Graphic Novel #13

[tomswift2002]

Oh, and the picture of the game machine that the Hardy's use to play their ATAC disc is very similar in shape to the Nintendo Wii (or it might be a 360, but it looks more like a  Wii).  Plus, the discs now have an security device that emits pulses and turns the disc over to a video game if any non-ATAC person comes within a certain distance of the machine while it is playing back the disc, but then after the person has left, it goes back to telling about the case.

[SDLagent]

The Hardy Boys Graphic Novel #13 ''The Deadliest Stunt''



Scott Lobdell ? Writer
Paulo Henrigue Marcondes ? Artist
Mark Lerer ? Letterer
Laurie E. Smith ? Colorist
John McCarthy ? Production
Jim Salicrur ? Editor-in-Chief
STAND ASIDE, HARDY BOYS!

There's a new A.T.A.C. Agent in town...Lindsay Rider! See what happens when Frank and Joe discover they're her backup.

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAID!

Plot summary:
After breaking up a charter boat kidnap ring, Frank and Joe return to Bayport and school. At school Brain Conrad is injured ,in a bike accident, and is taken to hospital. Before the ''ambulance driver'' leaves he slips Joe a video game disk ? from ATAC.

The video tells them about America's top teen stuntwoman, Lindsay Rider, as well as other stuntwomen, TV star Danielle P inzlovia of Europe, Canada's Red Maddison, and Asian stuntwoman Wendy Wen. The Hardys learn that a national competition is going to be held to determine which of the world's top four stuntwomen is the best. And much to there displeasure, they also learn, that because the contest is exclusively for young woman, ATAC has decided that for this mission, they will not be the main agents on the assignment. Instead they are back up...for Lindsay Rains, more commonly known as Lindsay Rider.

Many uncut diamonds have been recently stolon from the 'River of Diamonds' in Africa, the world's largest source of diamonds. Apparently the person responsible for fencing these diamonds is one of the three stunt competitors, and she'll use the stunt competition as the cover to commit her crime. For this mission ATAC pervades the Hardy boys with protective jump suits and a video camera, capable of projecting holographic images, for up to thirty seconds.

When Frank and Joe arrive at the event, they discover that the course has been made to look like alien landscape. They soon meet Lindsay, who tells them a little more about the case, as it turns out she still doesn't have any clues on which one of the other girls is responsible.

Before they can talk any further, they are interrupted by Jeremy Haftel, a young boy who is the host of the games, who invites them to them to dinner with the other contestants. Joe already upset at being back-up and having just been called Lindsay's 'worker bees', is even more upset when they have to change into red, white, and blue body suits, that match Lindsay's outfit.

At the dinner, Joe meets Red Maddison and Wendy Wen, who trick him into thinking they are having a fight, there 'fight' turns out to be a stunt however. Before the night is over, Frank and Joe are tricked by stunts two more times, while still at the dinner and later at stunt course.

With no progress on the case and having been made a fool of three times that night, Frank and Joe are getting very frustrated, and Lindsay telling them to stay out of her investigation, doesn't help. But when Frank finds a hidden door, the boys think they have finally got a lucky break, only to discover nothing  but a large maintenance room. Joe's stumped but as always Frank has a plan ? go to bed. In the boys' hotel bedroom, Joe states that he ''hates this case.''

The next morning, having come to terms with their role on this mission, Frank prepares Lindsay's car, before the first event, while Joe is busy with their video camera. After thanking the brothers for ''getting with program'', Lindsay heads out on to the track.

To no one's surprise Lindsay is in the lead, when an unregistered fifth car enters the race. The car crashes into Lindsay's car and then speeds toward Frank and Joe. The Hardys race toward the nearby utility garage, this doesn't stop the mystery car however, which continues toward the brothers. The car  wipes-out, smashes through the garage, and explodes in a fire ball. Frank and Joe survive only thanks to their ATAC nanotech suits. They discover no driver in the car, and Frank releases that it must have been remote controlled.

Once clear of the burning wreckage, the Hardy boys, Lindsay's car parked ? empty, and head over to investigate. Not far from the car in the course's ''forest'', the Hardys hear a heated conversation coming from behind a nearby water fall.

Behind the water fall is being held at gun point by a big man, who she is informing made a mistake when he used a radio controlled car as a distraction. Knowing that you would need a clear site line to operate it, Lindsay had discovered him here.

