Yumi 00EX #1 Is The Hilarious Pure Chaos Spy Adventure I Didn’t Know I Needed (Exclusive Early Review)

July 14, 2026, 1:30pm

Imagine a 007 story that follows a genius and ever-lethal agent who happens to be everything James Bond is not in terms of personality, and then throw in a bonkers level of action, comedy, and pop culture relevance into the same mix. If you can envision that, you’ve got at least a sense of what Image Comics has in store for you with Yumi: 00EX #1, and after just one issue, it’s already one of my favorite comics of the year.

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Yumi: 00EX #1 follows the world’s greatest hacker and anti-spy, Yumi, as she attempts to track down her secret agent boyfriend, Richard. To do that, well, Yumi goes to the source, and to put it mildly, she makes quite the explosive impression on MI:6. At the helm of this bloody action comedy is writer Doug Wagner, artist Hoyt Silva, colorist Kevin Lennertz, letterer Frank Cvetovic, and designer Sasha Head, and over the course of the issue you will not only fall in love with Yumi’s Billie Eilish-blaring approach to spycraft, but also the mysterious and dangerous world she inhabits.

Rating: 5 out of 5

PROS	CONS
Yumi Is As Charming As She Is Lethal, And She’s A Perfect Lead	The Wait To Read Issue #2
The Artwork Brings The Book’s Action Comedy Flair To Life Brilliantly
Two Words: Cardi B Car

Yumi Is The True Anti-Spy

While you can absolutely see the James Bond inspiration in some of the book’s elements, the series brings many of them in so that Yumi can turn them upside down, and it turns out that’s incredibly fun to watch. Whereas Bond might have the lights cut off or use a disguise to infiltrate MI: 6, Yumi hacks the system and then makes a lethal entrance right through the front door as Billie Eilish blazes over the speakers. Wagner does a wonderful job of establishing Yumi’s personality early, and it’s a delight to see her various interactions with other characters, including her father, who is on the phone with her for half of this initial sequence.

It’s a perfect introduction, and things only ramp up from there, and every interaction with other characters brings with it a level of welcome unpredictability. Yumi is a true wild card, as while she’s supremely endearing, she also has no issue clearing a room of anyone in opposition to her mission.

As for her mission, there’s also an element of doubt built into that, with almost an unreliable narrator aspect to the story. Yumi’s love for Richard is clear, and the flashbacks to how they met and their adventures cement that, but the doubt cast upon their relationship by everyone else does cause one to wonder if there is more to this story that Yumi hasn’t shared, or if Richard is really the person he’s being made out to be. It all builds to an intriguing place by the issue’s end that sets up the first of what may be many major conflicts.

Yumi’s Mission Is Pure Chaos In The Best Way

Part of the fun of Yumi: 00EX #1 is how it embraces chaos at every turn in both the action sequences and flashbacks, and while each moment in time feels different, they feel part of the same cohesive whole. In the present, Silva and Lennertz hit the ground running from the very first sequence in a thrilling close-quarters fight that showcases Yumi’s fearlessness and skill with Kunai, and that shifts to a fight that takes place across an entire building, a fight that is punctuated with some brutal and at times hilarious moments.

Somehow though, the book gets even better after this, and while I won’t spoil how this all takes place, Yumi gets a car in true Bond fashion, but Bond never had a car that had an AI based on Cardi B. Once this happens, the book strikes comedic gold, as not only do you have a new built-in companion and ally for Yumi in the story, but having Cardi B’s mannerisms brings a whole new level of joy to the dialogue and character interactions, and some of them had me absolutely rolling.

Yumi: 00EX #1 is thrilling as a spy story, but it’s the layer of bonkers chaos that really allows this book to soar. This was like a breath of fresh air, and after an immensely charming debut, I am 100% all in moving forward.

Published By: Image Comics
Written By: Doug Wagner
Art By: Hoyt Silva
Colored By: Kevin Lennertz
Lettered By: Frank Cvetkovik

Final Order Cutoff for Yumi: 00EX #1 is on July 21st, and issue #1 hits comic stores on August 12, 2026.

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