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Secret Service (Kingsman)

by Mark Millar, Dave Gibbons

Gary, the archetypal 'troubled' teen, lives with his mother and her abusive boyfriend in public housing, and spends his time getting in and out of trouble. Then his suave uncle Jack offers him an opportunity to be something of consequence... a super spy.

Secret Service (Kingsman)

Gary ‘Eggsy’ London has grown up poor, lived all his life in public housing, and fritters his time hanging out with his ne’er do well friends. When he lands in the clink one more time, his uncle bails him out, and gives him the opportunity of a lifetime: Enroll in a school for MI-6 super spies. Eggsy excels in the school, finishing at the top of his class despite being up against several grammar school posh nobs. In his final assignment he captures a Colombian drug lord, and is promoted to full agent.

Meanwhile, Jack is investigating Dr. James Arnold, a billionaire cell phone entrepreneur who has been kidnapping several celebrities. When Jack gets killed by Arnold, Gary realizes that several top secret service agents are in cahoots with Arnold. He ropes in his fellow trainees and runs a flawless mission to bring down Arnold.

The fast-paced and humour tinged writing is mixed in with true-blue spy action; very James Bond-esque but with much better story telling. There are no unnecessary beautiful women who are superflouos to the plot, the storyline is grittier, and features several exotic locales. The spiffy soundtrack is lacking, though, but that is more than made up for in the magnificent artwork and character portrayals.

That said, the movie moguls have picked this series up for big screen adaptation, and quite frankly, have done an excellent job of the adaptation. The casting was on point, and the rebranding of the series as “Kingsman” rather than the more mundane “Secret Service” is also an excellent touch. Outside of the more cosmetic changes, the storyline is kept largely the same.