Or - “Strong Instincts Got Me Where I Am Today…”

Which is to say, the position of “Ineffectual Middle Management Suckup” with a part-time job at a comic store and a gig writing on the intarwebs.  I will not say that I’m always right about whether or not a comic series will succeed.  I rooted for Martian Manhunter, after all, and was a big fan of the recently deceased Shadowpact series.  But, barring the occasional title for which I have an inexplicable fondness, my comic-picking thought process has a not-too-terrible batting average.  When this book was advertised, I suspected that we’d be in for one of two possible rides: either we’d have the Alex Ross ‘Marvels’ experience (in which we were treated to loving examinations of iconic characters) or the Alex Ross ‘Universe X’ experience (in which we were inundated with hundreds of masked characters who were well-designed but essentially ciphers.)  I hoped for the first, but expected the second…  and one of my instincts was dead on.

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Or - “The GREEEEEN…   LAAAMAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!”

One of the great mysteries of the universe is the nature of “Public Domain.”  At one point, a couple of decades ago, the rumor went around the comics industry that the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents were in public domain, and we suddenly got four or five different takes on reviving the characters.  Most of the characters in this book are also being published sporadically by AC Comics in their Femforce series and related titles, and many of them were revived by DC/Wildstorm in Alan Moore’s Terra Obscura spinoff from Tom Strong.  If you’re a comic ephemera geek like me, you may find this a little bit confusing…  The vast majority of readers will see these characters for the first time here… and that’s both good AND bad.

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