Rick Remender

Fear Agent is written by one of my favorite comic book writers, Rick Remender. It's a wild science fiction ride, that is filled with trademark Remender humor and relate-able characterizations. Remender remembers its the characters that draw you in to a scifi tale not the ideas or aliens or explosions (although, there is plenty of funky aliens for you). As always, the tone is slightly pulpy yet grounded (like the best scifi). Tony Moore's artwork is vivid and excellent and matches Remender's show more pulpy storytelling tone just fine. The story is about an alcoholic and washed-up space faring action hero cowboy named Heath Huston, who discovers an extraterrestrial plot to kill off the human species, and has to resume his role as peacekeeper...the galaxy's last Fear Agent. show less

I have a new favorite artist - Jerome Opena. I could stare at this art all day long and I like the story only slightly less than the art. After about 45 years of reading about dwarves and elves fighting dragons and orcs, this is exactly the kind of thing I'm looking for. Fresh ideas, villains who aren't evil for evil's sake, unique environments and systems of magic, non-standard races, I'll take all of it.

First: Scalera's art is very nice. The character designs aren't very distinct, but the creature designs are quite surreal. A bit like Saga, but with a serious rather than absurdist tone.

Second: Remender's writing is mixed. There are some sparks in the characterization and plotting, but the setting is weak. The problem with 'an infinity of possible worlds' (for a story) is that nothing the characters do matters. For every event, there is an infinite number of times nothing happened. For every show more good act, there's an infinite number of times the characters did nothing, and vice versus. What seems like pure possibility and infinite 'anarchist' freedom is actually the opposite: the most hopeless and fatalistic determinism.

While this is (as far as I know, at the quantum level) the way the physical universe actually works, and while there might be some hypothetical philosophical solution to this dilemma, it's a fundamentally flawed basis for storytelling.

I'll try to ignore the philosophy next time, and just go along for the ride. But it's hard for me. I may have some sort of grad school induced brain damage.... show less

I picked up this omnibus to try and catch up on what happened with the various teams between the Avengers vs X-Men and Original Sin events. This Unity Squad was formed in the wake of AvX by Captain America. He realized that the Avengers didn’t do enough to help and defend mutants, so he forms a new team: himself, Rogue, Thor, Scarlet Witch, Wolverine and led by Havoc. Wasp comes in as a PR consultant to help with the fallout from the Phoenix Five.

Though the book opens with Red Skull, the show more majority of the story centers around the struggle to stop new villains, The Apocalypse Twins. They grew up in Red Skull’s (future) concentration camps, until rescued by Kang the Conqueror. He has plans for them, but they have plans of their own – to create a mutant paradise and destroy Kang’s future. The only downside is that Earth will be destroyed by Celestials if they get their way. Bummer. The overall plot is incredibly well done, with intricate layers that are revealed throughout and a brilliant game of strategy with multiple players. Everyone is playing a side game. Thor actually sets the entire thing in motion, when as a young, unworthy god he enchants Jarnbjorn so that he can get revenge against Apocalypse. It was very clever how the story spanned ages, and also fitting considering Kang’s involvement.

As fantastic as the plot was, I had two big problems with this run that kept me from really enjoying it. First, the infighting among the “team” wore thin very fast. I love reading Avengers series because of the personal history and camaraderie among the characters. Aside from Wasp and Thor, who have critical roles but don’t appear that much, the characters with all the “screen time” here are X-Men, so this felt like an X-Men book. One where the team is fractured by the death of Xavier. Scarlet Witch and Rogue take the spotlight, and they fight incessantly; to their own detriment and that of the team. I understand why, but it made this a chore to read (and I like both of these characters). I wasn’t sure if I wanted the bad guys to win, jut to put them out of their misery - and mine! I don’t mind bickering among the characters, but it needs to be offset by humor and/or friendship.

The second problem is Red Skull. Honestly, he’s a one-dimensional villain that can’t sustain a story arc, so it was probably a good idea that the authors ditched him for most of the run. But, the result is that he was shoehorned back in. After the confrontation at the beginning, he shows back up after the Apocalypse Twins are defeated. Magneto unwisely beats him to a pulp and he somehow becomes the Red Onslaught. The next page is a giant “to be continued” directing readers to Axis as that’s where it’ll be resolved. It felt like a big FU to readers – why have him in this run at all if they were just going to punt his story over to Axis? The omnibus concludes with a weak story about Mojoworld that was just tacked on.

Overall, this was a solid run with an exceptional plot that was ultimately held back by an unnecessary villain and poor character relationships. I’m glad the teams went back to their usual rosters. show less