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A review by jgkeely
Fear Agent, Volume 4: Hatchet Job by Rick Remender, Michelle Madsen, Jerome Opeña
3.0
At this point the series seems to have moved off course from it's original intentions and fallen heavily into the realm of Cerebus Syndrome, where a series departs from it's origins and begins to rely heavily on interpersonal drama. Original, Fear Agent was meant to be an homage to earlier sci fi series, before the pseudo-scientific utopia of Trek and the spiritual journey of Star Wars.
The series began rather promisingly in that vein: episodic, weird, and with an emphasis on high adventure. However, Remender has slowly replaced those elements with melodrama, and his guaranteed plot twists have ceased resembling the twilight zone and started to resemble a soap opera.
There is still the background of New Weird sci fi, and this arc gives us both an arena scene reminiscent of L'Incal and the always delightful 'mysterious jungle world' subplot, but both of them are packed with long-winded, emotionally wrought expositionary dialogue.
Remender clearly has an obsession with character psychology, which he doesn't mind talking about at length in the letters page, but he isn't great at getting that psychology onto the page. His story construction is a bit haphazard, overly full and quickly paced, which is hardly complimentary to the high-adventure style that marks his inspiration.
He wants to play with the ideas of his chosen genre, with subversion and satire, and when he can get his point across, it proves enjoyable. However, his histrionic characterization is not played for laughs, despite the fact that its overwrought intensity makes it hard to take seriously.
He's combining different styles and inspirations here, but so far, he hasn't synthesized them into something new and interesting, he's just put it all together and let it fly, which isn't entirely unenjoyable, but it's also rife for eye-rolling. I wish Remender were in on the joke more often, because when he takes things too seriously, the quality drops.
What's interesting to me is that, so far, he's failed to explore the difficult questions that marked the Silver age of sci fi and its comic book adaptations. There isn't that constant question of 'what makes us human?' or 'what is the nature of the universe?' that lent those books a curious, ponderous depth, even when they were palpably pulpy.
In fact, the book hardly takes a moment for retrospection anymore, it's all battles, deaths, and dramatic revelations. I'm afraid I have to side with Hitcock when he said that you can't tell a story through constant escalation, you have to have contrasting moments of peace and introspection to help the epic moments stand out.
Remender is walking a fine line between all the things his comic could be, but doesn't really want to commit to any, which is unfortunate, because it leaves the thing rather without direction. He doesn't really want it to be as campy as old sci fi, yet he doesn't want to take it seriously, like the Trekkies and all their 'tech manuals'.
Remender's compromise isn't bad, but I keep getting the feeling that it could be so much more if it was more scrupulously constructed. He's trying to do a lot with it, which is admirable, but in the end, a lot of it isn't working, and the fact that he's settling on 'omg drama!' doesn't inspire much confidence.
The art is getting better, but there are still some really awkward panels here and there, and I still blame the inkers. The panel-to-panel structure is also a bit lackluster. They could stand to do some more artistic exploration in the bright, strange, alien worlds they present.
The high drama also feels like it might profit from some more cartoony reactions, at least then the words would better match the picture. If you're going to subsist on 'Shocking Secrets Revealed!', then I want the character's face to have the subtlety of a radio serial organ.
My Suggested Reading In Comics
The series began rather promisingly in that vein: episodic, weird, and with an emphasis on high adventure. However, Remender has slowly replaced those elements with melodrama, and his guaranteed plot twists have ceased resembling the twilight zone and started to resemble a soap opera.
There is still the background of New Weird sci fi, and this arc gives us both an arena scene reminiscent of L'Incal and the always delightful 'mysterious jungle world' subplot, but both of them are packed with long-winded, emotionally wrought expositionary dialogue.
Remender clearly has an obsession with character psychology, which he doesn't mind talking about at length in the letters page, but he isn't great at getting that psychology onto the page. His story construction is a bit haphazard, overly full and quickly paced, which is hardly complimentary to the high-adventure style that marks his inspiration.
He wants to play with the ideas of his chosen genre, with subversion and satire, and when he can get his point across, it proves enjoyable. However, his histrionic characterization is not played for laughs, despite the fact that its overwrought intensity makes it hard to take seriously.
He's combining different styles and inspirations here, but so far, he hasn't synthesized them into something new and interesting, he's just put it all together and let it fly, which isn't entirely unenjoyable, but it's also rife for eye-rolling. I wish Remender were in on the joke more often, because when he takes things too seriously, the quality drops.
What's interesting to me is that, so far, he's failed to explore the difficult questions that marked the Silver age of sci fi and its comic book adaptations. There isn't that constant question of 'what makes us human?' or 'what is the nature of the universe?' that lent those books a curious, ponderous depth, even when they were palpably pulpy.
In fact, the book hardly takes a moment for retrospection anymore, it's all battles, deaths, and dramatic revelations. I'm afraid I have to side with Hitcock when he said that you can't tell a story through constant escalation, you have to have contrasting moments of peace and introspection to help the epic moments stand out.
Remender is walking a fine line between all the things his comic could be, but doesn't really want to commit to any, which is unfortunate, because it leaves the thing rather without direction. He doesn't really want it to be as campy as old sci fi, yet he doesn't want to take it seriously, like the Trekkies and all their 'tech manuals'.
Remender's compromise isn't bad, but I keep getting the feeling that it could be so much more if it was more scrupulously constructed. He's trying to do a lot with it, which is admirable, but in the end, a lot of it isn't working, and the fact that he's settling on 'omg drama!' doesn't inspire much confidence.
The art is getting better, but there are still some really awkward panels here and there, and I still blame the inkers. The panel-to-panel structure is also a bit lackluster. They could stand to do some more artistic exploration in the bright, strange, alien worlds they present.
The high drama also feels like it might profit from some more cartoony reactions, at least then the words would better match the picture. If you're going to subsist on 'Shocking Secrets Revealed!', then I want the character's face to have the subtlety of a radio serial organ.
My Suggested Reading In Comics