Radiant Black has grown accustomed to dealing with things that aren’t from his Earth. There’s a hell of a lot out there that he’s had to handle. Now he’s dealing with a large group of people who are from somewhere else...and they’ve all got powerful tech and artifacts. He might be in over his head in Free Agents #4. The writing team of Kurt Busiek and Fabian Nicieza continue a team-based action serial with artist Stephen Mooney. The ensemble of characters doesn’t come across as being anywhere near as appealing as it would need to be in order to carry the title, but it remains reasonably fun anyway.

Radiant Black is confronting a group of powered people. There’s a bit of a conflict between them. Of course...when a threat presents itself to both the Free Agents and Radiant Black, they’re all going to have to work together in order to deal with the bigger problem. A powerful artifact is plucked out of thin air and everyone must work together to get it back. The item in question is a staff of unknown geological compounds that might have immense power coursing though it. The Free Agents could smash-into the facility containing the item, but there are a hell of a lot of powerful artifact at the facility, they’re going to have to be careful.

Busiek and Nicieza are definitely making progress towards some kind of originality with the series, but it lacks a whole lot that would differentiate it from quite a lot of other superhero comics. It’s all a bit of a loss from beginning to end as the large ensemble is clearly attempting to move a hell of a lot of character development and conflict in a very small amount of space on the page as larger events rush around pretty consistently.

Mount is quite successful at delivering the intensity of really, really overwhelming conflicts in and around the edges of the pages. The script doesn’t do a great job of delivering any kind of a seriously definition to the page with respect to the overall conflict, but overall senses of action and intention ARE making their presence known in suitably bone-jarring moments of action that are amplified quite well by Mooney. I all feels quite at home on the page.

It’s just too bad that there isn’t more distinguishing the action. Clearly there’s a serious threat involving a powerful object falling into the wrong hands. It just simply is NOT where it would need to be in order to really feel narratively dynamic. The characters themselves DO seem interesting, but it’s difficult for any author to juggle all of the different characters in such a large and sprawling extended ensemble. Some of the drama supporting all of the action felt particularly compelling, but it’s all in the distance amidst all of the weird energies flowing in and around the pages of the issue. There’s so much potential in the many characters in the ensemble. A better Free Agents could happen if only the writers would let the series find its own rhythm. 

Grade: C+