Fear Agent Volume 1: Re Ignition.
January 15th 2008 02:15
Category: Graphic Novels/Comics
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics.
Production Team: Story – Rick Remender, Pencils/Covers – Tony Moore, Inks – Sean Parsons & Mike Manley, Colours – Lee Loughridge, Letters – Rus Wooton & Pencils assist on Chapter 4 – Jerome Opena.
Cost: US $13.95.
Recently over the last few months as I’ve been reading the various Star Wars comics that come out of the Dark Horse Comics facility there have been in a few of them an advert for Fear Agent and even something of a write up about this particular line in issue 16 of Knights of the Old Republic. The write up made this series sound like something straight from the era of pulp fiction space opera; where men were men, women were women and aliens were bug eyed monsters hell bent on taking over the world (the precise rationale for this agenda never ever being fully voiced). All in all it sounded like something interesting, and as a result I filed it away for future reference, something to investigate further on down the track. The other day I was in the library looking around for something to read and that is when I came across this graphic novel, Fear Agent Volume 1: Re-Ignition, it was a serendipitous occurrence and before you could say Bob’s your ex prime minister it was swiftly borrowed along with several other similar works, then carried home to be read at my leisure.
If Fear Agent reminds me of anything it is the hard boiled detective style of tale, granted its main protagonist is not a detective he’s an astronaut and he’s cruising the space lanes of the known universe rather than the mean streets of some dirty, seedy city on Earth. Still it’s the whole interior monologue theme that runs throughout the pages of this book along with the fact that he’s a hard drinker, has a female computer running his spaceship and he has to work to make ends meet. It’s just the kind of vibe you’d expect to find in the pages of a Sam Spade or Phillip Marlowe novel and it works fairly well here. Of course there is a little bit more to Heath Houston, the protagonist, than simply booze, a five o clock shadow and being down on his luck. He is a former war veteran, one of the last surviving Fear Agents who survived the Annubius conflict against the Dressites. Precisely what a Fear Agent is and what the Annubius conflict was all about is never gone into any great detail, they’re both just mentioned in order to give some atmosphere to the overall tale.
Everything about this comic is, to use a buzz word, retro, extremely retro. Space suits have large jet packs and fish bowl helmets, people get around in rocket ships or space trucks and they look like something straight from the pages of a nineteen fifties magazine, and its death rays that are the weapon of choice rather than lasers or your ordinary run of the mill slug thrower. Oh and in most cases the aliens really are alien, either squiggly brains with major psychic powers, multiple legged insectoid space truckers or strangle fungoid entities encased in shells that form the helmet part of combat armour. The emphasis seems to be more on the strange and bizarre rather than whether or not such life forms are feasible which ties in well with the whole retro space opera look, its almost like the kind of material that E.E ‘Doc’ Smith or Robert Heinlein would pen the significant difference being that Fear Agent’s story has a lot more depth and character to it.
Unusually for a graphic novel the audience does not get introduced to its primary protagonist straight away, we are not graced with the company of Heath Houston until about page four. Instead the action begins with a cyclopean insectoid space trucker trying to get clearance to dock at Glentbin Station and offload his cargo so he can go watch the Rizzael Shim races. Naturally after getting what seems to be a bit of a run around this trucker isn’t too happy and he mutters dire imprecations especially if he finds that the Chilli shack isn’t serving. Unfortunately for him when he does get aboard the station he soon wishes he hadn’t docked or gone to the Chilli shack as he swiftly becomes someone else’s snack, a very hungry and tentacular someone else.
From the unlucky trucker getting devoured the action then moves to the planet Frazterga and we get to see Heath Houston for the first time. Heath has been contracted by the local human settlers to deal with a pest problem, this problem being the indigenous life forms; the Zlasfons. It seems that the Zlasfons have been stealing equipment from the settlers and causing a general disturbance, enter Heath Houston, veteran of the Annubius conflict and alien pest exterminator. The settlers have hired him to deal with their problem, fortunately for him he can legally deal with the Zlasfons in a terminal manner if need be what he doesn’t realise is that there is a lot more to the situation than what anyone realises. This seems to be a running theme throughout, Heath finds himself involved in situations where he has no idea of the whole picture and it leads to continued grief that he has to extract himself from.
