MattBrady
03-01-2003, 08:00 AM
<a href="http://www.newsarama.com/DC/lightning_t.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.newsarama.com/DC/lightning_t.jpg" width="175" height="311" border="0" align="right" alt="Lightning - character designs by Max Fiumara and Sebastian Fiumara"></a>by Mike Sangiacomo
By the time Marc Andreyko was born in 1970, the Tower Comics T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents series had been over for a year.
He caught it on one of the series revivals for the now defunct DeLuxe Comics and loved the characters so much that he tracked "as many beat-up copies of the original series (1965-1969) as he could find."
Starting in June, the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents live again and Andreyko gets to write it. The series starts fresh with familiar heroes like the super-swift Lightning; the powerhouse Dynamo; the body-jumping NoMan; the telepathic, telekinetic Menthor and the flying hero, Raven.
"I finally get to write a series that I would love to read," said Andreyko, who grew up in Mentor, OH, graduated from Kent State University and knocked around Cleveland until 1997 when he moved to the West Coast.
His previous comics included co-writing Torso, recounting Cleveland's "Torso Murders" with another Clevelander, Brian Bendis. Starting in May, Andreyko writes a new series from Image Comics, Sam and Twitch, Case Files, which reprises a detective series Bendis wrote for Image.
<a href="http://www.newsarama.com/DC/no-man.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.newsarama.com/DC/no-man_t.jpg" width="165" height="264" border="0" align="left" alt="NoMan - character designs by Max Fiumara and Sebastian Fiumara"></a>The reason Andreyko is so excited about the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents is obvious to anyone who read the series. The comic was somehow different from the other books on the shelves in the mid-to-late sixties. Art by Wally Wood, Reed Crandall, Gil Kane, Mike Sekowsky and others never looked so good, but it was the writing that stood out. The stories were more clever, more adult.
Where Superman fought evil because it was his mission, the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents were essentially hired hands who grew into the job. A secret arm of the United Nations had uncovered a cache of devices that could turn ordinary men into superhumans.
As the scientists slowly figured out how the mysterious devices worked, they gave them to agents. Several times, the agents could not handle the tools and new hosts were sought. Because there were many devices to be analyzed, new agents appeared slowly with the promise of more.
The devices were flawed. Lightning's super-swift suit accelerated his aging process. Dynamo's belt only lasted one hour. Menthor's helmet altered the brain of the wearer, turning the agent who wore it from an evil double-agent to a force for good.
There were few routine stories, most offered a novel twist on the classic superhero comic.
<a href="http://www.newsarama.com/DC/Dynamo.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.newsarama.com/DC/Dynamo_t.jpg" width="165" height="275" border="0" align="right" alt="Dynamo - character designs by Max Fiumara and Sebastian Fiumara"></a>News of the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents return started leaking out last summer. Some were skeptical because the series was "supposed" to have been relaunched a half-dozen times in the past 15 years and each time something went wrong. T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents also hold the record of having appeared in more comic companies than any other team including: Tower, Deluxe, Solson, JC Comics, Archie Comics and Noble Comics.
Oddly enough, each appearance was good regardless of the writer or the company. It's almost as if the characters are so brilliantly conceived that a writer just follows along, which is precisely what Andreyko has found.
"I had some discussions with editor Dan Didio last year at the San Diego Convention and he later sent me the bible of the series," said Andreyko, referring to an outline of a character's background, powers, friends, foes and concepts that writers must follow. "I started working on the series and it just flowed out of me. Writing the book has been one of my best experiences in comics. After reading the bible for the book, I was immediately flooded with ideas. And Dan is easily the best editor I’ve ever worked with. His energy and enthusiasm are infectious. Talking to him only serves to jazz me up even more about the book!
"I know writers say this all the time, but these characters took on lives of their own," he said.
<a href="http://www.newsarama.com/DC/menthor.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.newsarama.com/DC/menthor_t.jpg" width="150" height="250" border="0" align="left" alt="Menthor - character designs by Max Fiumara and Sebastian Fiumara"></a>When DC Comics released the wonderful $50 hardcover, archived edition of the first four issues from 1965-66 around Christmas, the fans started holding their breath. If $50 sounds steep, consider that the originals would cost over $500.
"I was told I had the series in December and I have been bursting to talk about it ever since," said Andreyko. "But I had to keep quiet until DC announced it."
