AKA: Agent Bang
As seen in: Clash at Demon Head (NES)
Distinguishing feature: Awesome ‘80s anime stylings.
Strengths: Versatility; knows when it's time to talk.
Weaknesses: Madmen who use science incorrectly.
Profile by Jeremy Parish? | December 21, 2009
Agent Billy Blitz, aka Bang -- the noted hero who saved the world from eldritch incursion in the incident at Demonhead -- was the last scion of a faded tradition: The '70s anime action hero. Bang was an uncomplicated sort of fellow, free of the angst and indecision that thwarts even the best-intended modern hero. To call him a simple fellow is in no sense pejorative. On the contrary; in him it was a trait to be admired, even imitated.
In Agent Bang's world, a hero was born to do his job, i.e. heroin'. Battle scars were earned through hard-fought experience and were to be worn with modest determination; without regrets, yes, but also without braggadocio. When the world wasn't in need of saving, heroes were born to hit the beach where they'd soak up the sun and catch some fresh air to embed that essential windswept unruliness into their mane of hair. Lovely ladies were born to be rescued. Allies were born to help the cause, and die if necessary. Bad guys were born to be bad -- and, all too often, to bite the dust when something even badder came along.
That describes the Demonhead encounter all too well. Agent Bang found himself abruptly summoned from a post-heroin' beach holiday with his lady friend (and fellow operative) Mary in order to rescue the recently abducted Professor Plum, inventor of the innocuously named Doomsday Bomb. Plum had been abducted by the skeletal governor of Demonhead, Tom Guycot, who hoped to gain control of the bomb for his own nefarious ends. Guycot wasn't the only party with designs on Plum's work, though, and soon Bang became embroiled in a complex web of treacherous schemes in which the very fate of humanity hung in the balance. Also, somewhere along the way, Mary was abducted.
Despite the machinations surrounding the bomb and the six medallions necessary to activate it, Blitz maintained a razor-sharp focus on his mission. In fact, his uncluttered willpower proved to be his redemption, as one of the major players in the bomb plot—the slumbering demon from which Demonhead derived its name—tried and failed to dominate his mind. Finding Bang's pure sense of justice too great a challenge to overcome, the demon instead turned its attention to the hero's long-time compatriot, Michael. In the end, Michael died tragically, Mary and the professor were both rescued, and the Doomsday Bomb was deactivated.
This, of course, was terribly annoying to the aliens who had set the scheme into motion in the first place, as they had intended to annihilate humanity as punishment for its warlike ways. But Agent Bang proved that warlike ways can used as a corrective measure, too; his jumpin' and shootin' were committed for the greater good rather than for personal gain, and in the end reminded humanity that it should apply all its efforts to that higher calling. Even science!
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