![]() He was also described to be an incredibly brave man, putting himself undercover in Scorpia at great personal risk. He was described to be highly intelligent, strongly loyal and essentially kind. John Rider was extremely selfless, unbelievably cunning and very self-sacrificing. John's brother Ian then became Alex's legal guardian, and remained so until he was killed by Yassen Gregorovich at the beginning of Stormbreaker. ![]() Alex, an infant at the time, had stayed home with an ear infection, so survived. This bomb killed them both, and John was in his early thirties when he died. However, after George Adair, the son of Sir Graham Adair was kidnapped, John convinced Tulip Jones to 'trade' him for the younger Adair in a prisoner exchange programme, during which MI6 pretended to shoot John and kill him, so he could return to his wife and their new-born son, Alex.Īlthough the exchange worked, Rothman later discovered that John was still alive and realized his true alliances, sending Ash, John's best friend who was secretly working for Scorpia, to place a bomb on John and Helen's plane to France in retaliation. It was mentioned that he saved Yassen's life while on a assignment with him in the Amazon, shooting a black widow spider off of Yassen's neck and assassinating the target with the same bullet.Īfter Julia Rothman, a senior executive of Scorpia, fell in love with John, he arranged to be "captured" by MI6 on a mission in Malta. During this time in Scorpia he used the alias "Hunter", and was a mentor to a young Yassen Gregorovich. He was placed undercover in the organization Scorpia, gaining their trust by pretending to murder a taxi driver, which landed him in prison, as well as being discharged from the Army. ![]() John later worked for MI6 and became one of the best agents in the service. In the novel Snakehead John's best friend, Ash, comments that John was a true patriot. John was awarded the Military Cross from the Queen, as well as being promoted to the rank of Captain for carrying a wounded soldier to safety under fire during the attack on Goose Green, in the Falklands War. He later joined the Parachute Regiment at Aldershot and served for three years, seeing action in both Northern Ireland and Gambia. He studied politics and economics at Oxford University, where he also met his future wife, Helen Beckett. Unlike those previous books, there’s a shock ending, which will presumably be picked up when the graphic novel adaptation of Ark Angel is published.John Rider was born in around 1957. She still prioritises faces in close-up, but there’s a greater emotional content to her art. This is all a shame, as Alex Rider has been an impressive series to date, and Emma Vieceli’s layouts are marginally better than the previous artwork. What’s going on guys?” the speech pattern of a 21 st century footballer? To cap everything (and with the blame again extending in Horowitz’s direction) the eventual demise of a villain isn’t credible, even for a kids’ book satirising action movies. Awkward phrasing is, if not frequent, then certainly not uncommon. To this point most of the drawbacks can be considered problems with the original novel, but Antony Johnston’s scripting also falls flat. Given we couldn’t have the potty-mouthed Malcolm Tucker in a children’s book, the government spin doctor, for instance, could still have had more bite. The intended satirical elements never entirely come off. This is meant to be a soul-searching Alex, a dip into almost adult conflicted emotions, but without that being credibly presented it sucks the life from the story. Further diminishing the enjoyment is the lack of humour that’s characterised the previous books. The detection based plot of Scorpia necessitates page after page of talking heads, through which suspense is minimal, and these are are accompanied by some clumsily inserted pages of explanation. It’s only in the closing pages that we have a widescreen action sequence, whereas previous books have scattered them throughout. This, though, never convinces.Ī simultaneous problem is the lack of action. Scorpia begins well with Alex in Venice on a school trip, and builds on elements revealed in its predecessor to present an Alex Rider uncertain for the first time. It maintained the thrills, but introduced a greater tension via unpredictability, and there’s no return to the original template here. This isn’t just down to the difficulties of transferring from one medium to another, although that plays a part, but also to elements originating in Anthony Horowitz’s children’s novel.Īfter three consecutive books of Horowitz utilising variations on the same plot structure, Eagle Strikewas a successful step away. It’s an unfortunate welcome for the new artist Emma Vieceli as Scorpia is the weakest of the Alex Rider graphic novel adaptations to date.
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