Fear Agent: Out of Step Review

This week's review is none other than volume 6 of Rick Remender's series Fear Agent. His sci-fi story that attempts to bring back the “stones” to science fiction.

Fear Agent: Out of Step (Volume 6 TPB)

Written by Rick Remender

Art by Mike Hawthorne, Tony Moore & John Lucas

Dark Horse

Review by Jeremias de Leon

Story:

There is a task force called “Fear Agents” whose job it is to destroy alien threats to earth. Heath Huston, the main character, is the last of his task force. He is an alcoholic redneck who studies Mark Twain. In this last volume Heath Huston is out to change history from the future where the alien race the Tetaldians have infected every species in the universe with their D.N.A in order to have a universe where there is no chaos, everyone is the same, and all the people that Heath cared about are no longer who they were.

The volume starts with the Tetaldians making different species like they are by traveling to the distant past. Heath gets captured and gets his mind transferred to a new body. We then skip to a time jump where Heath is considerably older. Almost looking like Solid Snake in Metal Gear Solid 4.

He is now working to exterminate all Tetaldian infections, even wiping out entire races if he has to. The book then starts to give flashbacks and give more insight into who Heath is. There's a scene that shows when he talks to his beloved Charlotte and shows how he started to become an alcoholic. There's also other scenes that showed how his life would be if the aliens didn't change everything by making everything the same. Heath is fueled by the memories of those he loved that are different now, he tries to fix everything so they can be who they were again. With the flashbacks he has, you really do start to understand why he's doing what he's doing.

Art:

The gritty art in Fear Agent is perfect for the type of story it is. Where there is a lot of grizzly deaths and strange aliens and traveling through the dark void of space.

The art does sometimes make you think of an older action packed comic but it's much more than that and as the story goes on, you really do see that it does work for the story.

The character design has a lot of strange quirks to it, which is how it should be for a science fiction where the main character meets plenty of aliens and robots in the universe. They really are unique and will have you remembering them long after you're done reading.

Verdict:

The last volume of Fear Agent is much more than it first seems. Yes, it does have plenty of action and if you're a fan of that this won't disappoint but the writing is really where this shines. Rick Remender did a great job of fleshing out Heath Huston. Yes, he is an alcoholic Texan but his story is really well thought out and he gets really fleshed out during the course of the series. You really do feel for him and understand his pain, and determination.

This last volume of Fear Agent gets a 9 out of 10.