They say time is a flat circle, but that doesn’t mean we can’t do something about it. Because as we look back on some 30 years of xtreme ’90s comics, a reaction has emerged thanks to books like Local Man and Blood Squad Seven. Books that may homage this exaggerated era in comics but that also spoof and satire it with warmth to help us understand its politics and art. (And also why everyone had so many dang pouches.)
But Free Agents is a much different entity in this canon of ’90s comics retromania, and worthy of your reading if not solely because it’s a good story.
For one, the book is the brainchild of veterans Kurt Busiek and Fabian Nicieza, who are no strangers to glorious ’90s action. And these two don’t just have a reverence for this very specific time, but the context and understanding to make this new super team feel grounded in the very context you’d expect.
And that context is both fairly interesting and a touch derivative.
I appreciate the way that team approaches launching this new super team — Salvo, Pike, Katari, Shakti, Ridge, Maraud, and Chalice — with an efficiency and depth that you’d only expect from two seasoned pros. Everything we need to know about this team — who they are, why they’re on Earth, their traumatic backstory — unfolds in the story proper without heaps of exposition.
In that sense, I think it’s an interesting way to get right to the meat and potatoes of it all. That said, there’s still going to be some baseline shock and uncertainty here, and you may have a hard time tracking each member’s movements given that 1) they’re so new and 2) they’re all coming at us at once. Maybe some of that “shock” is a good thing, given the tendency of these big group books to routinely over-explain.
Variant cover by Kevin Maguire. Courtesy of Image Comics.
Luckily, the rest of the team (artist Stephen Mooney, colorist Triona Farrell, and letterers Richard Starkings and Tyler Smith) are here to help. On the one hand, the team have given us a very ’90s-looking book, with everyone seeming very jacked and quite beautiful. That is what it is, but from the actual design work of the characters, we start to see some of the Free Agents’ personality and passion shine through. Yes, there’s lots of stereotypical ’90s stuff — Salvo looks like a cleaner Cable, and Ridge is your generic looking monster hero — but there’s a crispness, precision, and kinetic joy that brings these throwbacks into the future in a really compelling way.
Yes, it’s still very much steeped in that bombastic ’90s aesthetic, but it feels more succinct and streamlined, and that does a lot to rope in some of that overwhelming day-glo vibes that would otherwise prove more stomach-churning than slamming a can of Surge. I wish more of the world beyond our heroes felt robust and updated, but a lot of it felt nondescript enough to keep the focus on the people. And that’s maybe a solid idea given the sheer politics and machinations of dealing with a seven-person team (even as it very well meant that all this humanity exists in a vacuum). Also, the lettering here does tons to help move us through the story and into the team’s core in a really effective manner.
But it’s here that I arrive at some of the larger issues I have with Free Agents #1. Because for all its efficient storytelling and lively action hero offerings, it does feel very ’90s in its thematic end goals. The bulk of this book really seems to drag on in trying to establish the team as having to return to superheroics by force. Even the big “reveal” at the issue’s close feels very ’90s in its sense of scope, overt aggression, and deliberately shocking tendencies. They’re not even overly busy being heroes, as a lot of it’s just trying to get laid/fall in love and generally embrace the fecklessness of youth.
Variant cover by Pete Woods. Courtesy of Image Comics.
There’s still some upsides — Pike and Ridge, for instance, have a unique dynamic trying to help with the latter’s powers, and Chalice already feels really interesting for a few reasons — but they’re not as robust. Rather, we just get a kind of middling narrative that, while interesting enough, is also fairly one-sided and generic. Sure, we get to see how they basically fought for their freedom, and what might happen going forward. But even then, it’s hard not to argue that they basically have the best of both worlds already.
And that ultimately means that any back-and-forth about their roles and lives does feel a tad stunted. Pair that with the fact that, while they may look cool and singular, their non-hero personas feel a little underdeveloped and stifled. What we get, then, is something that will need way more time to develop and diversify if we’re going to really connect with the team beyond their obvious nostalgic coolness.
That right there may be my actual biggest issue with this book: they don’t really make the claim yet for the Free Agents’ existence. I mentioned Local Man and Blood Squad Seven already as books that poke a bit of fun at ’90s comics. And reading through Free Agents #1, it already feels like a response to that friendly and satirical spirit permeating the industry right now.
On paper, having two vets like Busiek and Nicieza bringing this era back is a great idea, and theoretically, Free Agents works to remind us of the drama, playfulness, and popcorn narratives that really defined the era and its best offerings. But I also couldn’t help feeling since I’d read Shadow Cabinet and Youngblood, then maybe I wouldn’t need Free Agents. There’s clearly some goodness here — I can’t say enough about the look of this world and its ability to engage us on a few vital levels, and the team have developing personalities worth our attention — even as it’s also not making much of a statement beyond that.
Variant cover by Erik Larsen. Courtesy of Image Comics.
The satirical stuff at least is getting us to understand why we told these stories in this timeframe, and what it means now for our jaded, endlessly nostalgic modern times. Free Agents, however, is just a story for the ’90s not in the ’90s, and there’s not quite enough added bells and whistles that we couldn’t already find elsewhere. That, and this sort of smacks of “let’s get the band back on the road” but not in a way that tells us anything new about the creators and their ideas beyond the greatest hits we’ve heard a thousand times before.
Yeah, the songs still smack, but I’d hope the act of looking back with this project’s specific objectives would yield new ideas and understandings, and maybe ground those in a fresh way to show the “young guns” how you really dissect and explore the ’90s. But there’s either not enough yet or, maybe more likely, a sense that we won’t ever get anything beyond a more nuanced and thoughtful Bloodstrike.
Still, don’t let my harsh vibes fool you: Free Agents is a deeply interesting book. While some of my admiration comes from looking at it conceptually and not just as a story, it’s got to count for something that this book proves compelling so early into its run. And though I wasn’t always on board for the 90210-ian drama, and a concept that remains a tad one-dimensional, I already feel a personal connection to this book.
Here’s where I’d normally have some hopes or insights for a book, but with Free Agents, I’d rather just see what happens when the team get more story out in front of them and a proper chance to either really commit to the retro bit or just let the nostalgia overwhelm everything. Time may be a flat circle, but I’m willing to hope this team can be different this go-around.
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