I wasn’t impressed with the first issue of Thunder Agents. It seemed all too overdone and very fast paced. I mean Len Brown gets into crime, is recruited for Thunder, takes on the belt, picks the name Dynamo, and is on his first mission. This is all issue one. I get that you need to dive into the action, but why even have the backstory then. We could have dove right into a mission and then back tracked with the story. That is exactly why this issue worked out much better. With a few variations, this issue should have been the first one. It has a way better story from beginning to end. We enter the story with Lightning chained up in a secret Thunder station. Clearly, this place is not so secret any more. Iron Maiden has taken over its location and used it to her advantage with the Agents. Kat Kane is in charge of the mission; her job is to get back the Agents. She has a flashback of her childhood and right away you know something is up with this flashback. Obviously, these characters will come back into play...very soon. That isn’t the point. The point is why these characters come back? What happened to turn them evil and to turn Kat good? The comic did exactly what I was hoping for; a present day that builds from unknown reveals.

Dynamo is learning really quick the ins and outs of Thunder. I still find it a little crazy that they let this fool start a mission so soon, but that is just me thinking that being an agent has got to be more rigorous. Anyway, he meets lots of agents out in the field. One is even doubling crossing Iron Maiden and has been for a while. I am starting to think that Thunder is way bigger than expected and also with so many agents there has to be more double crossing going on. All these people have to say is “Oh I am with Thunder”, and Dynamo believes them right away. This has to hurt him eventually. It would be disappointing to find out that the comic is doing this for nothing. It leaves vacancies and may be the reason why this comic will never hit a high note.

Dynamo does finally get to Iron Maiden and the fight scene isn’t too shabby. Lots of evil looks with “bangs”, “krrshs”, “pwangs”, and so on. I always like when comics put in these noises for us. It brings it to life and reminds me of my younger days watching Batman on TV Land. This whole comic just reminds me of old comics. It has that vibe with the simple stories. It isn’t a bad thing necessarily, but if I wanted to read old Thunder Agents I would read the old Thunder Agents. All in all I will have to see how this Kat flashback works out and maybe this comic will hit some marks that I have set. Otherwise just read this if you are a huge fan of Thunder.

Score: 3/5

Writer: Phil Hester Artist: Andrea Di Vito Publisher: IDW Publishing Price: $3.99 Release Date: 9/18/13