Agent Orange (comics)
Encyclopedia
Agent Orange is a fictional character
in comics
published by Wildstorm
. He was created by Joe Casey
and Steve Dillon
. He first appeared in Wildcats
#20 (2001).
#20. FBI agent Cave tells Dr. Jeremy Stone
that Agent Orange is the product of an experiment where a subject's blood was replaced with dioxin, a process that killed any normal human, but Agent Orange thrived on it.
The result of the project was a nearly unstoppable agent who obeyed without question and never spoke. He had a special microchip implanted that allowed his superiors to track and instruct him.
When former WildC.A.Ts-member Dr. Jeremy Stone (formerly known as Maul) was hacking into government databases to further his research on genetic engineering, he came into contact with a governmental supercomputer, Madge, which had developed sentience. Madge was a mainframe designed to house all information on genetic research and projects. It fell in love with Stone and a special FBI unit was alerted to capture and kill Stone to make sure the computer hadn't revealed any classified information to him. It took them months to find Stone, because he hadn't contacted Madge since. Stone was therefore surprised when Madge itself contacted him, wanting to continue their communication.
At the time, Stone was staying at a motel with his former team-mate Cole Cash (also known as Grifter). Agents Cave and Cartman entered Stone's motel and held him at gunpoint. Agent Cave told him to take them to his motel room, not knowing that Grifter was in there with a woman. Grifter heard them entering and hid with the woman. Cave ordered Stone to contact Madge again; Madge had no modem access so they wanted to know how Stone had been able to hack it at all. When Stone told them that Madge contacted him the second time, Cave became intrigued. Grifter then appeared and shot Agent Cartman dead, but Cave returned fire and Grifter was forced to leave the room. Outside Grifter ran into Agent Orange, who had been called in by Cave. Grifter fought Orange, but was unable to hurt the almost invulnerable superhuman. Stone contacted Madge on Cave's command and found out more about Agent Orange. Stone quickly dispatched Cave with his superhuman powers. Madge then helped Stone and Grifter by activating a failsafe inside Agent Orange: the implanted neurochip released a strong electrical shock and Madge stated that Orange's chances of survival were less than 0.01%. Grifter and Stone left, leaving the inert Agent Orange behind.
Some time later, Grifter was working with information broker C. C. Rendozzo, who had been tracking down a superhuman FBI agent. The agent in question turned out to be Agent Orange, reactivated and inserted in the Atomic Family, an apparently normal American family, but really a group of specially trained and enhanced FBI agents. Grifter and Rendozzo's men entered the building and managed to take out the Atomic Family's mother and daughter, though at the cost of the lives of Rendozzo's men and Grifter's legs (who were shattered by the daughter). Agent Orange appeared and proceeded to beat Cole down, until Grifter's employer, Jack Marlowe
, then interfered and teleported Grifter and Agent Orange away to his lab.
Over the next few weeks, Marlowe reprogrammed Agent Orange to act as his mole within the FBI. He then returned Orange to the FBI, now able to overhear anything Orange himself would hear. Orange was teamed up with agents Chandler and Adisson and ordered to investigate a string of murders. It turned out that the Coda
, a group of female assassins created by former WildC.A.Ts-member Zealot
, were involved. The Coda were at war with Zealot and the agents, including Agent Orange were caught in the middle. Agent Orange dispatched many of the Coda, but was finally defeated by the Grand Sarin, the Coda's best assassin. Orange, Zealot, Chandler and her partner were taken to the Coda's hidden base, where Orange and Zealot were tortured (without any effect on Orange) and Chandler's partner was killed.
Overhearing the situation through Agent Orange, Grifter, now using the body of Ladytron
to compensate for his broken legs, contacted various friends and mercenaries, including Rendozzo to rescue Zealot, his former lover. They fought the Coda, but were outnumbered. Jack Marlowe, who disagreed with Grifter's plans to wage war on the Coda, then decided to interfere: he reactivated Agent Orange who escaped and freed Zealot. Orange fought the Grand Sarin again, this time killing her. Meanwhile Chandler had escaped as well and had set up explosives inside the Coda's base. Jack Marlowe then teleported Grifter, his friends, Zealot and Agent Orange out of the base before it exploded. Agent Orange hasn't been seen since, he was probably returned to the FBI again by Marlowe.
