Customer Reviews

T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents Archives Vol. 1 (Thunder Agents)

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Being a young comic geek, I had heard of (but never seen) the stirling reputation of Tower's "THUNDER Agents", especially its primary creative force, Wally Wood. Thus, when DC announced it would be reprinting "THUNDER Agents" as part of its Archive line, I made a point of picking the book up.

The legend is true. "THUNDER Agents" is terrific stuff. The artwork clear and crisp, the stories the right mix of pathos and action.

For those unfamiliar here's a quick synopsis. The world is threatened by a would-be conqueror called the Warlord. A scientist, developing new weapons, dies at the Warlord's hand, but not before he completes his inventions. THUNDER, an enforcement arm of the UN, gets ahold of them, and quickly creates their own super-hero team to fight the Warlord.

Dynamo wears the the dynabelt, a device that allows him superstrength, but only for 30 minutes. After that, the belt starts to drain him.

Noman is a scientist who can shift his mind throughout several android bodies. If he runs out, he'll die. He also wears the invisibility cloak, which is on a time limit.

Menthor actually is a double agent working for the Warlord. But when he puts on his helmet, which allows him ESP and mind controll abilities, his good side is brought to the surface.

Lightning wears a costume that increases his speed, but cuts his life-span down a little bit each time he uses it.

The THUNDER Squad is a team of non-powered adventures, each with their own specialty.

A complex mix of characters with various abilities and limitations, a great deal of emotional depth, and terrific art. DC, along with the Spirit and the Mad Archives, has made an excellent decision in bring this series back. Hopefully, we'll be seeing more non-DC classics.

Any student of comic history who hasn't read THUNDER Agents (as I was...) is clearly missing a significant part. It's like studying American History and skipping WW I. Yeah, most people find the Civil War and WW II more interesting, but WW I, as an event, gets more influential as time passes.
So does THUNDER Agents. Trying to imagine this sort of comic book coming out in the era that it did...it must have been head-spinning to some kid casually picking it out of the circular, rotating comic rack down at the local drug store. Interlocking stories, "personal" touches, fallible heroes...retrospectively hugely impressive.
Add this to your collection...and save space for the next few volumes. You've been warned.

I, like many others, judging from reading some articles in the comic book magazines, eagerly awaited this latest release in DC's Archives editions once I knew it was coming out. To be honest, I did not know DC Comics had the rights/were negotiating on them and even if I had would never have expected T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents to be one of their choices for 2003 release.

I recall when I first saw the original comic book on the racks back in England being curious due to the number of pages it contained (way more than usual, albeit at a higher price than comics back then,)the vibrant colors and not least the illustrations by Wally (Mad Comic/EC Comics) Wood, among other stars of comic books at the time who's work graced the pages; Gil (Green Lantern) Kane being another.

The introduction to this volume really says it all - and better than I, so I won't go on too long! Suffice it to say, in addition to eye-catching art, the reader is treated to great stories and much better characterization than the DC heroes at the time (maybe not as good as some Marvel characters of the day, but without their overly-done angst and problems).

I might be sounding a little heretic here, but I must admit I found some of Wood's poses a little wooden even at that young age, and still do. His heroes just don't have the fluidity of movement as say Jack Kirby's Fantastic Four, Steve Ditko's Spiderman, Gil Kane's Green Lantern and Carmine Infantino's Flash. A bit like Mike Sekowsky's Justice League of America - legs and arms a little stiff. Still, the rest of his work more than make up for this small quibble.

The stories are great - in my view better than most of the comic books of the time - certainly up there with Stan Lee's work on the Fantastic Four and Spiderman. The villain is sort of like Nick Fury, Agent of Shield's, Hydra - a head bad guy who never confrnts the good guys -having his minions get bowled over like bowling pins each issue. Not so good as the Flash's, Batman's or Spiderman's varied crews of miscreants, but you can't have it all.

The quality of DC's Archive Editions is top notch - collecting and reading many of them bring back my first exposure to the comics way back in my pre-teens. I heartily recommend them, irrespective of what some feel is a high price, judging from some of the reviews on Amazon. I feel they are reasonable - the $34.97 Amazon price compares favorably against the $19.95 one pays for many/most Graphic Novels/Trade Paperback collections of more recent comic books, that have many less pages/stories.

There are several other Archive collections I hope DC publish, all of them a little "left field" - Metal Men, Metamorpho, Eclipso, Kirby's Challenger's of the Unknown, to name few. However, I know which one I'll be eagerly awaiting - Volume Two of T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents, featuring Dynamo, Noman and Menthor, due out in the late Spring!

Dynamo, Mentor, Noman. When I discovered THUNDER Agents I felt like I had fallen into some alternate reality where Marvel and DC combined to create this series. This series has the anything can happen feel of DC's Silver Age along with the pathos of the early Marvels.

The art is top notch and the stoires feel like they are moving in a unified direction. A fun step away from the all too familiar Marvel Universe of the 1960s.

Being a young comic geek, I had heard of (but never seen) the stirling reputation of Tower's "THUNDER Agents", especially its primary creative force, Wally Wood.

This is really good stuff. Wallace Wood, Gil Kane and company certainly helped raise the bar on comic book art in the mid-sixties. The work is beautifully colored and the reprint quality is superior. However, if you are looking meaningful work from some of comicdom's true masters you may wish to look elsewhere. This work falls far short of Gil Kane's and Wallace Wood's best comic book work. The stories are entertaining but overly simplistic and predictable. There are continuity flaws throughout the THUNDER Agents series.

There are four enjoyable issues in this volume. That's right--only four issues. I was hoping for more. Volume #2 only takes you through issue #7. For this price, the original issues of The T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents can readily be had in decent condition. I'm glad someone, DC Comics in this case, has finally given us a archives version of this series. ...