T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents Archives, Vol. 3

T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents Archives #3

by Wallace Wood, Bill Pearson, Steve Skeates

The T.H.U.N.D.E.R. AGENTS are back in a handsome hardcover volume collecting 1966's T.H.U.N.D.E.R. AGENTS #8-10 and DYNAMO #2! These issues, masterminded by comics legend Wally Wood, feature the introduction of Raven, the fall of the Warlords, and atomic explosions, spaceships and international intrigue galore!

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Comic Book, Superheroes, Science Fiction, Dc Comics

224 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 2004

About the author

Wallace Allan Wood was an American comic book writer, artist and independent publisher, best known for his work in EC Comics and Mad. Although much of his early professional artwork is signed Wallace Wood, he became known as Wally Wood, a name he claimed to dislike. Within the comics community, he was also known as Woody, a name he sometimes used as a signature.

He was the first inductee into the comic book's Jack Kirby Hall of Fame, in 1989, and was inducted into the subequent Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame three years later.

In addition to Wood's hundreds of comic book pages, he illustrated for books and magazines while also working in a variety of other areas — advertising; packaging and product illustrations; gag cartoons; record album covers; posters; syndicated comic strips; and trading cards, including work on Topps' landmark Mars Attacks set.

For much of his adult life, Wood suffered from chronic, unexplainable headaches. In the 1970s, following bouts with alcoholism, Wood suffered from kidney failure. A stroke in 1978 caused a loss of vision in one eye. Faced with declining health and career prospects, he committed suicide by gunshot three years later.

Wood was married three times. His first marriage was to artist Tatjana Wood, who later did extensive work as a comic-book colorist.

EC editor Harvey Kurtzman, who had worked closely with Wood during the 1950s, once commented, "Wally had a tension in him, an intensity that he locked away in an internal steam boiler. I think it ate away his insides, and the work really used him up. I think he delivered some of the finest work that was ever drawn, and I think it's to his credit that he put so much intensity into his work at great sacrifice to himself".

EC publisher William Gaines once stated, "Wally may have been our most troubled artist... I'm not suggesting any connection, but he may have been our most brilliant".

Reviews

[Aki Umemoto · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the third collection of the short-lived tower comics: THUNDER AGENTS #'s 8, 9, 10, and Dynamo #2. You come basically for the art of Wally Wood, which there is plenty, but he's aided with the talented Mike Sekowsky, George Tuska, and many others. They're fun and entertaining, but the weakest part is the stories. They're all very simple, some have huge plots holes, little characterizations, and mostly very bad dialogue. As you read on, you get tired of some of the same plot threads but then they change it up by destroying a major nemesis like the Overlord but is replaced by S.P.I.D.E.R., and Andor an evil cyborg, later becomes good, etc.

One of my favorite characters is No Man (initially because of Wood's artwork), the android that can switch his mind into any of his many bodies waiting for him at headquarters. But I noticed that in every episode, he loses a body, sometimes multiple bodies, and I come to realize that he's an expensive super-hero to have! He must be costing THUNDER millions of dollars! But hey, it's a comic book, check your brain out as you start to read.

I originally read these as a kid and I always enjoyed them, so I'll continue to read them.

[Brannigan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m hooked on this series and love it. It’s definitely not for everyone but I think everyone should at least try it.

[Sylvain Lafrenière · Rating 3 out of 5]

Was very innovative when it was created. Still a good read, but a mirror of it's era.

[Travis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great blend of 60's spy and super heroes.
Cool characters, nice art, fun action, weird villains and one of the all time great femme fatales!

Stories are short, but there is still a slim thread of continuity and character development.
Decent sense of humor and likable cast.

Shame no one has had much luck bringing this franchise back, because it is jam packed with imagination and potential.

[Louie the Mustache Matos · Rating 3 out of 5]

It strikes me as something so exceedingly odd that the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents could from the outset appear like such a deliciously fatted cash cow to Tower Comics that the fighting for creative and financial control would begin BEFORE it could become something successful. It was the height of the secret agent craze in 1966, the Cold War was getting colder, and with the United Nations becoming important as a global peace-keeper the concept of The Higher United Nations Defense Enforcement Reserves was a longed for fiction.

Reading this collection of comics (T.H.U.N.D.E.R. AGENTS #8-10 and DYNAMO #2) I begin to understand that already the stories were becoming boring and repetitive. One of the problems of prematurely carving the Golden Goose is that the characters were nowhere near as interesting as Peter Parker, the Fantastic Four, and all those other superhero titles at that other comic book company. Although Wally Wood's artwork and creativity are indubitable and worthy of return viewings, the stories are the most flawed aspect of the sequential artform.

There are only five of these collections (Archives) but I find myself reticent in returning. I didn't enjoy this graphic novel as much as the two previous compilations. I'm not sure if it's the fact that I realize that there was so much animosity between various parties or if it's the lack of originality that bothers me more. It's probably why the comic book team has resisted so many revival attempts throughout its history. Whatever the case, I don't think I will return to the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents Archives for a while, if ever. This is my #5 of 10 GN/TPBs from my 2023 reading goal.

[Dominick · Rating 3 out of 5]

There's something of a disconnect between the art and the scripts in these stories. The art is generally strong--as one would expect, from hands like Wally Wood, George Tuska etc.--but the stories are generally pretty implausible, even by the standards of 1960s superhero fare. Most dire are the pair of Raven solo stories, the first of which especially seems to be modelled on Mad parodies (it even uses the word "fershlugginer") without being funny, so the reason fur such echoes is opaque--unless we are supposed to think the story is funny. A must-have for Wood fans, of course; otherwise, not really essential.