Simon N. Kirby, The Agent #7 - G-Man Comics

SIMON N. KIRBY, THE AGENT No. 7, October 2023

Arguably depicting one of the most disagreeable characters in Rik Offenberger’s fictional roster, Issue Seven of “Simon N. Kirby, The Agent” certainly must have made it plain to the seventy eight backers who supported “G-Man Comics” successful "G-Men Unleashed" Kickstarter in August 2023, that things at the Federal Bureau of Investigation were not going to run all that smoothly under newly appointed Director Jameson. Indeed, as the titular character himself states to a bemused Agent Squires early on in the tale “He’s trying really hard to make me dislike him.”

This tension between Agent Kirby and Sgt. Flag with their “new boss” really is incredibly well-presented by the American author, courtesy of some seriously sharp-tongued exchanges between the three men. Of particular interest though is the FBI’s senior leader openly boasting to the Agent about his close, special relationship with the fascist criminal industrialist Rothlander. This arrogant admission appears to be a blatant attempt to goad the G-Men squad’s colourfully-costumed supervisor into directly challenging Jameson’s top position within the security service, and smacks of the freshly-appointed director wanting to have someone much more loyal to him running his field missions.; "You act like you have a choice! That's an order, marine!"

Also providing this twenty-page periodical with another intriguing hook is the arrival of the Boo Crew, and the mistaken belief that the spooky-looking antagonists were robbing a bank – as opposed to them simply wanting to register as super-heroes and the staff freaking out at their ghastly appearance. Apparently based upon a brand of Monster Cereal from the Editor-in-Chief’s childhood, there’s a genuine sadness to the unfair predicament of the vampire, ghost, werewolf, mummy, and Frankenstein’s Monster lookalike, even if they do eventually live up to their Silver Screen cinematic counterparts towards the end of the story when physically pushed into a corner.

Desperately trying to squeeze all these sinister shenanigans into a single instalment is Gilbert Monsanto, who does a top job pencilling Jameson as an egotistic dictator that seemingly goes well out of his way to stir things up within his own department. Furthermore, the illustrator does a smashing job of adding plenty of detail to even the smallest of his panels, not least of which is the director’s coffee cup having a hornet on it – which foreshadows "Murder Hornet 2.0" shockingly joining the G-Men at the publication’s cataclysmic conclusion.

The regular cover art of "SIMON N. KIRBY, THE AGENT" #7 by Joshua 1:0 Holley