"The Leading Man" (by B. Clay Moore and Jeremy Haun) disappointed us, but that's not necessarily a bad thing, because the thing that disappointed us is that there wasn't more of it. It's got a grabby, high-concept sort of hook: a suave Hollywood actor who plays secret agents and spies is actually, in real life, a secret agent and a spy. It's such a cool idea, but the book lingers over it just a little too long, making sure we see how cool it is from every possible angle before getting down to brass tacks of thermal suits and creepy caves. And once those brass tacks are finally gotten down to, it's time for the issue to end. Grr, issue-one cliffhangers!

Book-the-first of "The Leading Man" sets things up pretty well, even if it just barely gets a chance to knock them down: secret agent guy is shooting some kinda shoot-em-up thriller, and the crew suspects something is amiss but can't quite put their finger on it. Back in his posh trailer, Nick exchanges some mildly homoerotic banter with his apparantly live-in sidekick (very Batman and Robin stuff) and introduces some kind of maguffin about a jewel heist or nuclear weapon or, who cares, he's going to have to leap about and shoot something and that's all you have to know. And it's just when things are getting interesting -- hiding in an ocean cave from an army of bad guys! -- that a certain snoopy co-star may find herself in deeper trouble than she went looking for.

Oh and did we mention the keen art? We should, because it's great. After the jump: babble, and some blah-blah about heros.