[MarkWarner]

My laptop and I are just heading off down the pub, to read last week's book. So hopefully, it is going to be rather a pleasant couple of hours. But, I am not sure if my post will make any sense!

Pressing on rapidly as pints are calling, I have high hopes for this week's book. It is "Silver Age Superhero Time"  with T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents #1.

As I have not got a clue what is going on in the book I thought it best to do what we did last week and people just choose what they want to concentrate on ... or make it a c2c. Anyway it should be fun! The book can be found here: https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=64781.

[Morgus]

yeah. Wally Wood and THUNDER AGENTS. Perfect. Enjoyed it all. great read. Knew it was great when I was a kid. Now that I'm older I know why and can appreciate it. Sometimes age is a good thing. I wish it had been kinder to Wood himself.

[narfstar]

This is a book that I have read more than once. The art is exceptional and the stories are great. I was a huge fan of Thunder Agents. Noman was such a cool concept he was my favorite.

[OtherEric]

Wally Wood.

Reed Crandall.

Gil Kane.

George Tuska.

Mike Sekowsky.

Wally Wood.  I know I already mentioned him, but he bears repeating.

An absolutely spectacular comic book that has aged quite well.  There's a reason people keep trying to revive the title; even beyond the incredible array of artists the storytelling is quite good.  Take 1 part DC, 2 parts Marvel, 1 part Spy-fi, a pinch of Archie, and a touch of the mind that brought us the original Mars Attacks cards, and you have one of the most amazing comics of the 60's.

[bowers]

  I remember buying the second issue and never being able to find any more on the comic racks. Not until I was in my teens, haunting used book stores, did I find more.
These comics were a treat, not being over-polished like DC and lacking the melodramatic dialog of Marvel. The writing and art was superior. And nobody could draw those evil hotties like Wood and Crandall! They lasted for several issues and were reincarnated at least two or three times by various publishers. I seem to remember them even guest starring in an issue of Apple's "Thunder Bunny"!
I agree with Narf that Noman was the most original and was also my favorite. I think he was even given at least one issue of his own mag.
Thanks for reintroducing me to an old friend! Cheers, Bowers

[John Kerry]

NoMan had his own series which ran two issues. As well Tower Books put out a NoMan paperback.

[bowers]

 You're right, John. I had totally forgotten about the paperback- I think I still have mine hiding in the depths of my basement somewhere!

[SuperScrounge]

First Encounter! - Nice little intro.

Menace of the Iron Fog - Not bad, could have used a lot more shots of Iron Maiden though. 

NoMan - The intro established that three inventions of Jennings were important, but here the invisibility cloak comes off almost as an afterthought.

Face to Face - Eh, okay.

The Enemy Within - Interesting.

THUNDER Squad - Interesting, but the story really didn't show off all the abilities of the Squad like a good introduction should.

At the Mercy of the Iron Maiden - Nice wrap-up.

[paw broon]

This is a delight. Like a couple of others, I've read it a few times and it always pleases.  If you're a lover of superheroes and costumed action heroes, you can't go wrong with the Tower line.  Great art and original characters, plus, with the Thunder Squad you also get a great alternative to the (original) Suicide Squad -the Rick Flagg one - Challengers, Fightin' Five.
If Mark has no idea what's going on inside this, he's in for a treat when he opens the book.
Since the first time I saw these comics in a wee second hand shop, decades ago, I've been a fan.  Dynamo is an excellent idea for a hero, but Noman has to be my favourite.  And he appeared in 2 issues of his own
title
It's a shame the run of Tower comics was so short, but that's what we have and they're great.

