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Modesty Blaise: Death Trap by Peter O'Donnell and Enric Badia Romero
01/01/2008 . Source: Geoff Willmetts 
pub: Titan Books. 103 page softcover graphic novel. Price: £10.99 (UK), $19.95 (US), $24.95 (CAN). ISBN: 978-1-84576-418-0. Buy Modesty Blaise: Death Trap in the USA - or Buy Modesty Blaise: Death Trap in the UK  check out website: www.titanbooks.com
As commented in the eleven reviews for the previous Titan Books releases of the 'Modesty Blaise' newspaper strip albums, when SF fans of my generation want something a bit more down-to-earth but still full of excitement, we turn to Peter O'Donnell's famous heroine. She's feisty, dangerous and a problem-solver. What's there not to love? With so few decent adventure strips in the newspapers any more, where else can you go for three panel a day stories. It also helps that O'Donnell and artist Enric Badia Romero are experts in this craft.
'The Vanishing Dollybirds' is the first of the three adventures here and one of two featuring the circus that Willie Garvin owns a 51% share in. When one of its performers' sisters is abducted in the Middle East, Modesty and Willie Garvin run foul of the Hamilitons who do some orchestration of the flesh trade. They get pro-active and send Bubbles and his henchmen to sort them out. Bubbles, named for the boy in the Millais portrait, sees himself as an assassin with artistic flair. A nicely crafted story and an unusual twist in the end.
'The Junk Men' is another story where Modesty and Willie get involved with accidentally. Willie is a stand-in stuntman in Turkey for an old director pal when Modesty turns up. They get entangled in a plot by three drug barons to retrieve some lost raw heroin from a downed aircraft. The henchmen here seal them both in an ancient church and O'Donnell's flair for 'get-me-out-of-this' which he employs in the novels, is brought to play here with the solution.
The final story and the name of the volume, 'Death Trap' is unusual in that it turns Modesty and Willie proactive within the situation. Initially, it starts off with the intelligence head of an eastern Europe country's plan to trap Modesty as a bargaining chip to get back three spies caught in the UK and then turns into a coup. The escape here is worthy of 'Mission: Impossible' utilising several twists before bringing everything together at the end.
There is also a feature showing the censorship in America concerning an innocent bath between Modesty and Willie which I hasten to add they weren't sharing where one newspaper didn't deem it appropriate. Rather oddly, not only was there no apparent nudity, it was entirely innocent as you will be able to see between the two versions of the panels. Each of these books are a delight to read and if you're new to them, then you'll quickly be chasing after the earlier books which is a good way to say you can't beat a good story.
<
b>GF Willmetts
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