One of the reasons for DC's reluctance was the previous failed T.H.U.N.D.E.R. revival attempts.
Andreyko said the new T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents series takes place in its own universe, a world much like our own. Everything changes the day Alpha Humans, people with different super-powers, begin appearing all over the Earth.
"The United Nations tracks each of these as they would a nuclear missile," Andreyko said. "They form the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents to act as a security force to deal with them, sort of like the U.N. weapons inspectors. "
There will be two issues released in June to kick off the new series. Andreyko said he would slowly introduce the agents into the storyline over the first six issues.
<a href="http://www.newsarama.com/DC/agent.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.newsarama.com/DC/agent_t.jpg" width="165" height="274" border="0" align="right" alt="a THUNDER Agent - character designs by Max Fiumara and Sebastian Fiumara"></a>"The only agent in costume in the first issue is Lightning, but in that issue we also see the men who will eventually become Dynamo and NoMan," he said. "That issue takes place inside the Mall of America. The one change we had to make was to give the heroes new names for their secret identities. Wally Wood had a habit of naming his characters after real-life friends and we didn't feel comfortable using those names."
Andreyko said the long-overdue T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents series will deal in real world events, real places. "We won't make up fake countries like Genosha and Quarac," he said. "The agents will be heading to the Middle East and later to Chechnya."
Andreyko is confident that the new series will appeal to fans of the old series and those who never heard of the title.
“The first arc just sets the stage for what’s to come,” Andreyko said. “We meet the major players and see how they become THUNDER Agents and some of the inner workings of the organization. And there are hints and plot threads that will be explored in the first year and a half that are sprinkled throughout #1-6. I've got enough material to write 50 issues. It's going to be great."
For more on DC's THUNDER Agents, click <a href="http://www.newsarama.com/Thunder.htm" target="_blank"> here</a>.
Michael Sangiacomo is a statewide news reporter for the Plain Dealer newspaper in Cleveland, Ohio. His syndicated "Journey Into Comics" weekly column on the state of the comic book business, can be found in newspapers and at the Newsarama website. His monthly comic book column appears the first Saturday of each month in the Plain Dealer Arts page and is syndicated through Newhouse Newspapers. He also writes a twice-monthly audiobooks review column covering crime thrillers and mysteries that can be seen at <a href="http://www.audiobookstoday.com" target="_blank">www.audiobookstoday.com</a>
By the time Marc Andreyko was born in 1970, the Tower Comics T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents series had been over for a year.
He caught it on one of the series revivals for the now defunct DeLuxe Comics and loved the characters so much that he tracked "as many beat-up copies of the original series (1965-1969) as he could find."
Starting in June, the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents live again and Andreyko gets to write it. The series starts fresh with familiar heroes like the super-swift Lightning; the powerhouse Dynamo; the body-jumping NoMan; the telepathic, telekinetic Menthor and the flying hero, Raven.
"I finally get to write a series that I would love to read," said Andreyko, who grew up in Mentor, OH, graduated from Kent State University and knocked around Cleveland until 1997 when he moved to the West Coast.
His previous comics included co-writing Torso, recounting Cleveland's "Torso Murders" with another Clevelander, Brian Bendis. Starting in May, Andreyko writes a new series from Image Comics, Sam and Twitch, Case Files, which reprises a detective series Bendis wrote for Image.
<a href="http://www.newsarama.com/DC/no-man.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.newsarama.com/DC/no-man_t.jpg" width="165" height="264" border="0" align="left" alt="NoMan - character designs by Max Fiumara and Sebastian Fiumara"></a>The reason Andreyko is so excited about the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents is obvious to anyone who read the series. The comic was somehow different from the other books on the shelves in the mid-to-late sixties. Art by Wally Wood, Reed Crandall, Gil Kane, Mike Sekowsky and others never looked so good, but it was the writing that stood out. The stories were more clever, more adult.
Where Superman fought evil because it was his mission, the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents were essentially hired hands who grew into the job. A secret arm of the United Nations had uncovered a cache of devices that could turn ordinary men into superhumans.
As the scientists slowly figured out how the mysterious devices worked, they gave them to agents. Several times, the agents could not handle the tools and new hosts were sought. Because there were many devices to be analyzed, new agents appeared slowly with the promise of more.
The devices were flawed. Lightning's super-swift suit accelerated his aging process. Dynamo's belt only lasted one hour. Menthor's helmet altered the brain of the wearer, turning the agent who wore it from an evil double-agent to a force for good.