[John Kerry]

Man I remember THUNDER Agents from my younger days. The first issue I bought had Raven on the cover. I bought all the subsequent issues and managed to get some of the earlier ones. Also had the first NoMan comic and one of the Dynamo's, plus a couple of UNDERSEA Agent. Unfortunately none of them made the trek from Ontario to British Columbia. I did manage to acquire UNDERSEA Agent #1 last year for what I felt was a reasonable price. Come to think oi it I also had the Menthor and Terrific Trio paperbacks.
What always intrigued me was the limitations on some of the powers, Dynamo and the later Lightning. As well seems to me Menthor's death, issue 7?, was a rare case of someone actually being killed and staying dead in the comics. Pity we only have the first three issues here.

[crashryan]

I can only add my voice to the chorus praising this comic. When I first laid eyes on it, the cover blew me away. Inside it only got better (especially when the Iron Maiden appeared). I can't remember where I first saw Wallace Wood's art. I know that I recognized his style immediately. He was at the top of his game, and THUNDER guaranteed that I'd be a lifetime Wood fan.

As I mentioned elsewhere, Tower comics weren't carried by our local distributor. I had to wheedle Dad into driving me "up the mountain" to the little town of Index to find them. Then I had to part with 25 cents for one comic. It was worth it, though.

As superheroes Dynamo and Menthor are somewhat generic, but their stories are good so I don't mind. NoMan is a great idea. Reed Crandall knocks it out of the park artwise.

If I have any complaint about THUNDER Agents and its spin-offs, it's that the stories and dialogue are very simple and the characters are shallow. It was the age of Marvel, and at the time I wished they'd do more with the heroes' individual traits (NoMan is an old man in an immortal body, Lightning shortens his life each time he uses his powers, Menthor starts out as a Warlord spy). But when one of the revival attempts did follow the Marvel path, the stories were overwrought, bombastic, and almost unreadable. Best to leave things alone.

The THUNDER agents were at their best in lighthearted stories. Especially Dynamo, the lovable goof with a crush on "Rusty." The solo Weed stories were also good fun.

10 out of 10 for this one!

[EHowie60]

It's pretty common in 1950s-1960s books to see a lot optimism about the UN. I find that amusing.

The THUNDER agents dodge a common nitpick with gadget-based heroes. Namely, if the gagdet is so good, why not make a whole lot more of them? But here, they don't know how they work. Makes it strange that they're just handing them out, but hey.

I love the Iron Maiden. I wonder if her suit is solid like those of her henchmen. If so it's probably not very comfortable.

Noman is a great concept. He's so casual about the robot bodies; he keeps spares out in his car!

I think I like Menthor (the chewy mint!) almost as much. Lots of comic book heroes get chances in their books to prove that they're still heroes even out of costume and powerless. Not so Menthor! He is only a hero when he has the helmet on. Also his name's Janus! Two-faced .

The THUNDER Agents jet is a wonderful piece of silver age design. It's a bit of a pity they have names like "Guy", "Kitten", and "Weed". I've read further adventures and in them, Egghead leaves the team, leaving Kitten to take over as the main smart team member.

And then the conclusion! I like this format, of giving each team member a story before bringing them all together. Dynamo brings down the house, Samson-style, but the Warlord escapes! All in all, a great book. The Wally Wood artwork is superb throughout.

[K1ngcat]

Oh dear!  I see I'm alone in my assessment!  I bought a lot of these in the day, and plainly thought they were seriously cool at the time, but looking at this now I find the concept cheesy, the writing hackneyed, and the artwork stiff and lacklustre. 

Only Noman is a genuinely original character, the others - including the yet-to-appear agent Lightning - are really just stock superheroes with very little in the way of personality.  Though later in the series there was a one-off appearance from a guy called The Raven, who was interesting, if only because the art and writing were so weird and out-of-step compared to all the regular strips.

But I join Morgus in wishing that life had been kinder to Wally Wood.  His artwork in the EC era was astounding. This is not such a fitting epitaph.

