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 #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.