by Whitney Grace
Staff Writer
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Natasha is a former WASP (Women Air Force Service) pilot recruited to head a secret mission to Moscow, Russia to track down a missing agent named Sidney. She is chosen due to her Russian heritage and mastery of the language. Natasha has more than one reason in accepting the mission. She is a lesbian in a less enlightened time and she is attempting to find her lost lover Dolores, also her former WASP co-pilot. She is taken by the hand into a dreamlike whirlwind of the secret spy headquarters, where past and present merge. She completes her training and is soon on her way to Moscow.
Secret Agent Moscow is not your average graphic novel. Jennifer Jigour approached this graphic novel like a piece art accompanied by a story. The narrative is loosely woven through eye-catching art that combines the spectacular art nouveau style with the wonder of the early twentieth century. The story doesn’t delve much into Natasha’s past or overtly explain her mission. The reader is left wondering a little about what is going on and what parts the dreams play into the bigger narrative.
Jigour has a talent for detail and allows her imagination to run wild in the pages. It is a gorgeous romanticized version of what the past was. She could take out the entire story and sell Secret Agent Moscow as an art book.
Jigour plans to explain more of Natasha’s past in the second volume. This first volume was used to set up her reality. When it comes to this graphic novel if you don’t come for the story, you should stay for the art.
