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ppetropoulakis's review
4.0
Fear Agent becomes a full alternate universe wild west Star Trek type of story. The plot focuses on Heath fighting his evil self in a serene setting, like the calm before the final storm.
bearded_ginger's review
4.0
A bit slower than the last installment, but needed because it jumped into hyper drive towards the ending. I cannot wait to see how this is all resolved!
lukeisthename34's review
4.0
A bit of a weird turn and slight letdown from the last two volumes (and their craziness) but overall still great.
jgkeely's review
3.0
Pretty good book; now I just have to wait on the conclusion. Like I said in my last review of the series, when the author is trying to deal seriously with topics like death, drug addiction, and heartbreak, there have to be some emotional breaks, some ponderous moments to break up the action, and this arc had that, more than previously.
The plot was still awfully contrived, and in that way that always annoys me: Remender ignores perfectly serviceable conflicts in order to focus on less natural ones. If it had just been a pulp romp, I would have given it that, but Remender is constantly asking us to take his characters and their emotional journeys seriously, so I would have appreciated it if those journeys had been governed more by internal factors than external solutions.
The foreshadowing is also starting to come out in amusing ways, though again, I rarely feel the book is as conceptually explorative as the Silver Age sci fi is apes. There were wasted chances concerning the nature of identity and fantasy that I really would have liked to see tackled more fully. He also does some jargon explanations for various technologies, despite declaring that this sort of faux hard-sci fi star trek tech obsession isn't his intent.
Remender returns here to a perennial favorite: the Space Western, and I wouldn't be surprised if either the author or the artist were winking a passing familiarity with Blueberry. The series has always had a western tone, but here it's much more overt. I like when Remender goes off into new locations for his story, because I feel it pushes his creativity and forces him to make his plot more concise. Plus, the sudden drop into the setting put me favorably in mind of my favorite episode of The Prisoner.
The plot twists were enjoyable, and I think the huge cliffhanger will help keep the comic in my mind until the last arc comes out. I usually don't like to get into a series unless it's already completed, but I was excited to see Moore's new work, and intrigued by Remender's desire to go back to great pulp sources like Wally Wood, but unfortunately, I don't feel he ever got where he intended to go.
It's a good series, with lots of excitement, some humor, subversive characterization, multilayered plotting, and some enjoyable homages; but the plot structure can be messy, the author is unfocused, often switching from goal to goal without connecting everything. The melodrama can be somewhat over-the-top, despite the often somber tone of the series. The fast plot movement can be awkward, relying too much on exposition, with the author telling us instead of showing us.
The mixture of concepts, genres, ideas, moods, and tones is more than the sum of its parts, but never reaches the sort of sorcerous synthesis one sees in Ellis, Gaiman, Milligan, or Moore. I wanted this book to be great, and I was on-board with everything Remender promised to do, but in the end, it was better in my head.
My Suggested Reading In Comics
The plot was still awfully contrived, and in that way that always annoys me: Remender ignores perfectly serviceable conflicts in order to focus on less natural ones. If it had just been a pulp romp, I would have given it that, but Remender is constantly asking us to take his characters and their emotional journeys seriously, so I would have appreciated it if those journeys had been governed more by internal factors than external solutions.
The foreshadowing is also starting to come out in amusing ways, though again, I rarely feel the book is as conceptually explorative as the Silver Age sci fi is apes. There were wasted chances concerning the nature of identity and fantasy that I really would have liked to see tackled more fully. He also does some jargon explanations for various technologies, despite declaring that this sort of faux hard-sci fi star trek tech obsession isn't his intent.
Remender returns here to a perennial favorite: the Space Western, and I wouldn't be surprised if either the author or the artist were winking a passing familiarity with Blueberry. The series has always had a western tone, but here it's much more overt. I like when Remender goes off into new locations for his story, because I feel it pushes his creativity and forces him to make his plot more concise. Plus, the sudden drop into the setting put me favorably in mind of my favorite episode of The Prisoner.
The plot twists were enjoyable, and I think the huge cliffhanger will help keep the comic in my mind until the last arc comes out. I usually don't like to get into a series unless it's already completed, but I was excited to see Moore's new work, and intrigued by Remender's desire to go back to great pulp sources like Wally Wood, but unfortunately, I don't feel he ever got where he intended to go.
It's a good series, with lots of excitement, some humor, subversive characterization, multilayered plotting, and some enjoyable homages; but the plot structure can be messy, the author is unfocused, often switching from goal to goal without connecting everything. The melodrama can be somewhat over-the-top, despite the often somber tone of the series. The fast plot movement can be awkward, relying too much on exposition, with the author telling us instead of showing us.
The mixture of concepts, genres, ideas, moods, and tones is more than the sum of its parts, but never reaches the sort of sorcerous synthesis one sees in Ellis, Gaiman, Milligan, or Moore. I wanted this book to be great, and I was on-board with everything Remender promised to do, but in the end, it was better in my head.
My Suggested Reading In Comics
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