Spy Seal Vol. 1: The Corten-Steel Phoenix Review

Spy Seal Vol. 1: The Corten-Steel Phoenix
Story and art by: Rich Tomasso
Published by: Image Comics

Review by Cory Webber

Spy Seal is an anthropomorphic action-adventure about Malcolm Warner, an out-of-work, ex-military, jiu-jitsu practicing seal. While out with a friend at an art show, he becomes entangled in an international espionage adventure. What follows is a brisk, well-paced spy adventure.

Disclaimer: I love stories with anthropomorphic characters. Needless to say, I was in from the get-go.  Tomasso’s strength in this book is his characters and their dialogue. You really think that this animal-filled world is our world; I kept expecting to see humans pop up at any moment. In Spy Seal, there are some type-casting tropes with some of its characters. For example, dogs are great detectives, a mouse secretly delivers a message (in a very clever way, I might add), and bunnies are sexy, buxomly beasts (wait, that might actually be a stretch, creatively speaking). However, Spy Seal doesn’t rely too much at all on the typical stereotypes (think Zootopia). I mean, the subtitle of Spy Seal is, “Britain’s Slickest Secret Agent,” which doesn’t refer to Malcolm’s prowess, rather his slick seal skin.  The book moves at a great pace (4 issues spanning only 76 pages). However, some plot points resolve rather quickly at the expense of creating a more dramatic story. Given the nature of this book, though, I feel this was intentional. The fun of it is seeing this average, good guy fumble his way through his early missions and becoming a somewhat more adept spy.

The art in Spy Seal, also by Tomasso, is simple, colorful and fun to look at. Its style brought back memories of my youth of reading comic strips in the newspaper. The sense of movement between the panels was expertly crafted, whether it was an action scene or a dialogue-heavy sequence. The character designs were very well done. I think it would be easy to either make them look too much like a human or too much like an animal; Tomasso strikes a great balance between the two. The art and page layouts are reminiscent of early European classics like “The Adventures of TinTin.” There was one confusing sequence that, without giving away too much, involved Malcolm in a near-death sequence without an explanation as to how they survive. Maybe there are some handy seal attributes that I am unaware of; other than that, this was a wonderful example of superior sequential storytelling.

Verdict:
Buy it! Spy Seal is an entertaining action adventure, albeit a quick read with sometimes quicker resolutions. However, there is enough intrigue and mystery layered throughout to make you want to read it all in one sitting.