Largo Winch Book 7: Golden Gate
Largo Winch Book 7: Golden Gate, by Jean Van Hamme & Phillipe Francq, Cinebook
WHEN I was little boy I wanted to grow up to be Simon Templar the Saint, now I wish I was younger and could act out some of Largo Winch's more glamorous adventures.
In Golden Gate, Winch’s friend, former professional thief Simon O’Vronnaz, is picked out of the blue to star in the title role of Mike Shadow, a new cops and robbers TV show. Alas, it’s a con, because not only can’t Simon act, the show is shoddy too (actually, the pages given over to this aren’t bad at all, albeit purposely clichéd, but they do highlight the superiority of the Largo Winch series itself).
Unsurprisingly the channel contracted to schedule the Shadow series is owned by the W Group, Largo Winch’s. For once readers, while not two steps ahead, can foresee the direction this book’s heading: It’s a win-win deal for Winch’s enemies, not just because of a forced legal contract but because of other shadier happenings that may have more far-reaching consequences.
There’s humour , there are beautiful women, and too many dark deeds done out in the open, though surprisingly little visual action in terms of the old fisticuffs or daring-do leaping into adventure routines this time round; though what’s present is integral. As if to make up for this Phillipe Francq pulls out more sharp focussed angles and differing scenes of consummate craft within the forty plus pages of this story than an awful lot of comic book artists can achieve in a forty year career.
The story begins with Winch in control of the situation: he knows there’s a problem, and he’s got an idea by whom, even thinks he may be able to solve it quite efficiently, but why and exactly how his financial enemies are doing this, and what the long-term results of this predicament are have yet to be revealed.
Van Hamme seems to enjoy making his titular hero suffer in recent English collections, and as a reader I’m transfixed as I watch the metaphorical cards come tumbling down around him. The last few pages are near nail-biting because you know things are going to inevitably go bad; presume Winch is going to pull a rabbit out of the hat in the next collection but hate the fact that you have to wait until that next book in the series to find out exactly how – Smart marketing from Cinebook drawing readers in with those earlier bumper volumes, getting us hooked, and turning us into true fans.
I’m going back to watching videos from the TV series adaptation while I wait for Shadow, the next book in the series to appear on the shelves.
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