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Posted January 7, 2014 by Alvin Minon in Comics
 
 

COMIC BOOK REVIEW: Imagine Agents #3

This is one suuuuuper overdue post. Back in December I’ve read the issue already and I have re-read it again since I was not able to finish my review. And I could really say that Imagine Agents sure has the right mix taken care of already. I thought the high note they set in the second issue would be tough to reach already but Boom! Studios‘ Imagine Agents has proved me wrong as it enters an even more exciting climax in its third issue.

Check out our review of IMAGINE AGENTS #1 & IMAGINE AGENTS #2

In the newest issue, we’re showed Dapple and an assembly of imaginary friends or “figments” as they put it, secretly plotting how to get their revenge on humans who have long discarded their feelings and even existence after a few years of companionship. It is during this point that we confirm that Dapple’s a sinister character who twists the story to manipulate others. But to be fair, the motivation presented to the other figments really has a point and these imaginary friends did had it tough after they were conjured and left. Brian Joines uses a flashback here where what Dapple narrates is different from what really happened. However, the movement’s cause is still somewhat easy to sympathize with, giving a reason to all that pent-up hate the main villain has.

While the underground club meeting’s happening, agents Slatern and Snowgoose, together with the kidnapped boy Elliot’s mother, Rebecca Fairview, and Elliot’s furry imaginary friend Furdlegurr, hurry to save the kid from the clutches of the yellow lupine villain. We learn tidbits of Imagine Agent’s mythos, what the figments are and how they came to be, how I.M.A.G.I.N.E. came to existence together with its technologies and how all of that brings us to the dilemma at hand. Joines was not only able to give more weight to the current situation by connecting it to a string of events in the past, but also give us what could be said as a convincing explanation of figments and I.M.A.G.I.N.E.’s technologies. Since it’s imaginary creatures that we’re talking about, Joines made sure that there’s a pseudo-science to explain things and how things would flow later on would make sense.

Joines really has written the best climax for this series, with the pace and heightened tension and action. Also, in just one issue, this world of various imaginary friends has become even more rich and compelling. It wouldn’t be a farfetched idea to create spin-offs and other materials that share same universe as I.M.A.G.I.N.E. and its agents. And it’s not just Joines who has brought his A-game! I’d say Bachan has done his best work so-far. It’s his work that materializes the tension that Joines’ build up with the story. Also, I just got to commend how visually exciting this issue is. The angst and hatred’s evident in Dapple’s transformation from his cuddly days to his new humanoid lupine form. Oh and I especially love the last few pages where it could really be felt that the agents’ operation has gone haywire.

It’s just sad that the last issue would be coming soon. Imagine Agents remains to be one of the best mini-series I’ve read by the end of 2013 going to 2014. I could even say that it’s one of the best mini-series Boom! Studios has ever launched. I could be wrong or not, but that’ s just how much I’ve appreciated this comic. Well, we just have to see how Joines and Bachan would wrap it all up. The quality’s been escalating since the first issue and I sure do hope the last one would end with a bang.


Alvin Minon