[paw broon]

I still have this book and only relatively recently dug it out and read it yet again. I happily admit to being a died-in-the-wool superhero fan and, at the time of first reading Tower Comics, i was immediately impressed with these characters and the way they were drawn.  Decades later, I'm still taken with them.  I suppose, like jokes, there are only so many variations of the superhero/MMM/costumed adventurer possible, so, a different uniform, a different way to endow a character with some power or ability  and a slightly different take on how the hero uses/misuses that ability means a lot to me. The whole thing about Dynamo is that he's as subtle as a brick, bursting through walls and at one point later, clicking the belt and jumping in the air to crash through a roof with his increased weight/density.  A feat that has been done only a few times in comics and which I always enjoy seeing.  The Noman idea is close to comics genius and 'nuff said. The other heroes - gadget users if you prefer - are a slightly different take on the other companies' heroes and I can't find fault with Lightning and his life shortening speed, Menthor with his bad guy/good guy thingy and Raven,who I still think was gracefully drawn.
Don't know if any of this post makes sense, but I do enjoy this line of comics.

[crashryan]

EHowie, you bring up something that bothered me about THUNDER Agents back in the day. It was supposedly a United Nations organization, but a couple of times THUNDER fought directly against The Commies. Since the Soviet Union was part of the UN it seems that would have caused a major problem. I recall that a reader wrote to point out this contradiction but the editor brushed it off with something like "We'll quit when they do."

[John Kerry]

I recall Some stories where the enemy was Communist China, which back then was not a member of the UN. In fact once or twice tensions were high enough that Red China and The USSR almost were at war with each other.

[K1ngcat]

Yes, paw, it does make sense!   I'm also a great superhero fan,  I've just got very picky in my old age! 

I have a great soft spot for the Raven, albeit he was featured with no back story or introduction.  He didn't seem to be related to the other THUNDER agents and though the script was quirky to say the least, it was full of a liveliness and humour that was often missing from the rest of the mag. I'd love to know who was responsible for the story and art, and why we didn't see more of him.

[crashryan]

The best-remembered Raven stories--those with story and art unlike anything else in the Tower line--were written and drawn by Manny Stallman. Manny started out at MLJ in the 1940s and labored for many years as a mainstream comics artist, mostly without credit. In the 1950s he frequently collaborated with his friend John Giunta. For over 15 years Manny wrote and drew a giveaway comic for Big Boy restaurants. He passed away in 1997. I'm honored to have been numbered among Manny's friends. Manny had a lifelong commitment to promoting understanding and cooperation among people of different religions and ethnicities. This theme surfaced frequently in his Big Boy stories, as well as in his Raven story about South American neo-Nazis.

[K1ngcat]

Thanks for that info, crash.  I've always been very impressed by Manny's work on the Raven, it had an energy and vitality which was missing from the other THUNDER strips.  Didn't know he wrote them too. 

Here's a nice quote about him from Gil Kane: "In the mid-sixties, Harry Shorten was putting together this comic line [for Tower Comics] and he brought in artists like Wally Wood and Mike Sekowsky and myself and Manny to do these T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents. And all of a sudden, Manny was pencilling and inking like Harvey Kurtzman! I mean, I just couldn't get over it. It was sensational stuff

[paw broon]

Well done crash.  I had no idea about the Manny Stallman contributions, so thank you.

[MarkWarner]

After opening the cover of what has to be one of our most "current" comics, my first thought is that the inside cover advertisement looks very familiar. How many years has this as been running?

After looking through the late Professors gadgets, I'll have the brain power enhancing helmet. It would come in very handy on a daily basis. Certainly more so than being able to smash down walls.

"You're wanted on level 7"
Level 7? That's strictly off limits for the regular personnel"

Perhaps, we ought to have a level 7 in CB+ where we could be summoned and feel important.

I am happy enough not to be Dynamo, his belt is a rather limited prototype. BUT Noman's brain transfering powers are AWESOME!! In fact he is the best superhero EVER. To be able to move your mind around androids and even clone yourself. Perfect.

Last thought, there are some ugly mugs in the Thunder Support Squad!!

Verdict: KRUMPF! A hit. I really eojoyed this. Art was great and Noman is just so cool!