Well, after the brilliance of Agency FIles 3, it would have been too much to expect for them to keep it up for Agency Files 4 but they have a damn good go at it.
The Reagan/Durham Red story is the meat of the book - it's a pretty straight forward tale (with a nice "switch" of sides about half way through) but it's played mainly for laughs and never quite matches the intense focus of RAGNAROK JOB and RAGE.
Highlights are obviously the introduction of Durham Red, more fantastic Ezquerra art, the interaction of Johnny with "new" partners and some inspired and none too subtle buffoonery with President Reagan (you could slot Bush straight in there apart from teh Bedtime for Bonzo reference).
STONE KILLERS wasn't as great as I remembered it. At it's core there is something fundamentally stupid about Stronty Dogs NOT using their most kick-ass weapons on these guys. Are number 4 cartridges and time-bombs etc. really expensive? But seeing Johnny play the executioner role is very good - especially with RAGE so fresh in the memory.
The RAMMY is also a fun piece - consciously steering clear of being a rehash of THE KILLING and making the most of the (sometimes cliched) "main character on trial recounting the story" structure.
I'd forgotten that Colin MacNeill did the amusing but slightly over-long SORRY story. It's identifiably MacNeill but also a damn good Carlos-lite at the same time. The other fill in artist (mainly terrible stories ripped from the pages of annuals) do not fare any where near as well though.
Especially, for my money, SIMON HARRISON on the NO-GO JOB. I tend to like clarity (even sketchy like Cam and Carlos) and a passable attempt at anatomy in my art and he delivers neither - even poor scans of colour art turned grey show more clarity. After the initial episode, it seems like forerver before we get a half decent sized picture of Alpha; the art is seemingly more worried about delivering it's curvy craziness than telling the story and showing the heroes. (The NO-GO JOB itself is actually quite a fun tale delivering some of the new partner interactions described above and also a rather good twist which (despite having read this twenty years ago) I still didn't see coming. I'm actually partially fired up for THE FINAL SOLUTION now (even though I know I'll hate a lot of the art).
Lastly, MIDDENFACE's dialogue almost constantly transales "ONE" as "YIN". Despite living in Jockland for most of my life, I'm no good at local dialect but I'd have thought "WAN" would be more appropriate. "YIN" is normally only used in references like "THE BIG YIN" but if asking for "ONE MORE", I'd have thought "WAN MAIR".
But I'm not going to argue with Alan Grant (except when he says Batman Begins is "pish!")
Aye that always annoyed me when I was a kid. Wan would always fit better than Yin.
Is Yin more of a Highland thing?