T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents - Archives, Volume 5 [Hardcover]

Wally Wood (Author), Steve Skeates (Author), Various (Author)

Book Description

Series: T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents Archives | Publication Date: January 24, 2005

Dynamo, NoMan, The Raven and Lightning are back! This volume collects T.H.U.N.D.E.R. AGENTS #12-14 and DYNAMO #4 (1967-69) with a foreword by Bill Schelly.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 216 pages
• Publisher: DC Comics (January 24, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1401201644
• ISBN-13: 978-1401201647
• Product Dimensions: 10.4 x 6.9 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #856,989 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars While Still Good, You Can't Always be Brilliant, November 12, 2005

By 

Ian Fowler (Denver, CO United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents - Archives, Volume 5 (Hardcover)

I indicated in my review of "T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents" Vol. 4 that Wally Wood and company seemed to be losing steam by that point in the series' run, it was still very enjoyable with some really excellent stories. Unfortunately, that loss of momentum continued to the very end. The fifth (penultimate) volume reads surprisingly flat. It still has some clever plots and some good character moments, but those instances stand in contrast to the overall average content. I think if the series hadn't started off so strongly and enjoyably (and perhaps if I was not reading these stories all at once), I think I would have simply accepted it as pretty much typical Silver Age comics. But, "T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents" wasn't average from the get go, it was uniformly superb.

Still, there are some good reasons to keep going to the end of this series of DC Archives, aside from a compulsive need for completion. Wally Wood and Dan Adkins made a terrific art team, and those Dynamo stories they illustrated are excellent at all levels. The key to Dynamo, of course, is his Joe Average quality. Even though he has a belt that makes him strong and invulnerable, he was still a working man, and frequently found himself getting yelled at by the boss. Wood and Adkins knew how to smoothly juxtapose the mundane work-a-day quality of Dynamo's life with the inherently fantastic nature of it. Plus, the writing on those stories (by some unknown writer) had some smart and witty dialogue that made Dynamo that much more human. The big winner of Dynamo stories is "Dynamo vs. Andor: Return Engagement", wherein Dynamo tries to help, but instead battles super-strong Andor, a recurring villain. Andor is a sympathetic villain, and you find yourself rooting against Dynamo some. Of course, despite Dynamo's efforts, things to not go so well for either man.

Of course, there were plenty other talents on view here, including Gil Kane (a personal favorite), telling a story of the Raven, a character usually handled by Manny Stallman. Raven is an interesting character, as he was thrown in to replace Menthor. But for the longest time, Raven almost seemed to exist in a separate universe from the rest of T.H.U.N.D.E.R: he never interacted with any of the other agents in their stories, nor did they appear in any of his. Still, Stallman (in my opinion, a better writer than artist) got quite a lot of mileage out of the character as he actively fought enemies seeking to conquer foreign countries. Gil Kane's stab at the character is solid if not brilliant. The story is predictable, Cold War era stuff, but his art is always great. Further, Raven was finally brought into more stories, fighting alongside his fellow agents. Unfortunately, the writers never seemed certain what to do with this character. In one story, Raven's sole contribution is to dive-bomb a mind-controlled Dynamo. Twice. And get swatted away. Twice. Hopefully, by the end of the series, the creators had some notion as to where Raven fit on the team.

The other characters get their moments of course. Lightening encounters villains like the Speed Demon, a super-human runner created by T.H.U.N.D.E.R.'s evil counter-part, S.P.I.D.E.R. He also comes into conflict Mock-Man, a shape-shifter who had his memories stolen by the scientist who gave him his powers. After initially fighting THUNDER, Mock-Man begins a journey for his past. Lightening, on the other hand, finds the suit that gives him his speed is finally running down his system. The most interesting thing about the Mock-Man story is that it is a serialized story. Indeed, the issue that features the final part of the saga is in the next volume. Given the anthologized nature of each issue, and comics in general at this time, serialization was unique.

Still, while there are plenty of good stories, there are about as many that are average, or that just don't work. Of the stories that brought the team together, not one really stands out in terms of writing or art. Sadly, NoMan, usually a great character, actually winds up in a couple of solo stories that make him look, well, bad. In one, NoMan has his mind switched out of his android body and into that of a bystander. Realizing how much he missed being human, NoMan decides to keep the poor schmuck's body, while S.P.I.D.E.R. agents chase him down. Given how the series has emphasized how selfless NoMan is, this story, while played for laughs, depicts NoMan as completely out of character. Another story that involves NoMan being mind-controlled depends on the otherwise astute character being a dimwit. In a sense, the NoMan stories are an example of my initial complaint. I just expected better from the writers of this character, but got some pretty disappointing stories.

One more volume of this series. I must say, I have no regrets at this point. While volume five wasn't so great in comparison with the rest of the series, compared with its contemporaries, "T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents" was quite brilliant. It just couldn't be brilliant all the time.