POBB September 14, 2020

Pick of the Brown Bag

September 14, 2020

by

Ray Tate

Dan Membiela's online comic The Good Agent debuted as a straightforward tale centered around a non-powered superhero in the key of Daredevil or Nightwing.  

That unlucky fellow gets bopped by the Good Agent often, one of the book's running gags.  

The Good Agent becomes rapidly more complex as its four issues develop.  The anti-racist undercurrent, however explicit, swells to prominence.  Membiela also takes advantage of the headlines and patterns the Agent's enemies on modern fascists.

Remember how the Tiki Torch people grew horrified when pudgy, angry white guys started using their fine products during their Nazi/Klan rallies?  I do.  

Membiela's story evolves fast, but at a natural rate.  He starts to diversify the cast early.

He also increases the threat level.  The Good Agent in issue two battles a werewolf.

In the third, the Good Agent trades blows with a Berserker.  

Membiela knits these menaces together under the villainy of the White Mother.  At first the White Mother just seemed like a pulpy skull-masked bitch who spouted racist garbage.  

She's that, but she's also got some powerful supernatural backing.

One derivation of the days of the week arises from Norse mythology.  Thursday, easily translates to Thor's day.  Wednesday though derives from Wotan, an old Germanic name for Odin.  

Membiela's Wotan is a little bit squishier than expected.  You may ask and quite rightly how does this...

...transform into this.  

Modern racists at heart believe themselves as pure as the Nazis felt they were.  Both groups are hopelessly wrong.  Our ancestors embraced love over hate early on and interbred with a different species.  We Homo sapiens are twenty percent Neanderthal.  The "extinct" Neanderthal survive in us.

The Nazis always tried to add gravitas to their belief system by rooting it in superstition.   Modern fascists attempt the same.  As such, Membiela decided to use the pantheon's public domain status in an inventive and original way.  Because there's nothing more frightening in literature than Cthulhu and his ilk, Wotan gets an H.P. Lovecraft styled makeover.  

So, what does slithery, slippery Odin get out of all this?  He's not gifting psychos power for giggles.  Look closer at the depiction.

Last issue the Good Agent, with the help of Officer Chamber and police dog Lincoln, thwarted White Mother's occult bomb.  Thereby scotching her sacrifice to her tentacled speculator.  That's going to cost her.  

The Good Agent has been an exciting, timely ride, but Membiela purposely left a dangling question.

Just who is the Good Agent?

Knowing that he's some guy named Manny doesn't actually help matters.  This issue Membiela provides an origin for the Good Agent.

The who isn't important without context.  The why and the how are.  

The events surrounding the birth of the Good Agent echo the Lone Ranger's beginnings.  The narration alludes to Jerry Siegel's and Joe Schuster's original intent for the Superman/Lois Lane relationship.  So, Membiela a student of comic book and pulp lore puts together a satisfying blend.

Most importantly, he answers the question why now.  Why now is the Good Agent plying his trade?  Why has he just started to defend his city against a racist gang that snowballed to a spectral level of destruction? These answers also satisfy.  

The Good Agent's origin like the four past issues make use of the schism between authoritarian ideals and progressive action.  Were the Good Agent a real person, you can imagine him becoming a spokesman against power abuse and fascism.  Perhaps consolidating his life and ideas in a bestselling book, becoming a global figure of respect.  The Good Agent however is a comic book character.  Thus, he becomes a superhero, or adventurer if you prefer, since his level of superpowers is left debatable.  He chooses a more hands on approach to combat the parasites that feed on a wounded society.  At the same time, Membiela is entirely fair to each side.