"24: Based On the Hit TV Series" by J.C. Vaughn, Mark L. Haynes, Renato Guedes & Manny Clark

24: Based On the Hit TV Series is a collection of the first three 24 tie-in comics. It includes:

24: One Shot by J.C. Vaughn, Mark L. Haynes & Renato Guedes
You might think 24's split screen style could lend itself to comics, especially with the potential to depict terrorist attacks unachievable on TV, or, conversely, tell more contained, dramatic tales than a Fox action show would attempt. But no. This, the first 24 tie-in comic, tells of Jack Bauer's first day at CTU, so it's set before season one, before his affair with Nina (you see them meet for the first time), etc etc. Unfortunately, it tries & fails to replicate the 24-hour format, it's padded out (numerous pointless frames), the dialogue's poor, the story implausible, the art heavily photo-referenced, the colouring like Photoshopped photos... Hopefully the other two tales will be better.

24: Midnight Sun by J.C. Vaughn, Mark L. Haynes & Renato Guedes
The creative team from One Shot return for this story, set between the show's second and third seasons, and only bring some of their previous faults with them. Guedes' art is definitely improved: it's done 'properly' this time out, with improved colouring to boot, and while this sometimes means you have to guess which character Chase is, everyone else is clear. The storyline is more engrossing and better handled than the last, with fewer pointless frames, though some still repeat the same image for no good reason.

The permanent daylight of the Alaskan setting is a good concept, but 24 always seems to work best after dark, and this plot is a bit action-light. The villains aren't especially menacing, and there are times when the writers seem to just be playing out male fantasies -- for example, when Jack's undercover, the women all support him while the men distrust him, and at least one attractively-drawn girl is apparently happy to be sleeping with a middle-aged balding geek. Better than before, then, but still far from essential.

24: Stories by J.C. Vaughn, Mark L. Haynes & Manny Clark
The final one-shot in the collection is also set before season three, during the time Jack was undercover with the Salazar drug cartel. They send him to LA on an errand, where he gets caught up in a hotel siege by a Chechan liberation group. Vaughn & Haynes' script is passable though not exemplary, as before, while Clark's art is unusual: unquestionably edited together from photos, which have then either been treated or painted over (or both) -- if you've ever played Max Payne, think of the comic strip cut scenes from that. It's an effective idea for TV tie-ins, but an odd style to get used to as a reader.

So, taken as a collection, it seems 24 doesn't really convert very well to the comics medium -- at least not in this incarnation. A second 24 graphic novel has been released that tells the story of Operation Nightfall, the mission Jack performed several years before the start of season one that directly led to all of that season's events. Hopefully, with a whole book to play with and a story less bound to the show's normal generic structure, the creative team on that came up with something better.