Jo Ellison explains why she prefers the serial monogamist Jason Bourne to the flippant playboy James Bond One is the suave servant of Her Majesty's government. The other is a brute assassin, the rogue employee of a now defunct agency of the CIA.One prances around in a bespoke dinner suit, custom underwear by Sunspel and La Perla swimming togs.The other wears a holey sludge-coloured fisherman's sweater and the kind of schlumpy outerwear seen on teenage French exchange students.story_article_left1One has an arsenal of turbocharged vehicles and technical gizmos at his disposal, the kind of gadgets that can fire laser beams or emit piercing loud noises when the need arises.The other is really good at reading maps. Only one of these men is even remotely stylish. And it isn't the one driving an Aston Martin. An antihero hero for a modern age, Jason Bourne leaves James Bond in the shade.Matt Damon, 45, who plays Bourne, summed up the difference in a recent interview. "Bond is a misogynist who likes swilling martinis and killing people and then telling jokes about it.Jason Bourne is a serial monogamist - he's tortured by the things he's done and feels empathy and compassion for other people. And Bourne would obviously win in a fight!"Obviously. Jason Bourne, the new instalment of the Robert Ludlum-based thriller series, was released on Friday. And I, for one, counted the hours. It's been nine long years since we last saw him, floating in the Hudson River. In that time his cinematic rival, 007, has been recast, rebooted and retired again, while Bourne has remained deep undercover.Arguably he was keeping scarce until all memories of the ghastly The Bourne Legacy, a horrific attempt to sabotage his reputation and rebrand the franchise in 2012, were fully erased.Unlike Bond, who shapeshifts with ease, the actor who plays Bourne has proven stubbornly irreplaceable. He returns a changed man, to a changed world.According to Damon, this Bourne outing will find him "rolling around in the detritus of modern-day capitalism". He's older and freakishly muscular: on-set images and trailer footage have found him as ripped as a cage wrestler.block_quotes_start His is a uniquely nerdy machismo. While Bond prats about with poisoned cocktails and exotic paraphernalia, Bourne studies the small print, making him inestimably cool block_quotes_endHis expression has hardened as well. Gone is the youthful naivety; today his features are carved with knowing. "I remember everything now," he growls. But he still makes me swoon. It's incurable: I'm Damonted, Bourne again and Matt about the boy. Always have been. Always will be.For my money, Bourne is the greatest cinematic action hero since Steve McQueen in Papillon (1973), or Clint Eastwood in Dirty Harry (1971). He's stylish without being showy. Brainy without being boorish. He's not vain: in fact, he's always seemed vaguely repelled by his reflection.His style expresses nothing other than a desire to remain invisible - dark tops, bomber jackets, military boots. But what I adore about him is that this most alpha of males doesn't act at all alpha.He doesn't posture, preen, or spend time fetishising firearms or sexually harassing women. He just does it. No fancy getaway car? He'll make do with a stolen Ford Mondeo. He might insist on driving, but only when your life is in danger. Bourne doesn't do tricksy. Or cute. And while he may lack Bond's queasy bonhomie, he can still drop a great one-liner ("Get some rest, Pam. You look tired").story_article_right2Better still, his heroics are bound up in hilariously prosaic acts of behaviour: an ordinary bloke in a bionic body. Who would have thought, for example, that checking out the emergency exits on entering a bank would be a mark of manliness?Or that inspecting the timetable on arrival at Kievsky train station would allow you to perfectly time your leap from a moving train to a passing ferry?His is a uniquely nerdy machismo. While Bond prats about with poisoned cocktails and exotic paraphernalia, Bourne studies the small print, making him inestimably cool.For me, the most thrilling moments in a Bourne film are those when he might be, say, limping wounded through a Russian mall and noticing that, yes, he did remember to grab a floor plan off the wall to better speed his navigation.His pedantry is his perfection. And oddly aspirational: Bourne persuades us that if only we paid a little more attention (and had the benefit of a military brainwashing, photographic memory, iron strength and fluency in several languages), we too could be invincible."Jason Bourne" opens this weekend- The Financial Times..