The first volume of IDW's THUNDER Agents reprint series (produced in conjunction with yet another attempt to revive the team some years back) contains the first four issues of the original THUNDER Agents run where we get to meet Dynamo, Menthor, Lightning and my favorite Agent NoMan. There is death, destruction, and international intrigue galore.
To be honest the Agents were a flawed masterpiece in the beginning. Wally Wood's stories are slick and the tone is uptown for sure. But alongside that are stories drawn by veterans Gil Kane and Mike Sekowsky and George Tuska which are much more classic superhero action yarns. Some of the characters are not drawn to model which must've been unclear for the varied assignments at the time. But as the series continues things tighten up nicely. That first issue though almost feels at times like there were two separate Agents projects which just got jammed into the one twenty-five cent comic book.
I enjoy Dynamo, he's such a goofball, and they way that Wood presents him time and again as a weapon, a thing to be deployed is fascinating. I completely adore the whole concept of NoMan, one of the great comic book heroes. But I've never been a big Menthor fan, until this reading gave me a new appreciation of the arc he goes through. I always forget too, that Lightning is a later addition like Raven to the team. And the Iron Maiden is in the running for sleekest and possibly sexiest character Wally Wood ever drew. It was way cool though to read those stories again after all these years. I put together a collection of the original comics many years ago, but these days I love to read trades and this gives me the chance to comfortably read some classic tales. Here are the covers.
Coming up in the second volume, the most significant story in Tower Comics history and Dynamo gets his own series.
90% of my reading of THUNDER comics was via the UK black and white reprints in Alan Class comics (Uncanny Tales, Suspense, Creepy Worlds etc). and I always enjoyed them. Like yourself I really liked NoMan and still think with the right creative team he could be a success. I always like Mike Sekowskys art in the THUNDER Agents , some of his best work. I seem to remember there was a character called Raven but I never saw him in a strip was he a regular character?
ReplyDeleteMike Sekowsky is universally devalued these days it seems. I like his stuff generally and in T-Agents he was especially good on his regular gig of Lightning. Raven was flying hero and a late addition to the team after the death of Menthor and was rarely shown with the others after his debut. Manny Stallman drew the strip most often and his style was unusual to say the least. I rather cottoned to it, but then I like Jerry Grandenetti and it is similar in ways to his stuff.
DeleteI bought the DC hardback volumes, which are very nice, though they deleted the Tower name from the large-size cover illustrations inside. (I think it survived on a few of the smaller reproductions elsewhere in the books.) I've got several of the original issues, but great as they were to look at, the scripting and characterisation wasn't a patch on what Stan Lee was doing at Marvel.
ReplyDeleteI'd have to agree in the comparison to Stan's rich characterization. There were attempts at it with Dynamo's insecurity and NoMan's alienation but it wasn't really a key element. These books are about the artwork, and that's likely why the writers of many of the stories are in many cases forgotten or disputed.
DeleteT.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agent Weed was a name for the times!
ReplyDeleteYou could probably buy that nowadays in the local dispensary. Not in my state, but in some.
DeleteI'd also say that Dynamo and Noman are the only agents who project interesting personalities, even without tons of Marvel-style backstory. I assume that's why the two of them got their own series, however briefly, because Wood and his collaborators had some idea of how to build on them. Lightning, Raven and Menthor seem like the equivalent of the old "back up strips," enjoyable but small potatoes.
ReplyDeleteI'd agree about Menthor and Raven, but Lightning always seemed to be on the edge of something better. The bit where he loses time when he speeds seemed almost forgotten as the series went along, making him feel like old-school Silver Age.
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