Boom Comics: Steed & Mrs Peel vol.1:A Very Civil Armageddon

Steed & Mrs Peel vol.1:A Very Civil Armageddon
(W) Mark Waid 
script Caleb Monroe
Art Will Sliney 
Publisher: BOOM (8 Oct 2013)
Trade paperback
128 pages Full colour Language: English 
ISBN-10: 1608863069 
ISBN-13: 978-1608863068
£10.00

I am truly sorry. Why? Firstly, because I had to read this. Secondly, because, well, I had to read this.  

"This incredible re-imagining"...This incredible floater is more like it.  The production values on this collection are high. There is a nice covers gallery which REALLY pads out the book and there are some nice images there as well as some that are pretty awful.

"Mark Waid is one of comics' most highly respected and popular writers" -it says. I think certain writers get far too much over-hyping. Yeah, Waid has written some good comics.  That's it. All that reputation is wiped out by this current book. 

Based around the infamous Hellfire Club episode of The Avengers TV series...well, that's it. The plot is far from imaginative. It is quite dull, formulaic and at times messy.  The "script" by Caleb Monroe (who I am informed writes the Peanuts Comic for Boom!) is turgid. How did Steed and Peel talk in the TV series? Absolutely NOTHING like this. It is just plain awful and at times embarrassing to read -how an American might think British people might talk and who had, in fact, never watched an episode of The Avengers.

Now, of course, any Avengers fan remembers just how sexy Diana Rigg looked (as Mrs Peel of course) in that infamous dominatrix gear. A "similar" scene in this collection might well look sexy to a blind man. Sliney's art I am not familiar with and in the small press or doing a comic for fun then, okay. If he gets paid for it then good on him. But it is not good. Bad anatomy. Bad...quite a lot of bad.  At times the famously impeccably dressed Steed looks as though he was thrown naked down a laundry chute and had to grab whatever was to hand -even in such a case Steed would come out looking impeccable. Not here.

I have read the book twice now and that was punishment enough.  Story/script: 0 out of 10. Art 0 out of 10.

As an Avengers fan I felt insulted by this and just wondered how the ***** hell anyone gave permission for shit like this to be attached to the world-wide brand The Avengers. 

I would not recommend this in any way. Believe me, I tried -TRIED- to find something positive. Nice cover shame about the contents...?

Keep your memories of Ian Gibson's Steed And Mrs Peel.