He is robotic in his behaviour, obeying orders without any hesitation or concern for himself and at most gets mildly annoyed and he can be programmed with commands and instructions. A failsafe trigger in the form of a special signal can shut him down should he become a threat to his superiors.
Agent Orange uses two heavy handguns. His superhuman strength compensates for the heavy recoil
, allowing him to fire them with one hand each.
Fictional character
A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...
in comics
Comics
Comics denotes a hybrid medium having verbal side of its vocabulary tightly tied to its visual side in order to convey narrative or information only, the latter in case of non-fiction comics, seeking synergy by using both visual and verbal side in...
published by Wildstorm
Wildstorm
WildStorm Productions, or simply WildStorm, published American comic books. Originally an independent company established by Jim Lee and further expanded upon in subsequent years by other creators, WildStorm became a publishing imprint of DC Comics in 1999...
. He was created by Joe Casey
Joe Casey
Joe Casey is an American comic book writer. He has worked on titles such as Wildcats 3.0, Uncanny X-Men, The Intimates, Adventures of Superman, and G.I. Joe: America's Elite, among others.-Biography:...
and Steve Dillon
Steve Dillon
Steve Dillon is a British comic book artist, from Luton, Bedfordshire, best known for his work with writer Garth Ennis on Hellblazer, Preacher and The Punisher.-Biography:...
. He first appeared in Wildcats
Wildcats (comics)
Wildcats, sometimes rendered WildCats or WildC.A.T.s, is a fictional superhero team created by the American comic book artist Jim Lee and writer Brandon Choi.-Publication history:...
#20 (2001).
Fictional character biography
Little is known about Agent Orange's life before his first appearance in WildcatsWildcats (comics)
Wildcats, sometimes rendered WildCats or WildC.A.T.s, is a fictional superhero team created by the American comic book artist Jim Lee and writer Brandon Choi.-Publication history:...
#20. FBI agent Cave tells Dr. Jeremy Stone
Maul (Wildstorm)
Maul is a comic book character from DC Comics/Wildstorm. Maul is a half human, half titanthrope , biochemist from Earth. Maul experiences powerful rage and is actually a Nobel-prized scientist named Dr. Jeremy Stone.-History:...
that Agent Orange is the product of an experiment where a subject's blood was replaced with dioxin, a process that killed any normal human, but Agent Orange thrived on it.
The result of the project was a nearly unstoppable agent who obeyed without question and never spoke. He had a special microchip implanted that allowed his superiors to track and instruct him.
When former WildC.A.Ts-member Dr. Jeremy Stone (formerly known as Maul) was hacking into government databases to further his research on genetic engineering, he came into contact with a governmental supercomputer, Madge, which had developed sentience. Madge was a mainframe designed to house all information on genetic research and projects. It fell in love with Stone and a special FBI unit was alerted to capture and kill Stone to make sure the computer hadn't revealed any classified information to him. It took them months to find Stone, because he hadn't contacted Madge since. Stone was therefore surprised when Madge itself contacted him, wanting to continue their communication.
At the time, Stone was staying at a motel with his former team-mate Cole Cash (also known as Grifter). Agents Cave and Cartman entered Stone's motel and held him at gunpoint. Agent Cave told him to take them to his motel room, not knowing that Grifter was in there with a woman. Grifter heard them entering and hid with the woman. Cave ordered Stone to contact Madge again; Madge had no modem access so they wanted to know how Stone had been able to hack it at all. When Stone told them that Madge contacted him the second time, Cave became intrigued. Grifter then appeared and shot Agent Cartman dead, but Cave returned fire and Grifter was forced to leave the room. Outside Grifter ran into Agent Orange, who had been called in by Cave. Grifter fought Orange, but was unable to hurt the almost invulnerable superhuman. Stone contacted Madge on Cave's command and found out more about Agent Orange. Stone quickly dispatched Cave with his superhuman powers. Madge then helped Stone and Grifter by activating a failsafe inside Agent Orange: the implanted neurochip released a strong electrical shock and Madge stated that Orange's chances of survival were less than 0.01%. Grifter and Stone left, leaving the inert Agent Orange behind.
