T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents #6 – Review

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

The Story: All storms must end sometime, and with them go the thunder.

The Review: After my review of last issue, reader Don asked me what titles I could recommend to satisfy his craving for Nick Spencer material, once this series wrapped up.  I had to admit I knew nothing that blended superheroics and political thriller so seamlessly and with such sophistication, wit, and craft.  It reminded me of how much I’ve enjoyed Spencer’s work here since it debuted, and how sorry I am to see it go.

If you like T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents as much as I do, then you’ll also be particularly dismayed to see how quietly this issue pulls the curtain on the series.  Spencer obviously has a lot of affection for all these characters, however brief their working lives are, and he attempts to give each of them as neat a resolution as possible under the circumstances.  Even so, you can clearly tell he had a much longer endgame in mind, and things were never intended to end this way.

T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents #5 – Review

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

The Story: Apparently, even a simple question of “dead or alive” has no straight answers.

The Review: Of course, the thing about having a huge relaunch of your entire line of titles is you’re not only thinning out all the weaker series, but the strong ones as well.  While DC made certain to preserve its anchors (e.g. Batman, Green Lantern) more or less intact, its young critical darlings did not receive such protection, sending perfectly strong titles to an early end.  I would definitely list T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents (as well as the underappreciated Xombi) as example.

This miniseries is thus something of a weird beast.  You’d think DC going through the trouble of releasing it in the first place would be an indication of their faith in the property, especially since they have no shortage of more popular ones to invest in.  Yet from the first issue, it’s clear the series doesn’t make itself out to be accessible or attractive to new readers.  Rather, this mini feels mostly like a continuation of the spare plotlines Nick Spencer left behind on his ongoing.

At the same time, Spencer’s plotlines aren’t of the kind that resolve neatly or quickly; if you’ve ever read Morning Glories or any of his other works, you’ll know his strength lies in letting his stories ferment, giving you the occasional potent taste, but otherwise reserving the rest.  For that reason, I find it hard to believe he ever intended for us to discover Colleen’s true loyalties this soon, or what her (and Emil Jennings’) ultimate goals are.

T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents #4 – Review

By: Nick Spencer (writer), Wes Craig (artist), Hi-Fi (colorist), Sam Keith (feature artist), Jeromy Cox (feature colorist)

The Story: NoMan teaches us that living in a clone body can’t get in the way of friendship!

The Review: One of the things I really like about T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents—and there are many—is its point of view.  Most of the superhero titles on the stands are fairly clear-cut in who the good and bad guys are.  Even that darkest of knights, Batman, is obviously a force for good in the world, no matter what the urban legends say.  Very rarely do heroes have a moral quandary that’s truly unnavigable; in the end, they nearly always do the right thing.

About the only series that really mired itself in gray area was Gail Simone’s Secret Six, which almost took masochistic pleasure in confronting hard questions and having no answers.  Though completely different in tone and substance, T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents is very much a spiritual successor to the Six.  Both feature a cast of characters thrust into unpleasant situations for which no easy solutions can be found, forcing them to take uncertain moral chances in their attempts to come out the other side in the black, however slightly.

The major difference, of course, is the Six made no pretensions about being heroes, though (very) occasionally motivated by principles of justice.  The Agents, on the other hand, sincerely believe what they do, they do for the greater good.  Ultimately, however, they owe their existence to a wrongful war, and we all know that nothing exactly equates to the greater good in such circumstances.  At best, the Agents can only hope for what all war victors hope for: that history will vindicate them in the end.

That’s what makes Henry Cosgei’s (a.k.a. Lightning)—spoiler alert—sacrifice so meaningful and yet so tragically pointless.  While the death of Dynamo seemed sudden and had little emotional weight, given how little we knew of him, Spencer actually invested a great deal of time in Cosgei’s background and reasons for joining the Agents.  When you reflect on the fact that he put his life on the line to restore his honor after a bit of athletic cheating, you really understand the measure of the man, but too late.  And what did he die for?  For the Agents to retrieve their irreplaceable weapons?  To strike a blow against an oppressed people?

T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents #3 – Review

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

The Story: For taphophobes, consider this immersion therapy; you’ll feel better if you don’t die.

