T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents #10 – Review

By: Too many to list—check out the review.

The Story: You ever get the feeling your mother’s holding something back from you?

The Review: Back in the olden days, whenever that was, heroes were the good guys and villains the bad, and hardly ever, if not never, did the twain meet.  Nowadays, members from both classes come in degrees, which makes getting a handle on them a little harder, but definitely a lot more interesting.  As Gail Simone’s superb Secret Six shows, we get no end of intrigue trying to figure out just where in the scale of humanity a character falls.

So it makes perfect sense that the Agents, who each want to use their powers for personal redemption, have no greater enemy than Iron Maiden, a woman who has absolutely no interest in redeeming herself.  Nick Spencer portrays her as a woman seemingly incapable of remorse, with an almost monstrously finite level of affection.  Whatever connection she had to husband Dynamo, it clearly does not extend to his values or loved ones, as we see in grisly detail.

Her callous actions force you to wonder if she feels pain at all.  When she charges Bill Henry that, “My husband is dead.  You killed him,” her tone has no chill to indicate an emotional stake in the statement, but the barren bluntness of fact.  Upon disposing of him, I. Maiden actually smiles as she says, “Give my love to Len.”  This is not the curse of a vengeful widow; this is the ironic remark of a villain, an idle curse for her enemy to join his comrade.

So by all appearances, Colleen’s conclusions about her mother seem correct.  A woman with such little regard for human attachment could never find satisfaction in domestic felicity alone.  That said, we have an interesting implication that murder doesn’t necessarily satisfy the Maiden either.  Rather, the act and challenge of killing occupies her soul in a way homemaking can’t.  In Colleen’s words, Maiden does what she does because “You were bored, weren’t you?”

In spite of these insights and the tough exterior with which Colleen delivers them, we can plainly see in her increasingly pained interrogation (“Go on, then.  Tell me I’m wrong…  Tell me you were forced to…  Tell me something.  Tell me anything.”) a desperation to grasp at any pearl of genuine love her mother might have for her.  Like the final nail in the coffin, Maiden denies her with the kind of mockery we’ve come to expect: “You always did cry too much, girl.”

T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents #9 – Review

By: Too many to list—check out the review.

The Story: You know what they say: beware a redheaded woman with assassin’s credentials.

The Review: You can always count on Nick Spencer to deliver an engaging, enjoyable read, even if the actual substance of the writing isn’t always what it should be.  That’s not to imply this Iron Maiden story arc has been superfluous or anything, but with this arc decompressed to the max, it gets a little harder to remember why you’re invested in this story with every passing issue.  The events in themselves work and rarely fail to garner your interest, but the sluggish pacing often defeats whatever excitement the story generates.

The culprits can only be the flashback sequences, which serve strictly as expositional vehicles.  And by far it’s the 60s “back-up” feature that takes up the most time and space for the least value.  While Spencer is to be congratulated for channeling that Silver Age style and continuity with accuracy, the material has for a while become less cute and more tiresome, especially here, where it reveals almost nothing new or useful to the story.

Even the 80s sequence, which usually plays a pretty big role in the issue, seems unusually slow and redundant.  Since we already knew the original Dynamo would break a deal to free his wife and daughter, and any such deal requires a hefty price, we also already knew Len would be the one to pay it.  His final epistle to Iron Maiden is predictably touching, but gives us a poor gauge of their love, as the letter mostly reveals her ball-busting (“…there’s no use yelling at me, Red.”  “I know you never thought I was the brightest man to walk the earth…”) attitude.

While we have every indication that I. Maiden was truly in love with Dynamo, we can also safely conclude he may have been the only individual for whom she had any real feeling.  Just look at her taking her sweet time painting her lips while the girls she collected on her payroll get mowed down.  Keep in mind she also abandoned Colleen at some point, possibly implying any affection for her daughter was tangentially derived from that for her husband.

T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents #8 – Review

By: Too many to list—check out the review.

The Story: I think in this case, we can say she’s a lady-killer.

The Review: Last time, I complained Spencer’s use of two period “features” in the issue, though enjoyable, didn’t really do much to expand on the story and in fact, dragged on the story’s pace, especially given the lower page count.  In that case, the features reduced the present story to a handful of action-less panels, but didn’t offer much substance to make up for it.

Spencer makes better use of them this time around, especially the 80s sequence depicting the uncertain fate of Colleen’s parents after they get captured by her dad’s former employers (mind you, she’s just a little babe when all this goes down).  For one thing, we get a new appreciation for Iron Maiden’s deadliness when we find out she has singlehandedly killed 4,819 individuals.  We saw her dirty work firsthand last issue, when she dispatched 4 spec-ops men with only a bloody nose on her part, but the specificity of the grim statistic can’t fail to take you aback.

