I first read Agent of W.O.R.L.D.E. #1 (along with its second) last year, back when it was called C.H.A.O.S. Agent. At the time, I was finishing up a teaching certificate program with the University of Connecticut (Hartford). Back then, I was working as a student teacher at Eastern Middle School in Riverside, CT. Most days, I would walk home from school. Not too long of a walk, about ten/fifteen minutes. Oftentimes, I would pass by my students and not talk to them. It wouldnât be proper, I thought. Iâd still say hello.
The first time Iâve talked to a student outside of the classroom about things unrelated to my class was around a year after I received the issue of Deniz Camp, Filya Bratukhin, Jason Wordie, and Hassan Otsman-Elahaouâs Agent of W.O.R.L.D.E. #1 Maybe not to the day, but around about that time. I was teaching at Norwich Free Academy in Norwich, CT as a Learning Lab instructor. My job was essentially to help students struggling with various aspects of English. There are many students who come to mind when I think of my time at NFA, some more positively than others, but only one sticks out.
She was in my D channel class, which I had taken onto my rotation shortly before the end of the first semester. The girl was quite abrasive while also being extremely friendly. She kept close to her small group of friends, even as she kept her privacy. Among the privacies was one I saw while heading to meet with my mentor about the requirements of being a new teacher. The girl was going over to another class when I saw it: the girl had a massive black eye. To the point where her actual eyeball was blood red.
Our conversation was rather brief (especially considering Iâd see her early the next day and she was on her way to class) and it amounted to âAre you ok?â (She was. She injured herself playing softball during gym.) Over the course of two months, the eye injury would heal. By spring break, the girlâs injury would be completely gone. All things considered, itâs a small story, one with minimal impact on the world and lacking any real moral or conclusion.
But itâs the kind of story Philip desires.
Agent of W.O.R.L.D.E. #1 is a comic about a secret agent man fighting a time war that is bleak and grotty and weird. You can feel the lingering presence of works like Morrison/Westonâs The Filth or Doctor Who or even The Manhattan Projects. These presences arenât necessarily there by design (as Camp put it back when I first read the issue and in this interview, noting the presence of The Filth in its implications, âit’s honestly been AGES but Morrison is forever in my heartâ), but they linger nevertheless.
But at its core (though not necessarily visible in the first issue), Agent of W.O.R.L.D.E. is a comic about a man who wants nothing more than to live a life with his family. Itâs about the contrast between these two lives and the kind of man who could live such a double life of talking orangutans and two children. Where this goes is up to the creative team. But I trust theyâll do a spectacular job with it.
Right now, weâre in the set up for the strangeness. As issue 2 highlights, the series will delve more and more into the mundane aspects of Philipâs life. What we have is an opening to an exciting series drawn with a high precision towards detail, lettered by a master of his craft, colored in unique and interesting ways, all to deliver an extremely fascinating script.
But every time I read this comic, all I can think about is⌠Just what is going on with Billy Braxxâs glasses?
