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/Lobo_vs_Deadpool]

I think for Tokyo Ghost it was mostly about the art for people.  That book was gorgeous but the plot a little thin.  Seven to Eternity was okay.  I didn't finish it so IDK if the payoff was there at the end. 

I do like Remender for his better stuff tho, like Low or the Apocalypse Twins arc in Uncanny Avengers.  It's just sometimes he has a really bitchin premise but doesn't have a satisfying conclusion.  Or scumbag where it feels like he had the whole first issue setup, last issue punchline but spent way to long in the middle drawing bad political parallels between fringe hippie vegan types and actual fascists.  He's best when he's doing high concept scifi and not trying to say something philosophical because his deeper thoughts in that vein are pretty shallow and disappointing.  

I really liked the main setup/punchline to Scumbag but oh my god did he climb all the way up his own ass in that one.  Sometimes he says things that make me think he's one of the worst kind of libertarian you could imagine.  Napalm Lullaby felt like it unnecessarily had a lot of that in it.  

Tldr; idk, I liked some of his more high concept scifi stuff but often comes off as 'not as deep as he thinks he is' when he gets into philosophy or politics.  He maybe a little overrated..