So you may not be entirely convinced by her husband, formerly Dynamo, when he claims “She’s changed.”  Considering her callous indifference when faced with a casualty of one of her hits, a four-year-old girl who was in the building when Iron Maiden blew it up, she may not be entirely as sympathetic as he insists.  But it’s worth noting no one argues when he says she helped him save the world at one point, so some benefit of the doubt may be in order here.

Which leads us to yet another Silver Age inspired, 50s back-up feature.  It’s hard to tell if the prevention of Uru, the Subterranean Warlord, and his armies from attacking the surface world is the war Dynamo refers to earlier in the issue, but I. Maiden plays a helpful role, regardless.  Anyway, you’ve got to love the over-the-top bluntness with which everyone delivers their lines: “You can’t do this, I love him!”  “Foolish woman!  I only told you that to get you on our side!”

T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents #7 – Review

By: Too many to list—check out the review.

The Story: Most of the time, you say, “I’m gonna kill my mother” rhetorically.

The Review: When DC chose to “hold the line” at $2.99 and cut the page count of its issues in exchange, the results were varied: some creators adapted right away, others went through some growing pains, and a few still haven’t adjusted to the change.  None have managed to confront how to squeeze multiple storylines into a significantly shrunken medium without some pain.

Even a skilled writer like Spencer isn’t immune, although he deals with the problem as best as you can hope for.  It might have been wiser for him to scale back or eliminate altogether one of the “features” he includes in this issue, but as he said in a CBR interview, the talent had already hopped aboard and he was unwilling to let it go to waste.  Given that, you wind up with pieces that are strong in themselves, but don’t really further the issue’s goals overall.
It’s hardly worth mentioning the current story, where Colleen gets precisely two pages (underutilizing the always terrific Cafu, Bit, and Santiago Arcas on art) to take an airplane to Morocco and deliver a teaser line.  The moment packs a punch, and promises good things for next issue, but otherwise does nothing to advance the story.

This is problematic since the bulk of the issue involves a drawn out flashback.  In fact, the pacing of it is such that it seems Spencer forgets he’s only got so many pages to indulge in this kind of luxurious storytelling.  But the sequence needs this slow push to work; the prolonged scenes of domesticity tighten the wire of calm before snapping it in an all-out rush of chaos.  It’s the jump in gears from cutting cucumbers to tossing the knife into a man’s neck that gives the flashback some worthwhile tension.  And Mike Grell draws it all so beautifully, showing how an old-school, retro style can still bring intensity to both drama and action, though it’s Val Staples’ warm colors with a yellowish cast that gives the art its period look.

The flashback also gives you some essential bits of info that’ll make Colleen’s upcoming conflict that much stickier: her parental union between one of the greatest T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents and one of the Agents’ most notorious enemies.  An interesting twist to be sure, it also brings new meaning to her sympathy for Toby’s two-faced loyalties last issue.  But Spencer brings layers to most everything he writes.  Why else would he choose Dion’s “The Wanderer” to soundtrack the early parts of the flashback?  An oldies tune sung in doo-wop fashion, the rollicking rock rhythm of the song masks the rather dark undertone of its lyrics: the line “I with my two fists of iron and I’m going nowhere” certainly rings true for Colleen’s parents, given their backgrounds.

T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents #6 – Review

By: Nick Spencer (writer), Cafu (penciller), Bit (inker), Santiago Arcas (colorist)

The Story: The Iron Maiden…she’s a cautionary tale for all the S&M lovers out there.

The Review: It’s tough to transition from one story arc to the next in a superhero comic.  After the noise dies down, you’ve got this obligatory timeout for the characters to lick their wounds and reflect on their latest adventure, and after that comes the gradual setup for the next storyline.  In a way, these interludes lose the momentum the writer spent the entire story arc developing.

Spencer does two smart things to address this point.  First, he neatly dovetails the conclusion to the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents’ first mission and the intro to their next in one issue—good.  That means events can just get rolling when we come back.  Second, he keeps up the tension by playing out the dramatic plot threads he set down throughout his introductory arc.

This strategy is particularly clever because it does double-duty: it allows the characters some growth, and it keeps you invested in their individual plotlines.  Dynamo’s finally experiencing the side-effects of his new powers (“…like I’m ‘bout to break apart.”  Doctor: “That’s normal.  Take your shirt off for me, please.”).  Lightning still can’t bring himself to connect with his estranged family despite knowing he may soon lose his chance.  And NoMan remains as forebodingly inscrutable as ever in the midst of his dwindling humanity.

Spencer doesn’t use a lot of dialogue or narration, and the characters don’t really do anything lively, but he writes the subtext so well you never have a problem sensing the conflict at stake.  One of many good examples: when his young daughter picks up, Lightning never says a word, but you know exactly why he calls and why he can’t or won’t speak up.  It’s a scene that breaks your heart without much fanfare or drama.