Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle Reviews
Fear Agent #29 - Out of Step #2 of 5
Dark Horse Comics
Remender, Hawthorne, Moore, Lucas & Loughridge
This issue of Fear Agent doesn't fail to push the envelope further than ever before in this series. Prior to this issue you probably thought you had seen it all with what could possibly happen to Heath Huston. Well, you would be wrong. This issue takes his impossible situation and makes worse. I enjoyed this issue probably as much as any other issue in the series. It's that good. I'm not sure someone coming fresh into the series with this arc would fully absorb what's going on but they probably would still find the issue to be pretty darn good.
Heath has aged. A lot. This issue takes place nine years after the previous issue but Heath's body is aging faster than the clock. The cover says it all. Heath is an old man. He's still capable of being a space adventurer but this certainly makes things a lot tougher.
During the last nine years the Tetaldians have infected every planet in the galaxy except one. This final race is Heath's task. He must save them at any cost. There is no back up plan.
While Heath tries to spot the Tetaldian infection he gets himself into trouble. Essentially his ship, and with it, Annie, get a bug attached to it and Heath ends up alone in space. At this point you may be finding a lot of similarities with the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey. The rapid aging, the ship taking control over the humans and the human locked outside of the ship's door. All of this is true, except Heath doesn't seem to get any sort of happy ending or victory of even the smallest variety.
There is an excellent backup in the issue that brings us back to a happier time in Heath's past. This story stays away from the bounty hunting or the drunken luck Heath seems to have but instead tackles the naïve hero aspect of Heath's personality. It's a good little story as usual. He's sort of a likable knucklehead or dummy.
The artwork is excellent but really nails it on one specific panel. The panel where Heath is alone in space, with his ship gone is one of the more stunning panels I can remember in this series. There are plenty of other pages to love in here, especially the more swashbuckling ones, but the art excels in the quieter moments, like when Heath takes to the bottle. Simply excellent visual storytelling in this book.
Fear Agent is racing towards a conclusion and I have no idea, none, of how this series will be ending. I was thrilled with the first issue and this issue tops it. I'm not sure what else this series could possibly come up with next but I'll be there for sure.
5 out of 5 Geek Goggles
