It goes without saying that the chaotic history of Agent X is not one of Marvel's finer moments of the last few years.  However, the good news is that instead of coasting to oblivion on a run of fill-ins, Gail Simone and Udon have been brought back to wind things up.  See, they even get to put "We Are Back!" on the cover, in a rare departure from Marvel's no-text cover policy.

This is a three-parter, and its function is to wind up the series and resolve all the outstanding plots.  The principal bit of outstanding business, of course, is to establish what the connection between Agent X and Deadpool actually is, and the subplot this time makes it clear that a resolution is coming in future issues.

Most of this issue, though, is about gathering the core cast again - Agent X, Sandi, Taskmaster, and the villain from Simone's first arc,  Higashi - and digesting some of what's been done in the fill-in issues.  Principally, that means allowing for a curiously out-of-character sequence in the Evan Dorkin storyline where Agent X and Sandi slept together, and the decision in Daniel Way's issue to close the agency down.  That one made obvious sense given that Way was presumably briefed to do a one-issue story closing the series, but presents an obvious difficulty here.

Simone's solution, thankfully, is to work those elements into her plot and use them as a springboard for the subplots - Alex is kicking himself for jeopardising his relationships with both Sandi and Outlaw (even though this didn't seem to have occurred to him in the last three issues, it really should have), and he hasn't plucked up the nerve to tell anyone yet about his decision to close the agency.  Both of these oddball plot elements end up looking more or less at home as the series returns to its proper course.

As was usual with Simone's Deadpool run, there's a complete story included here as well, giving some closure to the individual issue.  It's an assassination attempt on Higashi - a basic enough story used as a vehicle for a cute gag about painfully girly Hello Kitty assassins.  ("Punctured lung is not happy funtime agony!")  The book's certainly as funny as ever, and the opening recap page, a blog parody, is genius.

Nice to see the book getting the send-off it deserves.

Rating: A-

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