G-Men United #2 - G-Man Comics

G-MEN UNITED No.2, December 2021

Promising “four great tales from the G-Men in a single comic”, Eric N. Bennett’s script for “Thunder Struck” certainly gets this anthology title off to a rip-roaring start with both a notable nod to the Nazi-bashing antics depicted during the Golden Age, and its frenetically paced storytelling once events move forward to the hectic life of a modern-day speedster. However, whilst the Blue Bolt’s subsequent scintillating arrest of the villainous Thundervolt certainly provides artist Luis Rivera with plenty of opportunity to pencil a dynamically drawn chase across the waters of a local harbour, it’s the writer’s cliff-hanger of a conclusion in which Conrad Calvin’s alter-ego is shockingly accused of treachery against the Caped Agent Program that will surely have its readers clamouring for more within “the pages of the… First Guard.”

Equally as fascinating though is Rik Offenberger’s “The Double Life Of Ali Rashed” which on the face of it concerns the no-nonsense foiling of “an armed robbery at Empire City Pharmacy in Atlanta”. But in reality, explores the difficulty some protagonists face when they want to remain incognito from their friends and family. The yarn generates an arguably surprising element of empathy for Terror Noir in the reader as he is clearly thinking first and foremost about his co-workers’ safety throughout the crime, and yet ultimately loses their respect due to them erroneously believing him to be a coward who selfishly hid himself away during the entire raid; “Our lives were at risk and you were hiding! I Quit!”

Perhaps by far this publication’s bloodiest adventure concerns Sergeant Flag’s desperate mission to rescue “a cop captured by the Factory”. This five-pager very quickly gets down to the task at hand with Bobby Ragland sketching a sense-shattering tussle between the colourfully costumed super-hero and the appropriately named striped lycanthrope Tigerstrike. Indeed, the sheer viciousness of the weretiger genuinely leaps off the printed panel, and momentarily will make any perusing bibliophile believe that for once Rob McFarlane may well have bitten off more than he can chew with this mission.

“Rounding out the issue is Jim Burrows’ Who is Outrage?” which rather succinctly covers the origin story of the demon-fighting powerhouse from her grandfather’s days as a Tuskegee Airman “used for testing super-soldier protocols” through to the angry young woman finally accepting her place within the world as a registered crime-fighter. The author does a good job in penning the adolescent's frustration at the authorities for incarcerating her “papa” in an extraordinary maximum-security prison following his fall from grace, and her eventual realisation that she could do great good with her special abilities in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

The regular cover art of "G-MEN UNITED" #2 by Bobby Ragland