By this time Frank and Joe are just outside the water fall and are just about to make a surprise entrance, when the criminal turns off the water fall, by remote control, revealing their hiding place behind the wall of water.

Apparently the man, was warned that two of ATAC's best agents would be working at the contest, and guessing that the two most recent additions were them, tried to kill Frank and Joe with the car.

Lindsay reveals that it was actually ATAC leaked the information about the Hardys', knowing that the man - a world renown fence known as Thomas Wadsworth ? would give himself away by attacking them. It seems, Wadsworth has been smuggling contraband through these teen competitions for months now.

Wadsworth is just about to shoot the three ATAC agents, when Jeremy appears swinging a stick, this distracts Wadsworth long enough for the teens to make their move, Frank and Lindsay take him down, with Joe quickly disarming him.

Joe turns to Jeremy to thank him but to also warn him of how dangerous his actions, to Joe's surprise, the boy disappears into thin air right in front of his own eyes. Joe turns when someone calls his name and sees Jeremy standing outside, holding the Hardy boys' ATAC holoprojector. It turns out Jeremy is to young to be an ATAC agent but is in the training program.

The police arrive, along with Fenton Hardy, to pick up the fence. Joe asks his father why he in his brother were capt in the dark on this case and Fenton tells them, saying that ATAC was afraid if Frank and Joe know about Jeremy, they would be to inclined to help. Possibly undermining the whole training exercise. Frank and Joe were involved only in case Lindsay and Jeremy needed help, and so where given nothing but a red heiring of a mission.

In Bayport, Brain Conrad, still in hospital awakes to find a riding helmet on his bedside table. Then he sees Frank in the room, who tells him the helmet is an extra of his, and that he can have it, since he wouldn't want to see any thing happen to Conrad. ''I'd have to find a whole other boneheaded jock to make my life miserable.'' Frank is going to leave but Brain asks him to wait, then, pointing toward a text book next to his bed, mentions that he still can't read, and that he has an exam on Monday. Frank picks up the book and starts reading. He is a Hardy boy after all...

Review:
A nice change of pace story, but as is often the case with Scott Lobdell's stories, I enjoyed the  sup plots a bit more then plot A. I really liked how the Hardys have a hard time adjusting to the fact they are not the main agents on this case and Joe's dislike of Lindsay.

The art is probably the best in the series, in my opinion, except for the odd expression on Joe's face. Laura appears in this book for the first time since Paulo Henrigue Marcondes took over as artist, and I have to say I like her Laura better then any other so far. She still looks young but she is believably 40 something, she is also shorter then her sons, which is another improvement. 

Mention is made of Nigel and of Frank's fight with Brain, I think this series is really starting to fill like a series, if you know what I mean. And as has been mentioned the Noirs will be appearing again soon, having one writer has really benefited the continuity of this series, which is now superior to the regular Undercover Brothers series.

Another thing the graphic novels have over the UB series is that unlike the UB series, changes are made; as Tomswift2002 mentioned this title introduces a new security feature in the mission disks. I'm hoping Lobdell's next chage will be Luara and Trudy's discovery of ATAC. That would make a very interesting sub plot and I'm sure Lobdell would consider it, but I don't know if he could ever get it past S&S.

It was good to see that  Match Wits with the Hardy Boys winner Jeremy Haftel finally got a part in a story, I didn't realize who it was, until after I read it, so I was still surprised by the role the character played. He is a pretty good character, as one the youngest members of ATAC, and I wonder if he will appear again.

I always enjoy the back pages, but this installment was a bit of a disappointment, as it was pretty much unchanged from the last one. I was hopping for some Tom Swift new. Also as Tomswift2002 noticed they still have the same ad from 2006 for the Undercover Brothers, this gives as a little picture of how little S&S is putting into the UBs these days, not even to send Papercutz a new ad in the last two years. And with the two trilogies coming up you would think they would. 

As I said already a nice change of pace adventure - 8/10

[tomswift2002]

I found the book to be ok, not superb, but not bad.  It was interesting to see the Hardy's as backup rather than the main detectives.  Also I was surprised to see the ATAC agent in training and to see Fenton acting as a director of ATAC.

Also, incase you wondering, there was no mention in the story, or in terms of ads about the "Murder House" trilogy or even the Hardy's recent Roman experiences.