But it’s not all explosions, rockets zooming off into the interstellar deeps, Heath fighting aliens and death ray and frost ray bolts zipping hither thither and yon across the page. There is also character development, the interior monologue of Heath allows us some insight into him as a person and gives us an inkling of why he has become the way he is. There is a sense of tragedy about him, he is someone who has been badly scarred in the past and you get the feeling that if somehow he could change what had occurred to cause this tragedy and these wounds he would do it, regardless of the risks and consequences to himself. And let’s not forget that despite his seemingly dishevelled and disreputable appearance he still knows that if someone is trying to destroy his homeworld then it’s his duty to do something to stop them. He is a character who never lets the odds deter him, even when the chips are down and it all seems lost he still keeps on trying.
Fear Agent Volume 1: Re-Ignition is a well crafted work with all the right ingredients; namely an engaging story and protagonist as well as superb artwork. Definitely worth reading and I’m looking forward to catching up with the next instalment in what looks to be a great series.
If you’re looking for something to clear out the boredom then get a hold of….Fear Agent.
Production Team: Story – Rick Remender, Pencils/Covers – Tony Moore, Inks – Sean Parsons & Mike Manley, Colours – Lee Loughridge, Letters – Rus Wooton & Pencils assist on Chapter 4 – Jerome Opena.
Cost: US $13.95.
Recently over the last few months as I’ve been reading the various Star Wars comics that come out of the Dark Horse Comics facility there have been in a few of them an advert for Fear Agent and even something of a write up about this particular line in issue 16 of Knights of the Old Republic. The write up made this series sound like something straight from the era of pulp fiction space opera; where men were men, women were women and aliens were bug eyed monsters hell bent on taking over the world (the precise rationale for this agenda never ever being fully voiced). All in all it sounded like something interesting, and as a result I filed it away for future reference, something to investigate further on down the track. The other day I was in the library looking around for something to read and that is when I came across this graphic novel, Fear Agent Volume 1: Re-Ignition, it was a serendipitous occurrence and before you could say Bob’s your ex prime minister it was swiftly borrowed along with several other similar works, then carried home to be read at my leisure.
Unusually for a graphic novel the audience does not get introduced to its primary protagonist straight away, we are not graced with the company of Heath Houston until about page four. Instead the action begins with a cyclopean insectoid space trucker trying to get clearance to dock at Glentbin Station and offload his cargo so he can go watch the Rizzael Shim races. Naturally after getting what seems to be a bit of a run around this trucker isn’t too happy and he mutters dire imprecations especially if he finds that the Chilli shack isn’t serving. Unfortunately for him when he does get aboard the station he soon wishes he hadn’t docked or gone to the Chilli shack as he swiftly becomes someone else’s snack, a very hungry and tentacular someone else.
From the unlucky trucker getting devoured the action then moves to the planet Frazterga and we get to see Heath Houston for the first time. Heath has been contracted by the local human settlers to deal with a pest problem, this problem being the indigenous life forms; the Zlasfons. It seems that the Zlasfons have been stealing equipment from the settlers and causing a general disturbance, enter Heath Houston, veteran of the Annubius conflict and alien pest exterminator. The settlers have hired him to deal with their problem, fortunately for him he can legally deal with the Zlasfons in a terminal manner if need be what he doesn’t realise is that there is a lot more to the situation than what anyone realises. This seems to be a running theme throughout, Heath finds himself involved in situations where he has no idea of the whole picture and it leads to continued grief that he has to extract himself from.
But it’s not all explosions, rockets zooming off into the interstellar deeps, Heath fighting aliens and death ray and frost ray bolts zipping hither thither and yon across the page. There is also character development, the interior monologue of Heath allows us some insight into him as a person and gives us an inkling of why he has become the way he is. There is a sense of tragedy about him, he is someone who has been badly scarred in the past and you get the feeling that if somehow he could change what had occurred to cause this tragedy and these wounds he would do it, regardless of the risks and consequences to himself. And let’s not forget that despite his seemingly dishevelled and disreputable appearance he still knows that if someone is trying to destroy his homeworld then it’s his duty to do something to stop them. He is a character who never lets the odds deter him, even when the chips are down and it all seems lost he still keeps on trying.
Fear Agent Volume 1: Re-Ignition is a well crafted work with all the right ingredients; namely an engaging story and protagonist as well as superb artwork. Definitely worth reading and I’m looking forward to catching up with the next instalment in what looks to be a great series.
If you’re looking for something to clear out the boredom then get a hold of….Fear Agent.
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