Review by C.J. Bunce
Number Six is dead. Long live Number Six.
A new beginning arrived this year with a four-issue limited series for fans of espionage, spies, and 1960s television. Fifty years after the series wrapped, The Prisoner returned, and the series is coming your way this month in a collected trade edition. Written by Peter Milligan (X-Statix, The Mummy) and illustrated by Colin Lorimer (The Hunt, Harvest), with colors by Joana LaFluente and lettering by Simon Bowland, The Prisoner: The Uncertainty Machine introduces a new Number Six to the Village. We previewed the first issue earlier this year, and the story over the next three issues wrapped this summer with a satisfying finish. A cool, stylish re-introduction to the strange world from the original TV series, the new story is also completely updated for modern audiences while adhering to the mystery of the original.
Is Number Six experiencing any reality now that the recently ejected MI5 spy has been caught and tortured by the Village for his state secrets? Or is each new journey toward discovery another tap of his mind by the torturers in this mysterious classical old town? Could The Uncertainty Machine be swapped with a James Bond universe look inside the inner-workings of SMERSH or SPECTRE? Maybe. It also shares some of its style choices with the Kingsman series, and maybe even Alan Moore’s V for Vendetta and a British spin on Twin Peaks. Spy genre, fantasy, science fiction, or all of the above, the four chapters deliver a smart follow-up to the original.
Milligan engages readers from the initial action sequence, and Lorimer’s re-creation of the Village is a perfect homage for fans of the original and the real-life location in Wales where the show was filmed, Portmeirion. This Number Six’s partner was taken while both were on assignment with MI5. Can Number Six confront Number One, rescue his partner and find his way to become the second agent to ever leave the Village, and the first to leave with his mind intact? How does Number Two play into the story, and what about Number Zero? It’s this kind of back and forth uncertainty that ties the book–and its title–together.
