Bestselling, Eisner Award winning writer Kurt Busiek (Astro City) teams up with self-proclaimed legendary and better-selling writer Fabian Nicieza (Deadpool) and fan-favorite artist Stephen Mooney (Half Past Danger) with colorist Triona Tree Farrell (Harley Quinn, Detective Comics), and letterer Tyler Smith of Comicraft for an all-new ongoing series in, Free Agents. This action-packed, giant-sized, bargain-priced debut will hit shelves from Image Comics in July.
Each issue will also feature a variant-cover character portrait by Kevin Maguire (Justice League), all well as variants by a host of comicdom’s greatest.
“It’s a superhero series with a twist,” said the devastatingly charming, modest and did-we-mention multiple Eisner and Harvey Award winning Busiek. “The Agents were done. They were retired, and had started building new lives, going to college, making themselves a place here on Earth. And then it all starts coming back.”
Free Agents introduces readers to a team of young veterans, survivors of a massive interdimensional war: Salvo, Pike, Katari, Shakti, Ridge, Maraud, and Chalice. They’ve fought every day of their existence and won a terrible victory. Now they’re stranded on Earth, free agents for the first time.
But when relics from their long war appear, threatening their chance at better lives, their greatest battle begins. They’ve fought for a million planets. Can they fight to save their own souls?
“This was an idea that just wouldn’t let itself be ignored,” added Busiek. “It first came up in plans for a crossover project Image Publisher Eric Stephenson and I talked about years ago. The crossover idea died, but the Free Agents wouldn’t. The thought of their series kept resurfacing, saying, ‘Hey, we don’t need any stupid crossover! That’s all backstory! Let us out! Let us exist!’ The thing was, the more I thought about them, the more they felt to me like a series that, much as I liked it, was a very Fabian Nicieza kind of book. So I figured ‘Why not?’ and gave him a call. Besides, this way I can get Fabian to do all the heavy lifting.”
“Whenever Kurt calls and says, ‘Wanna work on something together?’ my answer is always a really fast, ‘yes!’” said Nicieza. “Making Free Agents even more fun is that I’m really proud to produce creator-owned work under the Image banner for the first time.”
“With Fabes suckered—er, recruited,” Busiek went on, “we needed an artist. Luckily, Eric Stephenson suggested Stephen, and his work on Half Past Danger,The Rocketeer, and more, was more than enough to make us delighted to welcome him aboard.”
Mooney added: “It took me all of five seconds to jump aboard Free Agents when Kurt got in touch and asked if I’d like to work on a creator-owned book with him. Learning that Fabian would also be involved was a massive bonus. I grew up (sorry guys) reading so many legendary superhero runs by these two; getting to create my own with them was an opportunity too tempting to pass up.”
Fear Agents #1 will be available at comic book shops on Wednesday, July 3:
- Cover A by Stephen Mooney Wraparound – Lunar Code 0524IM231
- Cover B by Kevin Maguire – Lunar Code 0524IM232
- Cover C blank sketch – Lunar Code 0524IM233
- Cover D 1:25 incentive cover by Erik Larsen – Lunar Code 0524IM234
- Cover E 1:50 incentive cover by Pete Woods – Lunar Code 0524IM235
Free Agents will also be available across many digital platforms, including Amazon Kindle, Apple Books, and Google Play.
ABOUT KURT BUSIEK
Kurt Busiek broke in as a comics writer in 1982, with stories in Green Lantern #162 and Power Man & Iron Fist #90, both out the same day. Since then, he’s worked on just about everything from Action Comics to Zot!, including runs on Avengers, Iron Man, Superman, Conan and others, along with co-creating Thunderbolts, The Power Company and more. Best known for his work on the multiple-award-winning Marvels and Astro City, he’s been turning more and more to creator-owned work of late, including such projects as Arrowsmith, Superstar, Shockrockets and The Wizard’s Tale, and is currently working on more Astro City, along with his new series The Autumnlands, drawn by Benjamin Dewey.
ABOUT FABIAN NICIEZA
Since 1987, Fabian Nicieza has written thousands of characters from Wolverine to Winnie the Pooh in comics that have sold over 100 million copies, including X-Men, Cable & Deadpool (a character he co-created), X-Force, New Warriors, Thunderbolts and Robin. His debut novel, Suburban Dicks, was nominated for a 2022 Edgar Award by the Mystery Writers of America as Best First Novel by an American Author. [Photo credit: © Cyndi Shattuck]
ABOUT STEPHEN MOONEY
Stephen Mooney is the New York Times best-selling author of Half Past Danger. He has illustrated and written numerous comics for Marvel, DC, Image, Valiant, Dark Horse, Dynamite and many other major US publishers. Credits include: Wolverine, Black Widow, Grayson, Midnighter, Bombshells, Rocketeer, Star Trek, Angel, James Bond, The Dead Hand, and many more.