Not that we need more of it collectively, but Free Agents #1 brought the nostalgia by the truckload. The issue, then, is that while creators/writers Fabian Nicieza and Kurt Busiek are purveyors of that purest ’90s comics goodness, it wasn’t entirely a walk down memory lane. Rather, the debut presented as much rampant nostalgia as much as it reminded us of the era’s clunky narratives, overt dedication to action and all things cool, and complicated but deflated storylines. Still, a net win overall if you really like WildC.A.T.s.
But issue #2 may complicate that delicate “balance,” and fling Free Agents into the realm of hokey rehash over measured rework.
The thing that made Free Agents‘ debut effective in toeing the line is that there was some awareness of what they were doing. This overarching sense that they were making a ’90s comic in 2024, and that this process meant trying to avoid certain cliches and tropes and also inject something new into the mix (courtesy of artist Stephen Mooney and colorist Triona Farrell). And while that process was, again, imperfect, it still lent Free Agents a self-awareness that what we were really seeing was all that we loved about ’90s comics but with the lessons learned and the sensibilities gained of 30-plus years of time and comics storytelling.
In issue #2, however, it feels like some of that is lost. As we learned at the end of Free Agents #1, Barrage, the seemingly MIA/KIA leader of the team, emerged from null-space. And what happened next was an emotionally fraught but potent exploration of the resulting trauma and… just kidding, they went right into the next dang mission like a clunky issue of Bloodstrike. Toss in just a plethora of very ’90s sci-fi terminology — think “tracker-piton” and “protonic engines” — and the tenuous tip-toeing between ’90s goodness and modern sensibilities made a beeline for the worst parts of the xtreme era. That whole neon-tinged tone informed a lot of this issue, and it just felt like there was all this emotion to be had but they’d rather make references to alien shells and finding bad guys wearing invisible forcefields.
Main cover by Stephen Mooney and Tríona Farrell. Courtesy of Image Comics.
Sure, the creators tried to hint at some of this tension more directly, but it just felt mostly clunky and awkward, and done in a way that felt like a prerequisite of storytelling and not the very reason for this whole darn affair. And some of that energy informed even the art. In the debut, Mooney and Farrell did rather quality work, trying to give us that rush of ’90s-leaning intensity while lending space for new ideas and influences to enter the fold. It lent Free Agents #1 a kind of texture and humanity that was unlike some similarly-themed team books. But in Free Agents #2, that sense of “let’s go let’s go” in telling the story, and the focus on sci-fi geekery, meant lots of exposition-heavy team shots and weird alien monsters detached from context.
There were some really cool moments — the Jon/Pike transformations, the stuff with Chalice in her room, a scene with a very special Image Comics crossover… — but it just didn’t have enough heft to make me forget that this book had places to go, and one of those destinations clearly wasn’t a scenic stop to let everything really resonate. It was all go and no slow, and a really irksome way that this book abandoned its mission statement so early on for more overly complicated and only partially satisfying fight scenes and a complicated backstory I’m only, like, 50% interested in watching play out.
Variant cover by Kevin Maguire. Courtesy of Image Comics.
So, then, why am I here and what do I still care about Free Agents? Why the threads of genuinely compelling emotion, of course. There were some great seeds laid in issue #1, including a standout performance from Chalice and the burgeoning relationship between Pike and Ridge. And while there still wasn’t enough important reaction to Barrage’s return, these characters still delivered something across issue #2.
Chalice instantly rebels for her newly-built life on Earth, and her tension and disregard feels like they’re the most direct realization of this story’s entire premise — the fact that they’re not shared by anyone else yet is either a great story point or an annoying oversight. And Pike/Ridge, who have bonded as the former helped the latter with his monster powers, was a bit more subtle than Chalice but deeply compelling. It’s their dynamic, I’d argue, that taps into the larger emotional vein of this story — the balance between one’s duty and just trying to be humans. (In the case of Ridge, that conflict is painfully familiar and obvious.)
Variant cover by Declan Shalvey. Courtesy of Image Comics.
Sure, these threads aren’t given the same attention as, say, a gnarly injury by Katari, but they’re the proper meat of Free Agents thus far. Those elements that bypass the ’90s retromania for something earnest and delicate, these deeply resonant ideas that extend past eras and aesthetics and speak to a deep yearning we can all connect with fully. I keep hoping these can grow and weave their way into the larger story. But as issue #2 proved, Free Agents doesn’t have the energy, commitment, and/or depth just yet to make these mean more when they should be the only focus over all the “firebreak fissures” in the world.
I totally understand that Free Agents is still early on in its run. That there’s likely ample time for the juicy human bits to develop as they need to and to let the creative team tell a huge story about personal growth and leaving behind the familiar for something new and utterly true. The only problem is that, as issue #2 demonstrated, the creators may be too enamored with the “good old days” to let the real story shine through. That, and they may not see that the story has nothing to do with Barrage but this team’s hopes for a world that they can save that’s actually their own.
I’ll keep reading Free Agents to find out for sure, but here’s hoping we drop the gimmicks like JNCO jeans and embrace the truly radical parts of this series.
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