Thunder Agents #1 - JC Comics

Another odd entry, this is the one and only issue of T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents, published by then-owner of the rights to the characters John Carbonaro.

How these characters came to be owned by seemingly a dozen different publishers is a long and complicated story. I refer anyone interested to check out TwoMorrows' excellent issue of Comic Book Artist devoted to the characters (#14). At this point in time, though--1981--Carbonaro was publishing their adventures, and he started here.

The magazine consists of several stories featuring the Agents Dynamo, No-Man, The Raven, and Lightning, mostly with art by then-newcomer Mark Texeira and a writer/artist named Pat Gabriele. Then why does it highlight Adams and Kirby on the cover, you ask?

Well, somehow JC Comics got the rights to publish some old Archie superhero material, so after all the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents stuff is two pages of The Fly, by Simon and Kirby; and then a ten-page Black Hood strip written by Gray Morrow(!), and drawn by Neal Adams and Dick Giordano. While one could argue the honesty of putting Adams and Kirby's name so prominently on the front cover when their work is just some quckie reprints, I find the bigger problem is their material outclasses what's supposed to be the selling point--the return of the Agents!

Apparently most readers felt the same, since there never was another issue of the magazine. Soon after they appeared in standard-size comics and down the nightmarish road of ownership disputes, never to turn back...