I've always had something of a passing interest in the world of comics without really reading many. I've always found it an expensive endeavour, given that comics are a very brief medium, and thanks to the cost of printing, usually expensive too. However, recently I've been growing to appreciate them more as a visual medium, finding that when one is good, it's somewhat like watching a good film. Sure, it's over faster than a regular book, but it can still be enjoyable.
So I'm going to talk about a reasonably obscure Marvel comic book series I really enjoyed, and one of the older comics I read. It's probably unlikely people who surf the net regularly haven't heard of the character of Deadpool these days, he's probably one of Marvel's most popular characters who hasn't yet been put to film (although that's set to change). In brief, he's Marvel's go-to comedy character, a character that's supposed to be insane to the point he believes he's in a comic book, but with the regenerative powers of Wolverine meaning he's actually quite formidable. With a wacky personality and an actual badass set of abilities, these days he's very popular (although, in my opinion, the humour is so far over done he's far more annoying than likeable in his modern iterations). However, despite his current popularity, he wasn't always like that. Back when he first got his own standalone series, while he had something of a cult following (and in my opinion, the series was the best it's ever been), it wasn't popular enough with sales, and got cancelled when Marvel made the decision that their best selling X-Men related comic books had the letter 'X' in. (Deadpool was considered an X-Men related character as his origin was tied to the same project that created Wolverine, and so fell under the 'X' banner).
Deadpool was apparently killed off in the finale of his own series in a massive explosion, along with a powerful villain with the ability to manipulate minds, and Agent X, the series began, in which a heavily scarred (although not in the same manner as Deadpool) mysterious man showed up, with Deadpool's powers, no memory of who he was and a similar 'wacky' personality. What then followed was a short lived series about a character that was, on paper at least, essentially 'Deadpool with a different name', but as a series turned out to be something a little different.
Without spoiling the end, Agent X was in fact not Deadpool. A key fact that made him actually a much more likeable character. He was never as malicious or cruel as Deadpool was, and while the series sometimes appealed to the same juvenile humour, he was somehow both more mature and yet with a child-like innocence, and certainly more of a traditional 'good guy' (if not hero) than Deadpool ever was.
The result was a series with a sense of humour that remained fun, but had a more likeable lead character. Part of this was down to the writing (initially at least, after the first seven issues, the writers changed, but I'm not counting that). Written by Gail Simone, a comic book writer who has something of a reputation for both being very good and proposing some highly accurate theories about feminism in comic books, she breathed a life in to making these characters and these settings both likeable and funny. (Gail is responsible for coining the phrase 'women in refrigerators', a bizarre phrase outside of the comic book circle, but inside used to refer to the unfortunate habit of killing off female supporting cast members just to give the male characters motivation, named after one of Green Lantern's girlfriends being killed and stuffed in a fridge ; something she was vocally opposed to). She created a good supporting cast (particularly in early stories), and gave the series a real team dynamic of interesting characters who managed to be funny without particularly appealing to the broad 'jump up and down and make them laugh' approach Deadpool often fell in to.
Agent X, the lead character, carried the weight of the comedy, but mainly with a child like attitude mixed with a brutal mercenary toughness and a bizarre set of high class tastes even he didn't understand (all character traits that made sense when you knew who, or what, he was). He was never quite as wacky as Deadpool, and instead seemed to just have a brilliant sense of humour, and often end up in ridiculous situations because of it. He was supported by three main allies. There was Sandi, a very well written female civilian character, who never minded getting involved, was tough and capable in her own right, but a very believable person. She was never a fighter and yet you always believed she'd be involved with these people. There was Outlaw, a very short tempered, super strong cowgirl, who had the humorous role of being cast as the voice of reason and experience a lot of the time despite being utterly inappropriate for it in many ways, making her a great supporting character. (It's easy in comedy to cast a female as the 'straight man' of the group, but what this series seemed to do was have her as a character who sort of thought she should fit in to that role, but in reality, she was just as bad as the others so awful at it). Often emphasised by her losing her temper, or asides from Agent X, often about her behaviour (such as her Western obsession or eating habits). And finally you had the only non-original, non-Deadpool character in the team, Taskmaster. Taskmaster was actually a major Avengers villain for a while, with the power to copy what anybody else did, and often opposed to the heroes. Here, cast as another mercenary, he's basically the jerk, but equally humorous, just in a bitter and sarcastic way.
Taskmaster also gets one of my favourite comedy moments in a comic book ever, when he meets the daughters of two of the campest villains in Marvel's history, his response is:
(Well, I found it funny).
What followed then was a series that was funny, had a true feeling of a band of misfits, perhaps overlooked by the rest of the Marvel universe, and yet managed to avoid falling in to the pitfalls that would later ensnare Deadpool (and yet make him more popular than ever). Unfortunately, however, the character was still essentially a replacement for a character people loved, and mysteriously, putting 'X' in the title didn't magically make it sell better. And so, the series was cancelled after only thirteen issues. They did at least invite Gail Simone back to finish it off, and the ending three issues are pretty great (and see Deadpool return, explain who Agent X is and have the two team up, which actually helps highlight they're nowhere near as similar as people think).
Deadpool went on to return to an ongoing series called Cable and Deadpool, shared with another semi-popular character named Cable, the feeling being that neither character was popular enough for their own series but together they could manage it. (These days Deadpool is so popular that series has been re-released as 'Deadpool and Cable', which probably says it all). Agent X cameo'd a few times, was turned obese (I'm not joking) and forgotten. Outlaw and Sandi stuck around for a little while longer, mainly to get kidnapped (despite one having super strength) and then disappeared when Cable and Deadpool ended.
Agent X never appeared again. And of course, it's likely he never will. Agent X will never get a movie or another series, not while Deadpool is around as a much more popular character, but for a while it was a fantastic, fun little series, and it's a shame that some great writing and character moments didn't get the audience they deserved, and it's still not really spoken of today, despite Deadpool's increased popularity.
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