Agent X #3 is the third part of "Dead Man's Switch", although the book retains the structure of single issue stories with running subplots rather than being driven by an overreaching plot.  I assume that "Dead Man's Switch" is marked down as being the first Agent X trade paperback, which would be very sensible.  Somewhat unusually these days, it's going to be a trade paperback which will read best when the reader keeps in mind the book's serialised origins.  Obviously, I approve of that approach.

This issue's plot involves the introduction of new character Mary Zero, a girl who nobody can see.  The idea is that she isn't invisible as such - rather, everyone around her has a mental block about her existence.  Since she can't interact with anyone else at all, Mary wanders around stealing things to live off, and getting away with it since, well, nobody can see her.

It's a cute idea, and played relatively straight (though not angst-ridden) considering this is partly a comedy book.  The ending involves her finding out that Agent X is the only person who can see her.  This is reminiscent of the Marlo/Lorraine set-up from recent issues of Captain Marvel, although with obvious differences being that Mary isn't dead and these two characters aren't stuck together, which changes the dynamic considerably.  I'll be interested to see how Simone approaches it here.  The obvious difficulty with characters like Mary is that their gimmick prevents them from interacting with most of the cast.  At first glance that's pretty limiting, but then, it worked in Captain Marvel.

Over in the running subplots, the Four Winds are still making ineffectual attempts to buy our hero's derelict amusement park, and a throwaway line suggests that we're getting an Arcade story shortly.  Normally I'm suspicious about Arcade stories.  Aside from an odd Ann Nocenti back-up strip in Classic X-Men, Arcade stories have a template - hero gets captured, hero faces gimmicky perils, hero escapes but Arcade gets away - which has been stripmined.  But this is the sort of book where he'll fit in, and his role as a consultant for the amusement park suggests that we're about to see a different plot.

The Taskmaster subplot also advances, as Sandi finally works out that he's been trying to kill Alex (which I'd have thought would have been fairly apparent last issue) and kicks him out.  It looks like the Taskmaster is being set up as one of Alex's main recurring villains for the series.  There's a nice throwaway bit attacking the Taskmaster for being entirely based on copying other characters and lacking any originality, which is an interesting angle to take with him.

If anything, there's a little too much plot trying to fit into this story, since it also needs to force in a jewellery heist story to provide this issue's self-contained elements.  Still, all the various threads are moving in interesting directions, and the comedy is as good as ever.

Udon's artwork is a clear as ever, although it's often noticeable here that Sandi and an out-of-costume Outlaw can only really be told about by hairstyle.  There's also a page with Mary attempting to hold up a store, which is drawn in one of my pet hate styles - isometric camera angles with the characters all standing at rigid right angles to the furniture throughout.  It's the sort of thing Rob Liefeld used to do, and it's a curious page to turn up here.  It's still a funny scene, though, and Udon generally have the right balance of seriousness and comic timing which this series needs in order to work.

Another good issue, and one of the most consistently entertaining X-books.

Rating: A-

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