Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle Reviews
Fear Agent #32
Dark Horse Comics
Remender, Hawthorne, Moore, Lucas & Loughridge
Fear Agent wraps up with an excellent story. As the recap page states, "If you haven't read the book up to this point, you shouldn't read this issue" and its true. Not just because the plot won't make a whole lot of sense but the magic of the issue is that Remender ties up the entire run by bringing the reader back to some of the scenes that started the Fear Agent on his journey. The narrative is probably the most powerful one yet from Samuul Clemens, whom is quoted by Heath throughout the series. It's an amazing book and a perfect ending for it.
The book begins as Heath looks back on all of the things his life had once been. He had a loving wife and terrific son. Quickly things flash to the present where Heath is an old man, beaten and on the brink of death at the hands of his robotic "wife". Heath isn't alone in his fight as his ship's AI, Annie has a card or two left to play.
Heath gathers up some strength as he begins to execute his endgame. As we've seen over the past few issues the characters seem to constantly be messing with the timeline and alternate versions of themselves in order to reset what the others have done. This constant tinkering with the past and time travel is absolutely dizzying. However, Remender makes the finale simple to figure out. Heath is heading back to the big bang. He plans to aim his gun on the tiny bits that eventually develop into his enemies. There's no outdoing that move it seems.
The issue ends with the scene where Heath and his family are out on their porch on Earth before the invasion and war began. This scene may very well be the exact artwork from the previous book. However, this scene ends much differently than the first time we saw this scene play out. Finally, perhaps the best of the Samuel Clemens quotes is used as the narrative for the final fate of the Fear Agent.
The issue is a brilliant cap on an excellent series. Heath has been a complex and tragic figure the entire series and his ending is equally as sad and emotional. I had a fear that the final issue would be too much time travel and too many variations of Heath and his wife coming out of the time stream, but Remender makes the end simple so that the focus can stay on what made this series in the first place: Heath.
The art team appears to literally be a team. I can't say the art is all that consistent but it does the job and does it well. The final panels where the story fades out to a blur of yellow is probably the best in the book and is the perfect mood-setter for the ending. Overall, the book's art is very good.
Fear Agent is a series that probably won't be remembered as the best science fiction work or even the best Remender work. However, for me this series clicked each and every issue. I found the character to be fascinating, right down to the end. I definitely recommend picking up this series and reading it. When you get to this last issue I think you will find as I did that Remender had a fitting ending in mind that he was setting up all along. This is an excellent book.
5 out of 5 Geek Goggles
