Deluxe Comics; $2.00

In 1984, David Singer’s Deluxe Comics launched Wally Wood’s T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents. Printed on nice paper and aimed clearly at the burgeoning comic book specialty market, Singer and company attempted to replicate the caliber of Tower Comics’ all-star line-up with one of their own.

Roy and Dann Thomas, George Pérez, Dave Cockrum, Steve Ditko, Keith Giffen, Jerry Ordway, Stan Drake, Steve Englehart, Murphy Anderson, Tom and Mary Bierbaum, Ron Lim, and Roger McKenzie were among those who plied their crafts for the upstart publisher.

The results were spectacular, far surpassing anything else that’s been done with the characters since the original Tower Comics days, which featured the main THUNDER Agents title and spin-offs Dynamo, NoMan, Undersea Agent.

The first issue itself was stunning, particularly for Marvel and DC fans attracted to the issue by the phenomenal George Pérez cover (and his superb Raven story). The content was on par with what the major publishers were producing at the time. Some of it was actually better than the Big Two.

As with the original series, which included the death of an agent, there were consequences of the heroes using their powers. Whether it was Pérez on Raven, Ditko on No-Man, Giffen on Lightning or any of the others, all of the main characters got time in the spotlight and the creators made it pay off for the readers.

It was this issue and the four that followed – and not the original series – turned me into a T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents fan. My reverence for the originals came later, I have to admit.

There was just one problem. Singer claimed T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents were in the public domain. John Carbonaro claimed otherwise and filed suit. The US District Court found in favor of Carbonaro, and he received all rights to Wally Wood’s T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents. Despite the obvious failing associated with the series, Deluxe Comics’ tenure with the characters is widely considered the best since Tower Comics original series.

DC’s otherwise beautiful hardcover reprints, The T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents Archives, hit a major snag with the quality of the reproductions in Volume 7, the one that reprinted the Deluxe series, so you’re way, way better off tracking down this one and the other four as individual issues.

– J.C. Vaughn