Writer: Mathieu Gabella
Art: Fernando Dagnino
Colors: Carlos Morote
Letters: Vibrant Studios
Publisher: Ablaze
Price: $3.99
Release Date: December 20th, 2023
“The French Connection” meets “The Magicians” in The Agent #1, where Rhym, a narcotics agent in France, tails a drug dealer who has a major deal lined up, not knowing that she’ll soon be pulled into a sub-culture of witches and mages working in the shadows of Paris.
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The Story
The Agent #1 is a solid beginning to a new urban fantasy series. The action starts from Page 1, as narcotics agent Rhym winds her way through a crowded Paris subway station, trying to follow a pusher while simultaneously trying not to be spotted. When the drug deal happens, all hell breaks loose. Magic in this world is as varied as the languages, with herbal magic, voodoo, and other forms of magic being wielded by both good and bad (mostly bad) people. Most of the magic seems to be organic. There aren’t any flashy Harry Potter or Dungeons & Dragons type spells and that’s fine. That type of glitzy magic wouldn’t fit into the shadowy atmosphere of this book.
We don’t learn much about main character Rhym this issue, except for the fact she’s Arab, street smart and dedicated to duty, willing to risk her life to lock up another drug pusher. I wish we could have gotten more info on her background, but I suppose that will follow over the next few issues. I look forward to seeing more about her past. Hopefully writer Mathieu Gabella will give her some nuance and complexity and avoid making her a stereotypical action heroine.
Another character named Sebastien Ferrant is introduced and he’s more brooding than a room filled with Batmans and Daredevils. He’s an agent for the DGSI (the General Directorate for Internal Security), which is France’s version of the Secret Service, and he seems well-schooled in all forms of magic. As with Rhym, we don’t learn much about him beyond surface things and he could eventually become either a great ally or enemy of Rhym. I love that the series is set in France. With so many comic series set in the USA and 90% of those seeming to be set in New York, it’ll be refreshing reading a series with a European setting. I look forward to reading these characters and watching them operate in this world where the criminal underworld mingles with dark magic and monsters.
The Art
Fernando Dagnino’s art on The Agent #1 has the feel of old EC Comics, where every panel seems to be filled with shadow and menace. It gives the book an atmosphere of dread and horror mixed with dynamite action scenes, similar to the feeling of watching “Aliens” or any other film that deftly mixes horror and action.
Final Thoughts
The Agent #1 is the debut of what promises to be a great urban fantasy series. It has a rarely-used setting, two potentially fantastic main characters, and the perfect mix of horror and action. If Rhym and Sebastien’s characters are given more complexity in future issues, this series will be a must-read book.