The Review: I must say, I was rather amused by the tagline inscribed on this issue’s cover: “NoMan’s dark secret revealed!”  For one thing, the tease is horribly melodramatic—italics have that effect on anything you write.  For another, it sets some very high expectations for the story, as any use of the word “dark” tends to do.  Your instinct is to wade in with some good-natured skepticism, unsure if the issue can succeed, but willing to see it through anyway.

But if anyone can actually live up to the “dark” standard, Nick Spencer can, and NoMan’s secret turns out grim indeed, in both substance and style.  From previous issues, we know experimental detonations of atomic weapons in the Subterranean land wreaked havoc on their country, and we know war between them and us surface-dwellers ensued.  What we didn’t know until this issue is how that conflict ended, and unsurprisingly, the end involved an atrocity of the grossest kind.

I mentioned last time how Spencer likes to add some clear real-world reflections in what he writes, and the use of a Doomsday weapon—make that several Doomsday weapons—against the Subterraneans to coerce their surrender is all that.  Very telling is how even now, presumably decades after the war, the Subterraneans have left open a mass grave, exposing the remains of all those who perished from the Higher United Nations’ deadly attack.  “Six million,” by NoMan’s calculation.  For perspective, the combined bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki resulted in somewhere between 150,000 and 246,000 deaths.

What makes these revelations all the more powerful is that we see them through the eyes of a man responsible for all this mess.  It’s NoMan’s pensive brooding that forms the spine of tension throughout this issue.  He reminds us that he was a scientist before a soldier, but under both guises, he was persuaded to do things he’s not proud of.  Yet for all the impressions he gives of cynicism and regret, it’s not lost on you that he continues his mission as he broods, leading you to believe he may not be capable of truly feeling those emotions anymore.

T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents #2 – Review

By: Nick Spencer (writer), Wes Craig & Jerry Ordway (artist), Hi-Fi & Chris Beckett (colorists)

The Story: All I’m saying is if Demo grows a tiny mustache on his upper lip, I’m outta here.

The Review: Spencer is an interesting beast of a writer.  From his work on Morning Glories and Supergirl, you know he can weave some of the more engrossing, layered plots this side of modern comics.  He can also go wholeheartedly for the silly and heartfelt, as we’ve seen in his tremendous Jimmy Olsen.  Both of those sides of his writing character seem to come together in T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents, which can be totally sophisticated with the most outlandish material.

And you don’t get much more outlandish than “underground green-skinned nomads, who hid from the surface population for the better part of a millennium.”  It’s these kinds of concepts that made the Silver Age such a wonderfully bizarre period, a perfect feeding ground for comics.  But Spencer not only works such concepts into his story as an homage to earlier times; he gives them fresh spins to make them feel not only up-to-date, but relevant.

Consider his portrayal of the Subterraneans, who retain most of their goony appearance, yet now have a very overt political bent to them.  It’s no coincidence that at a time when the stability of Middle Eastern nations is in flux due to uprisings both nobly and criminally motivated, Spencer chooses to write the Subterraneans as a downtrodden, fragmented people (whose attraction to the more “civilized” people is their natural resources) searching for a leader, any leader, to speak out and take charge of their many grievances.

You can’t really say Demo is the best man for the job, however.  With his talent for rhetoric (“I have heard your mothers’ wailing as their children are forced to work in the mines, filling up the coffers of our oppressors!”) and his clear derangement, he brings back echoes of the Third Reich and the French Revolution, an egomaniac who feeds upon the unhappiness of the people he claims to represents to feed his own ambitions.  So, yeah, not exactly the ideal man of the people.

Demo does, however, make an intriguing villain, possessing the necessary intellect to know exactly how to take advantage of the two Agents he already has at his disposal—and I do mean that in the most basic meaning of the word.  He also has one other thing to his advantage, one which may connect directly to the last big twist from the former T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents ongoing: Iron Maiden’s claim to Colleen that, “I know he’s still alive.”  “He” being the original Dynamo.

T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents #1 – Review

By: Nick Spencer (writer), Wes Craig (artist), Hi-Fi (colorist)

The Story: Here’s a tip—don’t talk about dead mothers and brothers on the first date.

