Modern Design, Throwback Building Materials
The Good: I have to start off with that cover. It's fantastic. One of the absolute best I've ever seen from Andy Kubert. The overall presentation is absolutely stunning, every space is filled up by something without it even coming close to feeling crowded, we get to see the whole team laid out, with subtle distinctions that let us know a bit about each and every one of them. Menthor is behind everyone, his helmet with it's mental radiance contrasting directly with his very formal business clothes, Colleen is posed like a girl who can kick ass when she needs to, but she's dressed more like a businesswoman, Thunder is poised clearly in a position about to run, Dynamo is ready to punch, and NoMan is fading away. Few of them are actually utilizing their powers, but their poses reveal so much to us, so new readers ease into these characters a bit easier. On a deeper layer, the balance of how focused or how large the character is shown on the cover runs deeply through with their importance. Your eyes begin either at the top or the bottom. You'll first focus on either thecentral glow on Methor's helmet radiating outwards, or NoMan's face centered so perfectly in the middle of the bottom. Either way, you'll scan through the cover and get a perfect equal feel for each character. Despite Menthor being small and in the back, and NoMan showing only his face in the front, nobody feels over or under exposed. Everyone appears to have gotten an equal share of the visuals on the cover, without needing to take the lazy route and just draw everyone the same size. Finally, the structure of the layout reveals importance through the issue. The most important characters this issue are Menthor and NoMan, the least visually represented, but the ones who draw the most focus. We see more of Menthor than anyone on the cover, but he's the smallest, while we see the least of NoMan, but he's drawn the largest. NoMan is the one who provides most of the plot for the scenes containing the field team, while Menthor takes the focus in the home field. Colleen is positioned right beside Methor, as she spends most of this issue close to him. Lightning and Dynamo both have medium focus on the cover and the issue, but again, Dynamo, closest to NoMan, does indeed do a little bit more than Lighting, who has the least notable features on the cover.
This is definitely either the most or second most I've ever talked about a cover, that's a great sign.
Wes Craig's art is great. He sometimes misses a beat with an occasional bad face, but he makes up for it with a unique softness, and subtle show of panle layout excellence. He generally does a top-notch-within-standard style, but at just the right moments, weaves things into a slightly more surreal mode to really heighten the tension. His layouts are chock full of little touches that help this series to really stand out.
Despite this being meant as a jumping on point, I'm really glad Spencer didn't make any recapping awkward. He's continuing exactly where he left off, he just sets up the story in a way that makes this feel like a good point to jump in, where you know the team has done other stuff before this, but not all of it is vital, and what is vital will be recapped to you through snippets of dialogue.
Another touch of brilliance to this series is the way the science feels seeped in a modern interpretation of '60s sci-fi. It doesn't feel dated, it just feels like that type of science, and that's another thing that makes this series feel so oddly original, while paying incredible homage to the original series.
The explanation of what Daniel is, is mindblowingly huge. There's a massive degree of potential weaved into the revelation, and it helps clear up A TON of odd things from the previous series.
The Bad: This is a pretty good start for new readers, but not the best. A ton of this issue deals with fallout from the first arc, and while some parts come as good reveals for new readers; the fates of the previous Raven and Colleen's mother; others seem like they'll be confusing for them; the discussions of Spider and Toby's brother. Normally this wouldn't be an issue if it wasn't an Issue #1. For anyone who read the previous series, completely disregard this flaw.
This complaint is similar to the last, and specifically hampered my experience with the issue, the reveal at the end is probably something extremely signficant to long time T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents readers, but held little impact for me, especially as the end of the issue. Maybe a tiny bit of exposition might help, and I did like how the name wasn't said outright by the protagonists, instead just realized as the chanting, but it made this issue's climax fall a bit short for me. Long time readers can probably disregard this flaw.
In Conclusion: 4.5/5
T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents is one of those throwback kind of series that doesn't just say 'Hey! Look at me! I'm a throwback!' That's not ALWAYS a bad thing, I quite enjoy O.M.A.C., but it's still around a 3.5/5 series. This is that kind of throwback that modernizes thigns without feeling too modern or too throwback; it just feels unique as hell. It's all about my favorite word here, Subtlety. It's kind of like the yin to the yang of Morrison's modernization of Superman, rebuilding Superman using the Golden Age's blueprints, but Modern Age materials. T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents is a series built on Modern Age Blueprints, with a belnd of 60's era superhero, espianoge, and sci-fi materials. It's equally britlliant and ground-breaking, just in a different and perfectly balanced way.
