Agent-X #8

Issue Date: 
April 2003
Story Title: 
Hold that Ghost - part 1
Staff: 

Buddy Scalera (writer), Mitchell Breitweiser (penciller), Mark McKenna (inker), Udon Studios (colorist), Cory Petit (letterer), Lis, Marts and Sumerak (editors), Joe Quesada (chief), Bill Jemas (president.), Alvin Lee and Udon (cover artists)

Brief Description: 

Alex is hired by Christine Gallhager to kill someone. Before his briefing, though, he has to get past Dante, the chief of security. After a short fight, Alex chops off one of Dante’s hands and passes. Subsequently, he is hired to kill an invisible man. After spending some time trying to find the guy, he finally gets into a fight with him, but it turns out that the invisible man is armed with an electrical weapon. He also tells Alex that he is innocent. Alex loses the guy and returns to Christine for some more information. Amazingly, she reveals that the man is not innocent, but that he is her father. Alex demands double pay and chops off Dante’s other hand. Outside the building, he notices that the invisible man has followed him and he traps him in another building. He tries to take him out by throwing two grenades at him.

Full Summary: 

As he is want to do of late, Alex has doodled on a yellow pad. On one such page, he lists the ten things that depress him ranging from missing Outlaw to Justin Timberlake. He also describes how he got hired by Christine Gallhager to do a hit-job, but that he forgot to take along his guns and met Dante, her security director...and the wall.

Dante has smashed Alex into the wall and Alex threatens him. Dante lets him go and tells him that he knows about Alex healing power. Alex replies back, beginning to ask if he also knows how he left Dante’s mother tied to the swing-set, but gets punched by Dante before he can finish the sentence. Christine Gallhager enters and introduces herself and Dante to Alex. She scolds Dante for knocking out Alex, but Alex comments about his view (he is lying on the floor and Christine is standing over him.) Christine wants to talk to him, but Alex replies that he still has some unfinished business, after which he chops off Dante’s hand with a sword. While Dante is still shocked, Alex grabs the chopped-off hand and punches Dante in the face with it.

Christine is impressed. She hands him a picture of herself and tells Alex that he will get 2 million dollars to kill the man in the picture. Alex is confused since he only sees Christine in the picture and he knows that she is not a man after his view from the floor. Christine tells him that there is a man in the picture even if Alex cannot see him. Alex concludes that the man is invisible. He accepts the job.

One hour later, Alex is beating up a couple of guys in a Mexican restaurant, who apparently work for the invisible man. He ties one up and starts to hit him with a pool cue. The man replies that he has not seen the man, but Alex retorts that of course he has not seen him, the man is invisible after all.
After hitting the man, Alex is asked by a girl named Maria how he is going to kill an invisible man. Alex replies that he is still working on it. Maria asks again how to kill the invisible man, but Alex replies that he is still trying to figure out how the man he used as a piñata was actually filled with candy corn. Maria replies that it was not candy, but his teeth.

At this moment, Christine phones Alex and asks about his progress. Alex replies that the man is not in his restaurant. Christine tells him that the invisible man eats diner every night at an Italian restaurant.
Alex beats up the waiters at the Italian restaurant and pushes the chef into the oven. He then sees a frying pan floating at him, which hits him right in the face. Alex tries to find the invisible man and tells him that he will not cook the chef if the invisible man lets Alex shoot him. Alex walks outside and tries to figure out if the invisible man went left or right, when the burning chef runs past him, screaming for water. Alex concludes that, if the burning chef runs down the alley without hitting anything, the invisible man went the other way. Some shocked voices are heard from people down the alley who think they just ran over the Human Torch. Alex closes in on the invisible man, but he tells him to drop his gun so that they can talk. The invisible man then hits Alex with 10,000 volts of invisible stun-gun charge. During the electrocution, Alex fires several times in reflex.

The invisible man tells Alex that he is out of bullets now. Alex takes out his sword instead, telling that Dante thought that his sword-skills could use some practice. The invisible man asks why Alex wants to kill him and Alex replies by listing several office supplies. The invisible man is confused and when Alex tells him that he is running a mercenary business, he offers to pay more, but Alex is more interested in revenge after the shock he just got. The invisible man hits Alex again with the stun gun and tells Alex that he is going to kill an innocent man. Alex replies that that never stopped him before, but that he is intrigued since usually he only kills naughty people. When he asks why someone would want him dead, he does not get any answers.

Alex returns to Christine to get some explanation. He asks her if she knew the invisible man was carrying a modified stun gun. Christine replies that the man used to work as a weapon developer for the military. She tells Alex that she is displeased and that she heard that he was better than this. Alex replies that she did not tell him that the man was armed so that they are even. He then asks her why he should kill the man and, after some convincing, she tells him that the man is not innocent and is her father. Alex asks her if she could not kill him herself and demands to hear the full tale. Dante appears, having a hook on his stump now, and tells him to leave. Dante and Alex start to fight again, but Christine breaks it up. She tells Alex that his pay is now doubled as long as the murder is not linked to her. Dante hands Alex the briefcase with half the money and Alex asks him if hooks come in right and left. Dante replies that he does not know. Suddenly, Alex chops off Dante’s other hand, telling him that now is his chance to find out.

Outside, Alex suddenly smells something that is very similar to the stun gun and concludes that the invisible man is following him now. He traps the invisible man in a revolving door, but the people around him thinking that he is crazy and that he is trying to trap another man in the door. A cop walks up and asks him why he is trying to trap that man, but Alex replies that he is trying to trap another man.
The cop jokes about an invisible man but then walks into something. Alex then immediately slices at the air and hits the invisible man. In return, he gets an electric shock. The cop is shocked that there really is a invisible man. Alex follows the invisible man (mostly by sound) into the Galactus Chef Supply store. Alex runs in, tells everybody to leave and locks the door. The invisible man asks for 24 hours to prove that he is a good man and that he is not worth killing. Alex refuses and gets bombarded with bags of flour. He then throws two grenades, hoping that he will hit the invisible man. The grenades explode and the explosion turns over a car parked outside.

Characters Involved: 

Alex Hayden/Agent X (mercenary)

Christine Gallhager (CEO of the Gal-Hag Cosmetics)

Dante (Chief of security at Gal-Hag Cosmetics)

The Invisible Man

Maria (girl Alex met in the Mexican restaurant)

Unnamed police officer

Story Notes: 
Issue Information: 
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