T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents
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T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents is a team of comic book superheroes originally published by Tower Comics in the 1960s. They were an arm of the United Nations and were notable for their depiction of the heroes as everyday people whose heroic careers were merely their day jobs, as well as featuring some of the better artists of the day, notably Wally Wood. They first appeared in T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents #1 (November 1965).
The name is an anagram for "The Higher United Nations Defense Enforcement Reserves".
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Publication history
T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents was a bimonthly comic book published by Tower Comics. It ran 20 issues, from November 1965 to November 1969, plus several short-lived spin-off series starring several of the more popular super agents (Dynamo and NoMan). The series' creation is often attributed to artist Wally Wood, though it was actually created by a group of Tower editors and creators. The name was inspired by the acronym-based spy groups of the 1960s, notably The Man from U.N.C.L.E..
Following Tower Comics' demise, the rights to the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents were bought by John Carbonaro, who published several issues of a new series in 1983 under his JC Comics line, the last of which was published thru Archie Comic's Red Circle Comics line.
In 1984, Deluxe Comics published five issues of a new series, Wally Wood's T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents, featuring some of the best artists of the era, including George Pérez, Dave Cockrum, Keith Giffen, Murphy Anderson and Jerry Ordway. However, Deluxe had been under the impression that the group was in the public domain, and a lawsuit by Carbonaro determined otherwise, and ended with Deluxe Comics' demise in 1986.
In the later 1980s, Solson Comics produced one issue of T.H.U.N.D.E.R., a planned 4-issue series which was never completed.
Another revival was attempted by Carbonaro in OMNI Comics #3 (1995), but was never continued beyond that issue.
In the early 2000s, DC Comics planned to release a new T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents series under license from Carbonaro. The new series never materialized, but DC did begin publishing reprints of the original Tower series in their hardcover archives format. As of 2004, three volumes have been published.
Toomorrow Publications will be releasing a booklength history of the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents, printed previously unpublished work.
Fictional history
(forthcoming)
Members
Super agents
The T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Squad
- Weed
- Kitten
- Egghead
External Links
- International Catalogue of Superheroes entry for THUNDER Agents (http://www.internationalhero.co.uk/t/thunder.htm)
- Official THUNDER Agents site (http://www.thunderagents.com)