Simon N. Kirby, The Agent #3 - G-Man Comics

SIMON N. KIRBY, THE AGENT No. 3, May 2021

Arguably featuring two of the most utterly bizarre super-villains in comic book history, Rik Offenberger’s plot for Issue Three of “Simon N. Kirby, The Agent” certainly must have well-pleased the hundred and eighteen backers who brought the publication to life via Kickstarter in March 2021. True, its readers definitely need a strong willing suspension of disbelief to accommodate Doctor Stephen Rottman’s explosively insane origin story. But the notion of a heavily-moustached skeleton resizing his hapless assistant to that of a pesky insect is precisely the sort of Stan Lee silliness which made the Silver Age of Comics such a sensational success.

Equally as unlikely is tiny Ariel’s ability to pilot a teeny flying saucer straight into Simon Kirby’s bedroom, courtesy of a partially-open window, and then drag a diminutive, dangerous-looking brain analysing machine through the fast asleep Agent’s inner ear canal. On the face of it such a scene is rather ludicrous, however, combined with a little tongue-in-cheek humour as the green-skinned intruder smugly gives his emaciated master a satisfying thumbs up, and it’s hard to think of a better way of subsequently informing this publication’s audience as to just how its titular character eventually became an FBI operative.

Of course, possibly the most memorable moment of this twenty-page periodical is the G-Men’s battle against a brain nightmarishly crammed full of zombies. Completely surrounded by the hungry Undead and already savagely bitten on the arm, things look desperate indeed for Lynx's team member Maya during this colossal bout of fisticuffs as the grisly ghouls’ large numbers threaten to completely overwhelm the Agent’s “Dream Team”; “Gamester King. You take the hundred on the left. I got the right! Scarlet Shield, keep us protected.”

Packing each prodigiously pencilled panel with plenty of ‘bang for your buck’ is Alan Faria, whose eye-catching series of splash pages towards the very end of this book contain an incredible amount of flesh-chomping detail. In addition, the Brazilian artist makes Ariel’s penetration of Kirby’s brain all the more squeamish with a disconcertingly well-drawn criminal interloper literally punching his way into the protagonist’s grey matter with a gleeful smile all over his face.

Writer: Rik Offenberger, Artist: Alan Faria, and Letters: Eric N. Bennett