[Q]

Thanks HBWiki you really should review other books more often. Plot doesn't seem too bad.

[SDLagent]

Oh, and the picture of the game machine that the Hardy's use to play their ATAC disc is very similar in shape to the Nintendo Wii (or it might be a 360, but it looks more like a  Wii).  Plus, the discs now have an security device that emits pulses and turns the disc over to a video game if any non-ATAC person comes within a certain distance of the machine while it is playing back the disc, but then after the person has left, it goes back to telling about the case.

I want back and looked through the previous graphic novels and the brothers game system also looks like a Wii in ''To Die or Not to Die?'' but the controller doesn't look like a Wii controller.

Something I thought was funny about this book, is that after Brain crashes his bike, the paramedic tell him, ''...you should always wear a helmet'', but then only a few pages later (page 27, frame three)  we see we see the role models of the series, Frank and Joe themselves ridding out onto the road without helmets! Paulo Henrigue sort of ruined the message Scott was trying to tell kids, with the helmetless Hardys!

I wouldn't have noticed if I hadn't been drooling over the boys' new wheels, I mean choppers? Not how I thought of the ''sport bikes'', as they are called in the Undercover Brothers, and very unrealistic for undercover agents, but very cool for pictures. Better then the dirt bikes they ride in Rendon's books (I do like his art just not his bikes).

I noticed something else strange about this frame, see if you notice it.

Also look at page 11, frame 2, and then check out 27, frame one of ''A Hardy Day's Night''. I've noticed this with with the Nancy Drew (within volume however) but never with The Hardy Boys, except for flashbacks, I wonder if this has happened before?   

[tomswift2002]

I nnoticed how the controller doesn't look like a Wii controller, but the Wii does have ports for Gamecube controllers and some recent titles (Smash Bros., Mario Kart) allow you to use the GCN controller over the Wii controller.  So maybe ATAC made a game that required the GCN controller.

[Centrion]

I noticed the console, too. I thought this was a pretty good book.

[Q]

Um, Skywarp, why isn't Deadliest Stunt in the ATAC Database?

[SkyWarp]

Um, Skywarp, why isn't Deadliest Stunt in the ATAC Database?

Because I have been unable to aquire this book as of this time.  The local book store was either sold out or did not order any.
So it is traveling from Amazon.com at this very moment.  (I chose free shipping, so it takes a tad bit longer to arrive). 

[003Robin457]

About the game system it looks like a mix between Xbox and Wii. If you ask me I think its the "Zbox" from Huricane Joe.

[SDLagent]

Remember that Joe had a Xbox in one of the UB before ''Huricane Joe'', but maybe it is a Zbox.

[tomswift2002]

Well, I remember that in the early UB's the way the assignements arrived they were on a variety of gaming platforms ranging from game cartridges to CD's and DVD's.  Plus the books said that the Hardy's could play the cartridges/discs on a video game console and on their PC.

[SDLagent]

I think they're pretty much the same disks every mission, but as has been said in the UB and a few Graphic Novels, the ATAC disks on be played on multiple platforms.

[Olivia]

Yes, I'm always one of the last ones to read the newest book

Anyways, I really liked it. Everything just connected and came together - like Brian at the beginning, and what happened at the end (i.e. the morals/ethics interwoven). Showcasing their home life, the subplot (as SDLagent mentioned) was fantastic, and I even liked some of the "twists".

I also like the Jeremy character: it's a nice idea not only to acknowledge the winner, but to feature a trainee.

I also found it quite funny throughout. Especially on Joe's part, and Frank had some good lines.

A couple things I sort of have a slight problem with, though. Well, they're more like observations.

1. Lindsay Rider. Yes, a great stunt person, thus has good physical endurance, but is that the only reason why she was approached by ATAC? I mean, you have to have some brains too. I know you can't mention every detail with the amount of space in the novel, and it's suppose to be assumed I guess. But still, some sort of further acknowledgement would be nice.

2. How every girl kept going "Tee hee"! Sounds kind of ditzy, and how can you laugh that often? Maybe I'm just overanalyzing. I guess it is the easiest way to show laughter.

3. They kept mentioning how ATAC helps teenagers. I thought ATAC works with teenagers to help fight crime in any aspect. Again, I might be overanalyzing.

[003Robin457]

I liked the ending too. I wonder if Jermy or Lindsay will return. And yeah "Tee Hee" was a little annoying.