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I will resist temptation and not
begin with another paragraph of exasperation about the future
of Agent X. There will be plenty of time for that
in three months time.
For the moment, this is the
penultimate part of the "Dead Man's Switch" storyline.
The main thrust of this arc has been the feud with Higashi and
his gang, and as tends to happen with penultimate episodes,
the good guys are reunited in preparation for a big fight with
the villains and their henchmen. Given the henchmen who
turn up at the end of this issue (is that Crossfire?),
something tells me that we're heading for a torrent of obscure
microvillains next month. Always good for a laugh.
One of my pet hates in comic book
writing is the tendency to write Japanese characters who are
driven entirely by "honour". That's "honour" in the
sense of "willingness to perform completely irrational actions
in order to further the plot, and justify by it spouting a
paragraph of Japanese instead of actually having a coherent
personality-based motivation." Higashi and,
particularly, Saguri seem to have very few qualms in this
area. It makes a pleasant change to see Japanese
characters who promptly tear up their deal with the Taskmaster
the moment it stops suiting their motivations. It's
almost like they have personalities.
Arcade pops his head round the
door, in an unusually small role for him. I get the
impression that the original plan was to come back to Arcade
after the current arc, and bring him in once the park was
being rebuilt. Gail Simone has a slightly unusual
approach to Arcade, in that he seems almost sane here.
The character is a bit of a one-dimensional clown most of the
time, used as a comic relief villain in comics which need a
change of pace. Here, Udon have wisely toned down the
costume to get rid of the silly 1970s elements, and Arcade
actually displays a second side to his personality - a
childlike delight in historical fairground rides. It's a
nice angle on the character, although thoroughly consistent
with the way he's usually used. ("Hey, what's the fun in
watching someone die unless they're in a giant pinball machine
at the time? That's what I always say.")
Agent X himself spends the entire
issue mute, perhaps in order to shut him up so that the other
characters can advance the plot more effectively. Makes
for a nice running gag, though.
Good as ever, and I'm looking
forward to next month's finale.
Rating: A-
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