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Released by: Dark Horse Comics
Released on: May 21, 2014
Agent Matt Price is the titular character, supported/employed by Albright Industries and used primarily by the Secret Service to defend the POTUS and other notables from other psychics (“readersâ€) like him.
[ROBUST SPOILER-AGE FOLLOWS. PLEASE FOLLOW ALL INSTRUCTIONS.]
This new storyline opens with a very powerful reader attacking the White House, bypassing even its advanced anti-reader systems. The attacker uses a variety of techniques on the guards, getting inside their heads to make them view others as enemies, to not see the target clearly, and the like. The attacker finally corners the Obamas, despite everyone's efforts to stop it. Over at Albright Industries HQ, director Miss Delacorte is informed of the situation, and she wants Brain Boy and his partner Agent Faraday to respond. But no one is able to locate either of them. That's because, as it's revealed back at the White House, the attacker is none other than Brain Boy himself!
Flashback to 72 hours earlier, to explain this craziness, and Price's political activist of a girlfriend, Luisa, is breaking up with him and moving out. He confessed to using his powers on her the previous night, to end a ridiculous argument, and that mistake is now costing him. He doesn't have much time to be sad, though, as he's contacted by Delacorte with his next mission. It involves the extraction of recently-emigrated Russian national Arkady Kuni who's apparently made online threats to the POTUS. He's also a reader and a paranoid schizophrenic.
Arkady's movements have been tracked to a group of prepper wackos in the New Mexico desert. Delacorte sends Faraday with Price to investigate and he wonders why he still needs a babysitter. Faraday, having to say goodbye to her family yet again, wonders the same thing. One the way to this mission, aboard a commercial flight, Price is confronted mentally by Uta, the deceased, powerful reader he recently dealt with. She refers to herself as “we†and commences trying to convince Price to join their ranks yet again. But he counters that the most powerful reader he'd ever encountered was making fast tracks away from her group, called G.E.S.T.A.L.T. This piques Uta's interest, as this other reader, named Gyrus, is also on their recruiting list, along with Arkady.
Soon, then, everyone on Price's plane has become conduit's like the vision of Uta, all under some psychic control. They again push that Price and Arkady should and will be on their side, all one team/being/group and that will make them irresistible to Gyrus. These beings then show themselves and seem to rest Price's very soul out of his body…
This four-part story is a great jumping-in point for anyone not yet reading this fun series. Fred Van Lente's story is varied, entertaining and chock full of political ramifications without being heavy-handed or too serious. The artwork from Freddie Williams II is also top notch, making this yet another excellent entry in this highly-entertaining series.
