Cully Hamner

Short but interesting story of retired agent specialized in bringing down countries, people, man,woman and children as long as it is in interest of his country.

Paul Moses is a walking legend of undercover "foreign acquisition department" of CIA, happily retired and going through nightmares every day while trying to live with what he did while being active agent. When new director goes through briefing and finds out about Moses he is deeply disturbed - not because of what he did mind you but because people may find out. And worse - they could find out about it on his watch, while he is director.

So he does what every popular politician does - he decides to kill Moses [by sending group of fresh Paul-Moses-like assassins - I mean like actions that Moses did stopped when he retired, get real) and this triggers Moses to go after those who sanctioned his murder.

I especially liked the discussion between Moses and Kane (one of the director assistants) - here we can see that while administrations change main objectives are the same and state-machine is ready to continue (mis)using walking weapons like Moses while it can to finally dispose him in worst possible way when he is no longer needed.

Great story of a man trying to live with himself for his deeds in the past getting pushed to the very edge by [true un-human] career politicians and policy makers who see everyone but themselves as cannon fodder. This is not the first time novel is based on this subject - but do give it a try, you are going to enjoy it.

Art is great, action is non-stop, only it is a short one (70-something pages).

Highly recommended to all fans of action and thrillers.… (more)

Normally I'd be beside myself that they would bastardize the film to release this solely for a cash grab, but Cully Hammer pulled this one out of his ass without Warren Ellis, who chose not to participate in these. Not too shabby.

RED: Better RED Than Dead is a prequel that answers the questions the film presented, which is really how Paul (now Frank in this to go with the film) Moses, Victoria, Joe, and Marvin became the REDs essentially.

Moses is ready to retire. He's getting a conscious about the job and is ready to take the brass ring and the watch package. His superiors decide he need to go guard the black guy running for POTUS. The mission is a clusterfuck and shows the treachery of the CIA getting what they want when they want out of him, which eventually leads to his retirement. There is also another story with him where he's training another agent who winds up being questionable in their allegiances, and in true Moses fashion, he gets to the bottom of it.

Victoria's story ties into Ivan's - this is the backstory of their 50 year love affair, which if you watched the movie you know she shot him three times in the chest when they were young. This tale explains the particulars of that and why it made him love her more while she ascended to being one of the best wetwork killers in the business.

Joe, the black guy, is sent to extract Russians, as if that's believable back in the 60s/70s. He also gets into a kerfluffle and gets the tables turned on him. He's good with a gun and he's quick on his feet so of course he gets out in tact, but of all the back stories this one they could have left on the cutting room floor.

Marvin's story answers all the questions about his paranoia of being slipped LSD while working for the CIA as a Man Friday safe cracker, robber, thief.

Essentially, this reads as a companion for the film, and when it was released it was to tie fans of the movie over until RED 2 came out, which, as we all know, was a bitter disappointment compared to the first film. A short, quick, comic read that you can breeze through with relative enjoyment.… (more)

If you've only seen the film adaptation you MUST read RED by Warren Ellis. This isn't the Hollywood brew ha-ha campaign of a love story of Frank Moses in the middle of killers tailing killers. This is the real deal here - we get to see true Paul Moses in style doing what he was trained to do best - be retired, extremely deadly. He pretty much gets activated back after his former employer want him dead since of course he knows too much and could blow the lid of a lot of dirty dealings. That's it, that's all - this is a short read and a one shot.

So for fans of the film, the film took a lot of liberties in expanding Paul Moses' universe. As a result there are a few other RED comic book prequels floating out there about Victoria and the gang, but they are more like cash cows to capitalize on the success of the 1st film. This also has squat to do with RED 2, which bombed like a flaming pile of turd on a doorstep with a firecracker lit in the middle.

Warren Ellis delivers. That's all you need to know to read it.

… (more)