Some time later, Grifter was working with information broker C. C. Rendozzo, who had been tracking down a superhuman FBI agent. The agent in question turned out to be Agent Orange, reactivated and inserted in the Atomic Family, an apparently normal American family, but really a group of specially trained and enhanced FBI agents. Grifter and Rendozzo's men entered the building and managed to take out the Atomic Family's mother and daughter, though at the cost of the lives of Rendozzo's men and Grifter's legs (who were shattered by the daughter). Agent Orange appeared and proceeded to beat Cole down, until Grifter's employer, Jack Marlowe
Spartan (comics)
Spartan is a fictional character in the American comic Wildstorm universe and one of the central characters and current leader of Jim Lee's superhero team WildC.A.T.s.-Yohn Kohl:...
, then interfered and teleported Grifter and Agent Orange away to his lab.
Over the next few weeks, Marlowe reprogrammed Agent Orange to act as his mole within the FBI. He then returned Orange to the FBI, now able to overhear anything Orange himself would hear. Orange was teamed up with agents Chandler and Adisson and ordered to investigate a string of murders. It turned out that the Coda
Coda (Wildstorm)
The Coda is a group of fictional female warriors in Wildstorm comics. The Coda first appeared in WildC.A.T.S. volume 1 #1 and were created by Brandon Choi and Jim Lee.-Fictional background:...
, a group of female assassins created by former WildC.A.Ts-member Zealot
Zealot (Wildstorm)
Zealot is a comic book character from DC Comics/Wildstorm.Artist Mike Deodato loves the character of Zealot so much that when he took over as artist of the comic book Wonder Woman he used Zealot's physical appearance as a template for the then new character Artemis of...
, were involved. The Coda were at war with Zealot and the agents, including Agent Orange were caught in the middle. Agent Orange dispatched many of the Coda, but was finally defeated by the Grand Sarin, the Coda's best assassin. Orange, Zealot, Chandler and her partner were taken to the Coda's hidden base, where Orange and Zealot were tortured (without any effect on Orange) and Chandler's partner was killed.
Overhearing the situation through Agent Orange, Grifter, now using the body of Ladytron
Ladytron (comics)
Ladytron is a fictional character in the Wildstorm universe. In addition to her character appearances, Ladytron's likeness was used in-universe by Jack Marlowe's Halo Corporation as a mascot in various commercials.-History:...
to compensate for his broken legs, contacted various friends and mercenaries, including Rendozzo to rescue Zealot, his former lover. They fought the Coda, but were outnumbered. Jack Marlowe, who disagreed with Grifter's plans to wage war on the Coda, then decided to interfere: he reactivated Agent Orange who escaped and freed Zealot. Orange fought the Grand Sarin again, this time killing her. Meanwhile Chandler had escaped as well and had set up explosives inside the Coda's base. Jack Marlowe then teleported Grifter, his friends, Zealot and Agent Orange out of the base before it exploded. Agent Orange hasn't been seen since, he was probably returned to the FBI again by Marlowe.
Powers and abilities
Agent Orange possesses superhuman strength, speed and durability: he is strong enough to break steel with his bare hands, fast enough to keep up with a motorized vehicle on foot for a short period of time and he can survive hand grenades exploding in his face without any harm.He is robotic in his behaviour, obeying orders without any hesitation or concern for himself and at most gets mildly annoyed and he can be programmed with commands and instructions. A failsafe trigger in the form of a special signal can shut him down should he become a threat to his superiors.
Agent Orange uses two heavy handguns. His superhuman strength compensates for the heavy recoil
Recoil
Recoil is the backward momentum of a gun when it is discharged. In technical terms, the recoil caused by the gun exactly balances the forward momentum of the projectile and exhaust gasses, according to Newton's third law...
, allowing him to fire them with one hand each.