison
Penciller: Terry Dodson
Inker/Colorist: Rachel Dodson
Publisher: Image Comics
Alongside his work on the current Princess Leia book with Mark Waid, Terry Dodson is once again doing a monthly book, but Red One, originally published as Red Skin by Éditions Glénat BD in France is more of a passion project. Collaborating with French writer, Xavier Dorison, the Image miniseries is set during the late seventies which “is close to his heart.”
That period brings back a wave of nostalgia with such films as Star Wars, music by the Sex Pistols and tv shows like the Bionic Man, Charlie’s Angels, Wonder Woman, and the Incredible Hulk making a cultural impact. It’s during that era where top Russian agent Vera Yelnikov is dispatched to America to infiltrate and spread communist values, but also to investigate the Carpenter, a serial killer who is murdering liberals across the country, by becoming a “superhero” in the vein of Evel Knievel.
Compared to Princess Leia, Red One is quite a wordy affair as word balloons are squeezed into panels, it’s quite jarring for someone bought up to read American comics yet the first issue is quite entertaining. Dorison also captures Brezhnev era Russia quite well as it shows weary, working class Russians queuing outside a shop and Vera having to share her bed with her flatmates.
Dorison’s script allows Dodson to have fun when drawing characters he’s never drawn before. He’s faithfully aided and abetted by wife and inker Rachel Dodson. Whilst in modern times where scantily clad super heroines are looked at with scorn online, the introduction to the heroine is a pure cheese cake moment yet it’s tastefully done as ogling Russian troops queue to vie for Vera’s attention, who almost resembles Lynda Carter as she displays her athletic prowess in a gym.
In many early spy books Russians were often seen as the antagonists to the main character, but things have changed characters such as Natasha Romanov has a title of her own and are commanding healthy sales, Red One offers a unique inversion of the spy who came in from the cold.