I've played the video game that this graphic novel is based on (or tried, at least - I was no good at it), and decided to have a look at this graphic novel. And, to save anyone the suspense of reading it, this is absolute trash. Don't bother.

The story of the graphic novel (and the game), though... terrorists that used to belong to disbanded American military unit have taken over a military base in Alaska. They're demanding the dead body of a legendary soldier to analyse it and study it to obtain soldier genes. Apparently, excellent soldiers have certain genetic combinations, and you can use these to genetically engineer super soldiers. Or something like that. To ensure their demands are met, they've got a working nuclear bomb ready to launch. Our hero, Solid Snake, is inserted near the base, and has to sneak in, see if they are capable of a nuclear launch, and prevent said launch.

And while the stealth is conveyed quite well in the video game (because you have to wait for soldiers to pass and sneak by them with some ability), there's no such thing as stealth in this graphic novel. Solid Snake is briefed on the first page, rushes in, finds weapons by the fourth page, and then starts shooting all the villians and blowing up maniacs driving military tanks. There's no pausing to wait for guards to pass by, or to sneak around cameras and crawl through ventilation ducts. This is supposed to be a stealth mission, but if the opening page didn't say it, I would think that Solid Snake is actually Rambo in disguise.

And while the story of the video game was quite intriguing, the rapid pace in which the story progresses her makes the SF-style touches to the plot all seem quite silly.

The drawing and colouring don't even do the storyline justice. I don't know how to describe it, except to say it is a mess. Pictures are unclear, poorly coloured, poorly lined, pretty much poorly everything. Yuk, yuk, yuk.

It is certainly an intriguing idea to have a graphic novel about a soldier seeking to manoeuvre past enemies by steath, but the concept is not delivered at all. The skill with which the story was told in the video game is not conveyed at all here, and the artwork is complete rubbish. ( )