Mama Jane reads a comic: Hank Johnson, Agent Of Hydra

Hank Johnson, Agent Of Hydra issue #1

Hank Johnson, Agent Of Hydra written by David Mandel, art by Michael Walsh, colours by Matthew Wilson and published by Marvel comics. Agent of Hydra is a one-shot comic that follows the everyday life of a Hydra henchman, while you may expect that this involves intensive training, attending top secret terrorist meetings and plotting the demise of The Avengers it actually involves a lot more making school lunches and children's birthday parties. Hank is just an average guy who works for your average evil organisation.

The comic begins with Director Fury (leader of S.H.E.I.L.D.) breaking into a Hydra base knocking out one guard with a kick to the face and shooting another. We later see the guard who received the brutal S.H.E.I.L.D. sponsored face-kicking sitting in his family home, with a bag of frozen peas held to his black eye, as his wife, Becky, begin asking about the school lunches for the children and requesting that they hire a nanny. Being a one-shot and a novelty one at that there really isn't a huge amount of story, which is in no way a bad thing considering the point is to show the everyday life of the average henchman.

The art of Agent of Hydra is simple with the characters looking like just average people, Hank is a slightly doughy father, his wife looks like an average middle-aged mother, there is nothing particularly remarkable about the character designs which works just so well for this comic being about the every day life of the regular Hydra employees rather than those with super powers that are behind the grand plans. The really fun part of this comic is seeing things like M.O.D.O.K. signing amazing grace, the cyborg head of Hydra's human resources and the Jr. Agents versus Tiny Hydra little league baseball game. The story does actually stand up on its own as a coherent story but what makes it really funny and entertaining is the art and character cameos.

I just can't not laugh at this

The characters are great with Hank being just this lovely goof and the relationship between Hank and his wife, Becky, is really genuine as they have their disagreements but are a happy married couple that make compromises and support each other. The characters interact in a normal realistic way that seems so at odds with their surroundings, its great and always gives me a chuckle every time I read it.

Agent Of Hydra is a charming little gem that is really good for some laughs while some of the cameos might be lost a little on the casual Marvel fan but its hard not to find things like M.O.D.O.K. in a suit and tie funny. I would really recommend picking up a copy of Agent Of Hydra.