There were few routine stories, most offered a novel twist on the classic superhero comic.
<a href="http://www.newsarama.com/DC/Dynamo.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.newsarama.com/DC/Dynamo_t.jpg" width="165" height="275" border="0" align="right" alt="Dynamo - character designs by Max Fiumara and Sebastian Fiumara"></a>News of the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents return started leaking out last summer. Some were skeptical because the series was "supposed" to have been relaunched a half-dozen times in the past 15 years and each time something went wrong. T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents also hold the record of having appeared in more comic companies than any other team including: Tower, Deluxe, Solson, JC Comics, Archie Comics and Noble Comics.
Oddly enough, each appearance was good regardless of the writer or the company. It's almost as if the characters are so brilliantly conceived that a writer just follows along, which is precisely what Andreyko has found.
"I had some discussions with editor Dan Didio last year at the San Diego Convention and he later sent me the bible of the series," said Andreyko, referring to an outline of a character's background, powers, friends, foes and concepts that writers must follow. "I started working on the series and it just flowed out of me. Writing the book has been one of my best experiences in comics. After reading the bible for the book, I was immediately flooded with ideas. And Dan is easily the best editor I’ve ever worked with. His energy and enthusiasm are infectious. Talking to him only serves to jazz me up even more about the book!
"I know writers say this all the time, but these characters took on lives of their own," he said.
<a href="http://www.newsarama.com/DC/menthor.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.newsarama.com/DC/menthor_t.jpg" width="150" height="250" border="0" align="left" alt="Menthor - character designs by Max Fiumara and Sebastian Fiumara"></a>When DC Comics released the wonderful $50 hardcover, archived edition of the first four issues from 1965-66 around Christmas, the fans started holding their breath. If $50 sounds steep, consider that the originals would cost over $500.
"I was told I had the series in December and I have been bursting to talk about it ever since," said Andreyko. "But I had to keep quiet until DC announced it."
One of the reasons for DC's reluctance was the previous failed T.H.U.N.D.E.R. revival attempts.
Andreyko said the new T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents series takes place in its own universe, a world much like our own. Everything changes the day Alpha Humans, people with different super-powers, begin appearing all over the Earth.
"The United Nations tracks each of these as they would a nuclear missile," Andreyko said. "They form the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents to act as a security force to deal with them, sort of like the U.N. weapons inspectors. "
There will be two issues released in June to kick off the new series. Andreyko said he would slowly introduce the agents into the storyline over the first six issues.
<a href="http://www.newsarama.com/DC/agent.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.newsarama.com/DC/agent_t.jpg" width="165" height="274" border="0" align="right" alt="a THUNDER Agent - character designs by Max Fiumara and Sebastian Fiumara"></a>"The only agent in costume in the first issue is Lightning, but in that issue we also see the men who will eventually become Dynamo and NoMan," he said. "That issue takes place inside the Mall of America. The one change we had to make was to give the heroes new names for their secret identities. Wally Wood had a habit of naming his characters after real-life friends and we didn't feel comfortable using those names."
Andreyko said the long-overdue T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents series will deal in real world events, real places. "We won't make up fake countries like Genosha and Quarac," he said. "The agents will be heading to the Middle East and later to Chechnya."
Andreyko is confident that the new series will appeal to fans of the old series and those who never heard of the title.
“The first arc just sets the stage for what’s to come,” Andreyko said. “We meet the major players and see how they become THUNDER Agents and some of the inner workings of the organization. And there are hints and plot threads that will be explored in the first year and a half that are sprinkled throughout #1-6. I've got enough material to write 50 issues. It's going to be great."
For more on DC's THUNDER Agents, click <a href="http://www.newsarama.com/Thunder.htm" target="_blank"> here</a>.
Michael Sangiacomo is a statewide news reporter for the Plain Dealer newspaper in Cleveland, Ohio. His syndicated "Journey Into Comics" weekly column on the state of the comic book business, can be found in newspapers and at the Newsarama website. His monthly comic book column appears the first Saturday of each month in the Plain Dealer Arts page and is syndicated through Newhouse Newspapers. He also writes a twice-monthly audiobooks review column covering crime thrillers and mysteries that can be seen at <a href="http://www.audiobookstoday.com" target="_blank">www.audiobookstoday.com</a>