The Rocketeer: Infiltrator #1: The Name’s Secord, Cliff Secord

Issue #1 of The Rocketeer: Infiltrator sees Cliff Secord, aka the Rocketeer, go undercover as a spy in Nazi-controlled France to investigate a hidden headquarters in the Alps. His cover? The brother of the newly famous movie star Betty, who is also a spy by the way and Cliff’s girlfriend.

Everything from the characters to the art stays consistent with that old-style, golden age of cinema aesthetic that The Rocketeer is well known for. The characters talk in the old-school lingo, and the artwork sketches a much older era than our modern day rather well.

We don’t see much of Charles Ballard in this issue, but what we do see is a clear ode to the legendary James Bond. A suave British secret service agent who goes undercover with a suppressed pistol? Hard not to see the similarities. But Ballard reads more like a tasteful homage to 007 rather than a trope that’s been forced into the storyline.

Dean Kotz’s art is as intricately detailed, if not more so, than the false identities of our three protagonists. A dock in Portugal is drawn with the wavy lines you’d likely expect of a coastal horizon. The faces of characters are drawn in a way that is believable to the dialogue and the story beats in a given scene. K.J. Diaz’s colors provide a film grain aesthetic to Kotz’s already well-crafted and immersive artwork. It’s not a make or break detail, but it does add a nice extra layer to the issue’s visual presentation.