Spies is as simply named as it is densely plotted, revolving around the search for the secret agent son of MI6’s chief, who disappeared after falling for a Russian femme fatale. A team has been assembled to locate him, while the re-emergence of an ex-KGB terrorist supposedly dead for twenty years brings further complications.

The first issue dealt with the introductions of the main players and only really kicked off the main plot at its tail end, but now things are switched up a gear as action and intrigue take centre stage.

The blunt determination of team leader John to see any objective through to its conclusion is shown to its true intensity, and this time impassive warrior Beth actually expresses something resembling human emotion through her growing admiration of John’s resolve. Meanwhile, it’s made clear that the actions of the missing agent Francis are driven by genuine love for his glamorous obsession Anastasia, which in this world is about as dangerous an emotion as they come.

As well as the developing story, also fascinating to watch is the interplay of the characters. It’s made apparent that some of them are people who have been at the game for so long that the lines between friend and enemy have become not only blurred but increasingly irrelevant, as the nationalism that once drove them gradually erodes under a shifting political climate until all they have left are the people they have been pitted against. From the other perspective, there is also the theme of old grudges playing out through these elder echelons using the younger generations as pawns in their machinations against one another.

The action is kicked up a notch with bloody fistfights and blood-spurting shootouts, fully depicting the brutal and unforgiving violence of the lives of people entrenched in such a world, but simultaneously embracing the lunacy of the movies that depict them.

As double-crosses run rife and almost everyone is shown to have some hidden agenda, it’s clear that there is far more at play than we’re currently being told or even the characters themselves are aware, and it’s a certainty that things will get far more convoluted and violent before the resolution.

SPIES #2 / AUTHOR: JOHN FARMAN / ARTIST: STREF / PUBLISHER: VITAL PUBLISHING / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW