DC Comics Presents: T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents #1

February 6, 2011

Writers: Larry Ivie, Len Brown & Dan Adkins
Art: Wally Wood, Reed Crandall, Gil Kane, George Tuska, Mike Esposito, Mike Sekowsky, Frank Giacoia, Dan Adkins, Richard Bassford, Tony Coleman & Steve Ditko
Cover: Wally Wood
Publisher: DC Comics

I’ve started reading the new T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents comic by Nick Spencer despite never having read any previous incarnations of the team. It’s been good, but I’ve been hoping for a chance to take in some of those old school adventures. Thanks to the uber-cool DC Comics Presents 100-Page Spectaculars, I’ve gotten that chance. This volume reprints stories from the original T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents #1, 2 and 7.

As our story begins, a special U.N. task force uncovers the body of a brilliant scientists slain by a villain called the Warlord. The U.N. decides to use some of the advanced weaponry the scientist had developed to equip a new team of special agents. This volume introduces us to the most colorful agents – Dynamo, Noman and Menthor, as well as the surprising sacrifice of one of the heroes. The flavor of this book is definitely ahead of its time. The heroes have a Silver Age feel to them, but there are layers of complexity not really common in other superhero comics of the time. We also meet the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Squad here, a group of non-powered special agents that seem to serve as a sort of back-up to the other agents. This group has a definite Silver Age flavor, with traces of the Challengers of the Unknown and Doc Savage’s group of agents among them.

The art side is a who’s who of famous artists at the time, with a lot of truly spectacular artists contributing to the many stories collected here. There’s a sort of unity to the art, however. If you look closely, you can tell which pages belong to Steve Ditko or Gil Kane, but at a casual read, the art moves from one artist to the next fairly easily.

This book was great to give me a little more background on these characters. I hope that the Agents get a few more of these DC Comics Presents specials, because I want to read more now.

Rating: 8/10

Somebody’s First Comic Book: Superman (1939 Series) #204

Wondering what Somebody’s First Comic Book is all about? The explanation is on this page!

TITLE: The Case of the Lethal Letters & The Fortress of Fear

CREDITS:
Writer: Cary Bates
Penciller: Ross Andru & Al Plastino
Inker: Mike Esposito & Al Plastino
Editor: Mort Weisinger
Cover Artist: Neal Adams
Publisher: DC Comics

PRIOR KNOWLEDGE: It’s Superman – strange visitor from another planet, and all that. And “LL” – well, I suppose they mean death because he pissed off Lex Luthor again, right?

IMPRESSIONS: In “The Case of the Lethal Letters,” we see Clark Kent on TV being interviewed by some ambush reporter who is claiming that the Daily Planet is only successful because it manages to get a lot of news about Superman. Geez, how do you think they pull that off? But suddenly, the reporter gives a brainwashed message from some villain promising to bring disaster to people important to Superman if he doesn’t retire. They go after another TV reporter, Lana Lang, first. (I vaguely remember her – she’s from Smallville, right? Clark’s girlfriend from high school?) Then, after he doesn’t quite have what it takes to save her, he starts to worry about his old girlfriend Lori Lemaris, the mermaid, and his current squeeze Lois Lane.

Okay, so evidently Superman is a pimp. But only with girls whose initials are “LL.”

The reveal of the villain is kind of cheesy, and the plan to take him out is incredibly poorly thought-out. It’s almost like someone drew the cover first then had to come up with a story to justify it.

There seems to be a second story here, “The Duplicate Superman,” but this old copy of the comic only has the first page of that one – two Supermen shaking hands – before there are a bunch of missing pages. Darn cheap bins.

The third story is “The Fortress of Fear.” Superman heads to his mysterious fortress, hidden away from the world, and decides to relax with a game of chess against a supercomputer. (Exactly why Superman chooses to house that computer in a giant robot that can hurl life-size chess pieces around is completely unclear.) After the robot goes berserk and starts hurling around life-sized chess pieces (who knew?), we see some scientists from a place called Kandor trying to warn him about some undefined danger. He starts to fight pretty much everything in his fortress of rest and relaxation, which seems to be populated entirely by things that can kill everybody else on the planet, before he finally figures out what the problem is. The Kandor guys never show up again.

This one is weak. There’s a basic understanding here just because it’s Superman, and everybody knows who Superman is, but both of the complete stories in this incomplete copy of the comic book seem to be predicated on a lot of knowledge of backstory, stuff that Joe Average has never heard of. Why all these “LL” girls are in love with Superman, what Kandor is and why the caption refers to it as being “bottled,” and why Superman decides to build a vacation resort full of deathtraps. Hard to really recommend this one.

GRADE: C+

Archie #390

June 13, 2006

Quick Rating: Good
Title: Once Upon a Prime Time Dreary and other stories

Archie is on the air!

Writers: Hal Smith, Frank Doyle, Bill Golliher
Pencils: Stan Goldberg
Inks: Mike Esposito
Colors: Barry Grossman
Letters: Bill Yoshida
Editor: Victor Gorelick
Cover Art: Dan DeCarlo
Publisher: Archie Comics

As a long-time Archie fan, I’m going to try to work in the occasional Archie review at this site. I chose this issue for a specific reason – and I’ll get to that in a bit. Like most Archie comics, this issue is a collection of short stories, and we’ll take those one at a time.

First is “Once Upon a Prime Time Dreary” by Smith and Goldberg. Archie has a part-time job as a janitor at the public access TV station, but when a storm keeps the on-air talent away, Archie is forced to do an impromptu one-man telethon to keep the station on the air. This is a classic-style story, featuring the inimitable Archie Andrews bad luck.

“Stop the Presses,” by Doyle and Goldberg, introduces the gang to “Scoop” Scanlon, an eager freshman trying to make a name for himself on the school paper, and messing up things for the gang in the process. Scoop is one of those thousands of characters to cross the path of Archie’s gang once and never again – a nice story, but not a particularly memorable one.

Next is the real reason I decided to feature this comic, Bill Golliher and Stan Goldberg’s “Fed Up with Archie.” The Archies get lost and run out of gas on the way home from a gig, and as usual, it’s all poor Archie’s fault. He boldly strikes out to find the gang some food and fuel to get them all home. What’s Archie’s salvation” A Burger King. I’ve seen a lot of stories lately about Marvel and DC working in more product placement in their comics – a character wearing a Nike t-shirt or driving a specific make of Dodge car. But this issue the product placement is actually a plot point. Not only do they use a brand-name restaurant rather than a generic “Burger Doodle,” but the restaurant is clearly drawn to match the model of the real eateries and the BK logo (circa 1991, at least) is prominently displayed for the rest of the story. Were it not for the four-page length, one could almost mistake this story for the ad comics the characters starred in for the likes of Capri Sun or (going back to the classics) Hostess Twinkies. As an Archie story, it’s just fine. As a curiosity, it’s better.

We also have a one-page “Aunt Hilda and Aunt Zelda” gag and one last comic – Smith and Goldberg’s “The Fight with the Bumblebees,” in which Archie and Jughead accidentally knock a beehive into Mr. Weatherbee’s office and have to find a way to clear them out before they wind up in detention. This goes into seriously zany territory, and it’s entertaining for that purpose if nothing else.

This is your typical issue of Archie, when you get right down to it, but the major ad placed in the middle of the issue got my attention and made me want to share.

Rating: 6/10