The Review: In this new DCU, there are more superhero teams than ever, one of them even having backing from the United Nations which presumably also sponsor our heroes here.  Spencer sets them apart, however, by giving them a much more overt political agenda and making them more attached to the governmental body which employs them.  Even against their best judgment, their movements in the field are determined by white-collar men sitting on swivel chairs in a control room.

For that reason, a certain shadiness infects every aspect of this team, from their very mission statement to the choice of members to the technology that makes their work possible.  Yet that technology began, like many things, with pure objectives.  We learn more about Emil Jennings, the man responsible for producing the scientific breakthroughs which gave birth to the Agents, all to promote “peacekeeping, humanitarianism, fostering better international relations…”

To that end, he creates an actual mathematical method (well, about as mathematical as you can get in a comic anyway) to “calculate the likelihood that any action undertaken ill improve the human condition.”  See, it’s this kind of thing that makes Spencer a conceptual wizard in the tradition of Grant Morrison; these fantastic ideas seem to roll off the top of his head, and not only does he convince you of their fictional logic, they bear implications for real life as well.

The fact Jennings’ algorithm is intended to help the world’s survival doesn’t disguise the fact that its role in the Menthor helmet defeats free will.  Besides, “survival” is a rather vague objective, one that doesn’t necessarily go toward “the greater good.”  So perhaps we should worry about this formula running the show, especially since it also powers Daniel, the hive-mind at the heart of the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents’ activities.

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.

T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents #5 – Review

By: Nick Spencer (writer), Cafu (penciller), Bit (inker), Santiago Arcas (colorist), Ryan Sook (guest artist)

The Story: She doesn’t know that he knows that they don’t know what he knows about that other guy knows about them—no, I’m not describing a Friends episode.

The Review: The first story arc of any new ongoing can be the most critical for the title’s livelihood.  Besides setting the tone and mission statement for the series, it also determines the loyalty of its first-generation readers.  A strong leading storyline can establish a fanbase that forgives possibly weaker arcs down the line; a poor or even mediocre lead wards readers away, so even with dramatic improvements, there’s no audience to help it survive.

This issue detonates a ticking time bomb that’s been lurking in the team’s midst, and the fallout is tremendous.  The revelation of Toby’s specific connection to Spider is definitely unexpected (using some complicated, but ingenious identity-transfer logistics).  But the twist at the end—the way his use of the Menthor helmet ultimately turns on him—really plays brilliantly.  It pays tribute to the original Menthor and elevates Toby from your typical smart-alec to mentally fractured dark horse—a big promotion for an already entertaining character.

T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents #3 – Review

By: Nick Spencer (writer), Cafu (feature penciller), Bit (feature inker), Santiago Arcas (feature colorist), Howard Chaykin (flashback artist), Jesus Aburtov (flashback colorist)

The Story: As the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents make their next move against Spider, the many lives of NoMan come to light, with betrayal on both fronts.

The Review: Any time a new team of heroes gets together, you’re going to have a mix of rookies and the old vanguard.  Sometimes the conflicts between the two pop up further down the line, but sooner or later, the ghosts of the team’s past will come to haunt them.  From the beginning you had the sense that some old history was definitely at work behind the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents’ current mission.  After this issue, you’ll know if these new Agents survive, they’ll be rising from the ashes of their predecessors.

Nick Spencer continues to use flashbacks to furnish the backgrounds for the characters, but this time around he’s beginning to lay the path for those old ghosts to walk on.  NoMan’s past comes across as particularly chilling, but speaks to Spencer’s writing talent.  For frequent readers of superheroes, it’s easy to take the origins and science of their powers lightly.  Spencer takes some major steps to show the price of these extraordinary abilities, and in doing so, sets the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents apart from the rest of their DC counterparts.  NoMan’s increasing inability to feel as a side effect of his constant body-switching is shown to horrifying effect.

As effective as these flashbacks are at giving you a grasp on these characters, they also deaden the pace of the present story.  The current mission just inches forward with each issue, and with all the page-time devoted to the past, the logistics of the current mission tend to get lost in the shuffle.  So far, all you know is that the original Raven has been captured and the Agents are out to get him back.  But so little time has been spent explaining the risks and importance of the mission that it all feels very low-stakes and there’s hardly any suspense at all.