In the text piece as well as promotional interviews, Remender has made much mention of '50s sci-fi and Wally Wood, and that influence does show through clearly in Fear Agent, but the book is also a product of '70s film in terms of regular guy sensibilities. Fear Agent is without a question a science-fiction book with aliens, monsters and technology a-plenty, but it's also a manly adventure book with a hero who views whiskey as "his medicine" and isn't above jabbing a needle into his own arm or smashing some alien's frozen head in if that's what he has to do. Fear Agent is action-packed science-fiction from the old school. Several of the old schools, in fact, with a touch of the new thanks to the cutting edge talents of the creative team.
Fear Agent opens with a three-page prologue that feels like something out of a horror movie, as a hapless trucker (okay, space trucker) finds his way into an abandoned space diner and meets a messy, albeit at that point unsurprising, end. The message is clear: Bad shit is going down on the edges of space, and somebody's gonna have to deal with it. Cut to a battered-looking planet and the guy who is probably gonna answer that call, former "Fear Agent" and alien exterminator Heath Huston. The rest of the issue shows off why Huston has the job, and why he's probably the man to do it.
This is an action book, for the most part, and the action really is entertaining. Remender writes Huston with the first-person narration common in modern-day comics, and that provides a layer of style on top of the relatively straightforward action storytelling. Heath and his foes in this issue are brawlers, and so a lot of the story involves swinging with heavy objects, pushing opponents off heights, close-in punching and biting and the sort of thing that makes for exciting action reading. However, Remender keeps the reader in Huston's head while all of this action is going and so provides an easy connection to the character as well. Whether it's the great quote from Mark Twain about amateurs and the danger they pose to experts or snappy bits of "thought dialogue" like "Set phaser for bad monkey," Remender makes Huston tough, collected and pretty fun to read about. See, "Fear Agent" sounds all cool and science-fictiony, but "alien exterminator" nails it more closely, as Fear Agent really reads a lot like blue collar science-fiction, about a simple (but not stupid) guy doing what seems to us earthbound 21st century dwellers like a pretty exotic job but is really just a necessity of living in the future.
Tony Moore just continues to get stronger and stronger with each project, and his work here, with inker Sean Parsons, is on par with his best Walking Dead work. His Zlasfons are great villains, bestial, dangerous-looking cavemen types, and his jelly-brain alien is a gigantic, imaginative glory worthy of Wally Wood. I miss Moore drawing zombies, but it's clear he's got the same flair for aliens and monsters, so I'm looking forward to the wider scope that Fear Agent gives him. I also really dig Moore's storytelling abilities, as he gives the action a visceral quality that makes you feel like Huston really is getting a pretty solid beating while he's out doing his job, and makes the danger in this unreal situation seem real. To be honest, I think that Lee Loughridge's colors could be a little less monochromatic, as he tends to focus pretty heavily on one or two colors on each page, but it's a stylistic choice that may grow on me, and certainly its excellent coloring work in general.
Remender finishes up this first issue with an essay about the genesis of Fear Agent and a look at some of Tony Moore and Cory Walker's sketches, which makes for nice little bonus material as well as a tease that these creators have plenty of ideas to keep the book going. I hope so, because the first issue is off to a really great start, and I'm looking forward to more.
