''Fire'' was originally a two-issue

creator-owned In the United States, creator ownership in comics is an arrangement in which the comic book creator retains full ownership of the material, regardless of whether the work is self-published or published by a corporate publisher. In some fields of ...

comic book A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panel (comics), panels that represent individual scenes. ...

mini-series A miniseries or mini-series is a television series that tells a story in a predetermined, limited number of episodes. "Limited series" is another more recent US term which is sometimes used interchangeably. , the popularity of miniseries format ...

written and drawn by

Brian Michael Bendis Brian Michael Bendis (; born August 18, 1967) is an American comic book writer and artist. He has won five Eisner Awards for both his creator-owned work and his work on various Marvel Comics books.Bendis, Brian Michael and Oeming, Michael Avon, ...

and published by

Caliber Comics Caliber Comics or Caliber Press is an American comic book publisher founded in 1989 by Gary Reed. Featuring primarily creator-owned comics, Caliber published over 1,300 comics in the decade following its inception and is ranked as one of America ...

. It was later republished as a single volume by

Image Comics Image Comics is an American comic book publisher and is the third largest comic book and graphic novel publisher in the industry in both unit and market share. It was founded in 1992 by several high-profile illustrators as a venue for creator-o ...

. ''Fire'' was among Bendis's first works to draw critical acclaim. Its success gave him a much wider audience and helped pave the way for ''

A.K.A. Goldfish ''A.K.A. Goldfish'' is the title of a 1994 American creator-owned comic book series written and drawn by Brian Michael Bendis. The series was originally published by Caliber Comics, with later issues by Image Comics. The entire award-winning seri ...

'' and ''

Jinx A jinx (also jynx), in popular superstition and folklore, is a curse or the attribute of attracting bad or negative luck. The word ''"jynx"'' meaning the bird wryneck and sometimes a charm or spell has been in use in English since the seventeen ...

''.

Plot synopsis

The story, a

spy thriller Spy fiction is a genre of literature involving espionage as an important context or plot device. It emerged in the early twentieth century, inspired by rivalries and intrigues between the major powers, and the establishment of modern intelligen ...

, is centered on a young

Jewish-American American Jews or Jewish Americans are American citizens who are Jewish, whether by religion, ethnicity, culture, or nationality. Today the Jewish community in the United States consists primarily of Ashkenazi Jews, who descend from diaspora J ...

man named Benjamin "Ben" Furst, who is initially introduced as a

college A college ( Latin: ''collegium'') is an educational institution or a constituent part of one. A college may be a degree-awarding tertiary educational institution, a part of a collegiate or federal university, an institution offering ...

student studying

political science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated constitutions and ...

. After passing several tests, including a fake mugging, he is recruited by a beautiful young woman named D. D. into the

Central Intelligence Agency The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian intelligence agency, foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gat ...

and told that he is going to be the first agent of Project Fire (hence the title of the comic), an experiment to test whether training agents out of ordinary citizens can be successful. Ben passes and becomes an agent under the command of Linda Dagger. He is placed in

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

to pose as a

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...

named Jake Donaldson, and he is dispatched from time-to-time to set up assassinations in places around the world ranging from Japan to

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

. He gradually becomes disillusioned with his lifestyle and job, and he begins to suspect that he is being set up himself. One day, D. D., who had previously always treated him coldly, has sex with him. When Ben wakes up the next day, he is attacked by contract killers; Ben kills them and then breaks into CIA headquarters. He discovers that Project Fire is not a new experimental project, but rather something that has been going on for years; each such Project Fire agent is killed once the agent's superiors decide he has become a liability. Ben attempts to escape with the information, but he is captured by Linda Dagger. Dagger sends D. D. to kill Ben, but Ben kills D. D. instead and escapes. He tries to send the information he has to a journalist to publicize, but before he can, at the end of the comic, Dagger finds him again and informs him that he either works for her or dies.

Collected editions

The series has been collected as a trade paperback: * ''Project Fire Complete'' (114 pages,

Transfuzion Publishing Gary Reed (May 21, 1956 – October 3, 2016) was an American comic book writer, and the publisher of Caliber Comics, an independent comic book company that released 1,300 titles in the 1990s and published early work by many popular creators ...

, 1994, ) * ''Fire'' (120 pages,

, 2001, )

Film adaptation

Universal Studios Universal Pictures (legally Universal City Studios LLC, also known as Universal Studios, or simply Universal; common metonym: Uni, and formerly named Universal Film Manufacturing Company and Universal-International Pictures Inc.) is an Americ ...

have optioned the film, with

Zac Efron Zachary David Alexander Efron (; born October 18, 1987) is an American actor. He began acting professionally in the early 2000s and rose to prominence in the late 2000s for his leading role as Troy Bolton in the ''High School Musical'' trilo ...

penciled in to play the lead.

Notes

References

* * {{Brian Michael Bendis