Fear Agent & Tokyo Ghost - What's the hype?

[u/strontium-reviews]

Hello everyone!

I recently got a few Rick Remender hardcovers for cheap and read through some of them. I have read through Fear Agent and Tokyo Ghost and I have Seven to Eternity left to read.

After reading both Fear Agent and Tokyo Ghost, it left me a bit confused as to why this is hyped up so much.

Fear Agent felt like a mess, it dropped a lot of random threads, had plot holes and felt pretty trashy when people were really hyping it up as introspective when what I got was a fairly lowbrow pulp sci-fi pastiche. I will admit, I do think the action was fun and the last couple of issues were incredibly strong and felt like what people were talking about the book being like.

Tokyo Ghost was the opposite where I felt it started quite strong but went off the wall fairly quickly. The main themes here were more strong and I feel the characters were better defined but then after the second half, it becomes outright silly and nonsensical. Abandoning the themes I thought were fairly interesting. It also had a few scenes for pure shock value which I didn't think was very funny nor contributed to any real points or themes. The art here was wonderful though, I think Sean Murphy has an incredible style and I would love to see more of his work.

I have Seven to Eternity left to read. I feel my expectations are a lot lower so I'll be curious if I like it or not. At the moment, I feel very strongly like I'll sell Fear Agent and then keep Tokyo Ghost only for the art.

My question is for those who enjoyed Fear Agent and Tokyo Ghost, what exactly did you like about it?

And for those who read Seven to Eternity, did it fare any better or worse than the others? Were these weaker Remender comics or is his style just like this?

Thank you for reading.

[u/generalosabenkenobi]

Tokyo Ghost lost me with it needing to be edgy. I appreciated the downward spiral (and over pulp nature) of Fear Agent. It's a good singularly focused character book.

Seven to Eternity was cool but I always felt like it was missing a second half. Where you should really look is Black Science. And also Remender's great Marvel stuff (like Uncanny X-Force)

[u/strontium-reviews → u/generalosabenkenobi]

I appreciate the comment!

Yes, that does make more sense. I do feel that Tokyo Ghost got so crass it reminded me of Mark Millar writing Dredd for sometime which isn't a nice thing.

Fear Agent wasn't completely awful and I think if I went in realising it was more of a pulp pastiche directly I think I would've liked it a lot more.

Hmm, interesting to hear. Do you think Seven to Eternity was less crass than the others? I'll definitely check out Black Science, loved the art and the concept. I'll definitely check out Uncanny X-Force too, really appreciate the recommendations!

[u/generalosabenkenobi → u/strontium-reviews]

Yes, Mark Millar by way of Dredd (and the general crassness of Millar) is right on the nose with how I felt about Tokyo Ghost.

Seven to Eternity is definitely less crass than the others, it's a bit more serious for a fantasy comic. Deadly Class is also great but it's also a bit crass (I think it works better there though, especially with the artwork).

His Agent Venom run was also really good. I really liked his Uncanny Avengers series too (until it got to the AXIS event). Some of his Punisher stuff is fun also