cover image Who Is Jake Ellis?

Who Is Jake Ellis?

Nathan Edmonson and Tonci Zonjic. Image (Diamond, dist.), $16.99 trade paper (136p) ISBN 978-1-60706-459-6

Edmonson and Zonjic ask a simple question: who is Jake Ellis? The answer is anything but simple. Finding the answer is the responsibility of a mercenary spy named Jon Moore, who must come to terms with Jake’s identity if he is to understand anything about himself. Ever since escaping the “Facility,” Jon has had Jake Ellis as an invisible asset. Literally. No one can see or hear Jake but Jon. In fact, Jon can’t be sure that Jake isn’t just an extension of his own unconscious. Jon gets into tight fixes, but Jake seems able to get him out of anything. In order to really know who Jake Ellis is, however, Jon will need to avoid a whole host of people who are after him and return to the Facility to get to the bottom of things. It would be easy to take a concept like this and turn it into something that comes off as mere contrivance, but Edmonson crosses Ludlum’s The Bourne Identity with Conrad’s The Secret Sharer and gives his story a darkness superbly captured in Zonjic’s artwork. The narrative moves quickly, but the action is never mindless. This all adds up to a story with real depth yet still a high-octane thriller. (Jan.)