Thunder At Fifty!

Dan Adkins after Wally Wood and himself.

Instead of giving us the sixth volume of T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents Classic to celebrate and close out their reprinting of the vintage run, IDW has decided to put out this celebratory volume. It's better than nothing, and it does have some gems inside, even for the fan who has gotten all the IDW stuff to this point.

Original splash page by Wood and Adkins

Underneath a sleek Dan Adkins cover which swipes this classic splash page from T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents #3, we find the often reprinted first story from the debut issue which shows how T.H.U.N.D.E.R. came into possession of the belt, cloak, and helmet which armed their initial wave of super agents.

We then are treated to a Dynamo tale from the second issue of the classic run which pits Len Brown against the relentless Dynavac.

Then he has to take on a T-Rex in a story from the fourth issue.

Finally from the classic run we get the memorable sacrifice of Menthor which was showcased in the seventh issue in a story by Wood and Steve Ditko.

And beyond that there are treats galore. Much to my glee there is artwork from the 1980's Deluxe Comics revival with talents such as George Perez, Dave Cockrum and Jerry Ordway and from the Archie Comics days some choice Steve Ditko and Bob  Layton. More recent work by Phil Hester and Dave Sim is included. A special item is an unscripted series of pages for an unpublished story drawn by the remarkable Garry Leach. George Tuska is well represented with several colorized of his pin-up shots of various characters from a portfolio he did some years ago.

It's a nice little package, but sadly not what I really wanted. IDW needs to get busy and complete this run. I hope they still intend to do so.

Alternate Cover by Andrew Pepoy

This 50th anniversary comic gives me some hope they will.

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