T.H.U.N.D.E.R Agents are Back! (Again)
These Silver Age heroes are ready for their closeup.
Welcome the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents.
The U.N sponsored team of super operatives whose histories and origins are shrouded in mystery and shenanigans* from all sides are back and poised to be a movie in 2018.
NEW YORK, NY — October 10, 2015 — The sky was clear at New York Comic Con, yet T.H.U.N.D.E.R. dominated the news of the day as Huayi Brothers Media Corporation and Michael Uslan, originator and executive producer of the Batman film franchise, and producer David Uslan announced the first-ever branded super hero franchise to be backed by and developed with a major Chinese media company — T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents.
To the delight of a capacity crowd celebrating the 50th Anniversary T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents panel within New York Comic Con at the Javits Center, the Uslans and Huayi Brothers Media Corporation President James Wang made the announcement to expand the treasured franchise beyond comic books and into films, television, gaming and a host of other entities.
The T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents major motion picture is expected to hit theaters worldwide in 2018. Also present for the announcement was franchise producer David Uslan, who along with Michael Uslan have formed the production company, SHANGHOLLYWOOD, LLC; T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents executive producer David M. Matthews and the film’s screenwriters Ben Lustig & Jake Thornton; and representatives of the CEA Group, a partner in the franchise with a minority stake who arranged the deal between the Uslans and Huayi Brothers.
“The Higher United Nations Defense Enforcement Reserves — aka T.H.U.N.D.E.R.–Agents has a 50-year history of enthralling stories of true international heroes,” said Michael Uslan, executive producer of every Batman film since Tim Burton’s Batman in 1989. — Comic Book News
My experience with these characters required me to hunt through bargain bins, old comic houses where I fearfully battled spiders to lay claim to their dusty remnants of a forgotten age. I found a copy on my standard pick up day looking through the bargain bin for something different.
There was something about the art. Something compelling, the artist of the period Wally Wood had an economic style but there was something compelling in his delivery. After one exposure, I was hooked.
I loved them. Superheroes as a day job. These guys were part spy, part regular joe and when the situation demanded it, superheroes. Funny, smartly written for the time and the characters were very easy to relate to. What I liked most about them was they were all too human…
When you go and do your research (and you will) you’ll discover there are multiple versions of the comic, created by different companies and one version of them is actually owned by DC. Their history reads like a soap opera, but it only made them that much more interesting to me.
While the hero gig has been lucrative for the big boys at the House of Mouse and Warn-a-Brothers, are there any possibilities for new (or old) heroes on the field? T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents could hit the screen in 2018, but the question begs to be asked: Will anyone care by then?
Marvel will have produced twenty or so movies and DC might have cranked out four or five by then. Will there be any room for World War II era heroes telling tales already ground into the dirt by Marvel and DC?
Or can creative and innovative writing talents do what Marvel and DC have yet to really show us: Why we still care about superheroes seventy five years after they debuted?
Yes, people might say, Marvel has had some successes both financially and intellectually with their smartest and best plays being Iron Man and Captain America: Winter Soldier with the first Avengers movie making a strong play for third, but the rest of the Marvel bullpen of movies despite their economic heft have not been intellectually stimulating, and to hear some VFX folk talk not as visually gratifying as they could have been.
But to be fair to Marvel, some of their most potentially gratifying work is still in the pipeline. With their stunning release of Netflix’s Daredevil and their successful risk-taking with the basically unknown Jessica Jones, the pending release of Luke Cage and Iron Fist, Marvel is poised to be hotter than fish grease. Adding the Agents of Shield and Agent Carter to the line up, Marvel spans most of their Universe giving new meaning to the words “transmedia empire.”
DC has yet to really deliver anything people want to see in the burgeoning DC Extended (movie) Universe. The hotly contested Man of Steel, loved by some, spurned by many, has left lovers of the hero longing for the days of visible wire-work, plastic thrown S-shields and Christopher Reeves.
The Man of Steel sequel, Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, while promising to be visually stunning has turned from a sequel for Superman to redeem himself into the potpourri of not-yet-the Justice League with cameos for Aquaman, Cyborg and at least one kick-ass scene for Wonder Woman to rescue the Boys from Ang’s Lee Abomination (did someone buy the VFX from the Hulk at a discount?) shooting lasers from his eyes and mouth.
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Fan theories run wild as to the identity of the supposed Doomsday, but the visual effects for the creature look under-developed and a bit lazy. The rumor mill promises he will mutate along the way and become the Superman-killer we all know and love.
To be fair to DC, their television shows have good followings and are displaying a wide array of DC’s character stable with Team Arrow, Team Flash and CBS’ Supergirl and her promising first season. With Legends of Tomorrow and Constantine still looking for a home, superhero fans are literally at sea with the multitude of pickings available and yet — is there room for more?
Who are the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents?
T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents is a fictional team of superheroes that appeared in comic books originally published by Tower Comics in the 1960s. They were an arm of the United Nations and were notable for their depiction of the heroes as everyday people whose heroic careers were merely their day jobs. The series was also notable for featuring some of the better artists of the day, such as Wally Wood. The team first appeared in T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents #1 (cover-dated Nov. 1965). The name is an acronym for “The Higher United Nations Defense Enforcement Reserves”. A film adaptation is scheduled for release in 2018. — Wikipedia
T.H.U.N.D.E.R. (The Higher United Nations Defense Enforcement Reserves) is a secret organization formed after World War II to fight covert threats. When UN special agents storm a Professor Emil Jenning’s mountain laboratory to drive off the forces of the Warlord, they discover that Jenning has been killed and the Warlord’s soldiers have stolen his inventions. But there are a few they missed, which T.H.U.N.D.E.R. takes into custody. These inventions are super weapons to combat the Warlord by providing superpowers to whoever wears them:
Dynamo — Leonard Brown wears the Thunder Belt, which makes him super-strong and invulnerable for short periods
Menthor — John Janus gains mental powers from the Menthor Helmet. Actually a double agent for the Warlord, when he wears the helmet, he turns to good. After Janus dies in issue #7, two later agents wear the Menthor Helmet.
NoMan — Dying scientist Anthony Dunn transfers his mind into an android body of his own design. With a wide number of these identical bodies, he can transfer his mind to any of them should something happen to the one he is in. The addition of an Invisibility Cloak completes the transformation into NoMan.
Lightning — Virgil “Guy” Gilbert wears the Lightning Suit, which gives him super-speed but also ages him at an accelerated rate
Raven — Craig Lawson wears an experimental rocket pack
Undersea Agent — Lt. David “Davy” Jones and his daughter Theresa both wear the suit
Vulcan — Travis F. Riley is a sonic-powered agent
When I remember the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents, I was put in mind of the look of the Watchmen but far more hopeful, upbeat and damn it all to hell, fun. When I look at their costumes and their powers they remind me so much of the characters of the period who were more successful but this group had the potential to be contenders. In many ways they remind me of the Charleston heroes, Captain Atom, the Question and Blue Beetle; same color palettes, similar powers and similar themes.
I hope the writers don’t go grim-dark on this one. There is so much good in this series I just hope we aren’t too burned out on superheroes by the time the creators get their act together.Talking about them has me wanting to go out into my collection and read.
Look out spiders, I’m packing Raid this time. T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents here I come!
*Shenanigans regarding the THUNDER Agents included allegations of lost or improperly filed copyrights, public domain claims as well as various versions of the characters owned by different companies.
Tower Comics never registered its titles with the US copyright office, nor did it include a correct copyright notice on their books. The copyright notice on the first issue was not in the proper location of the book which under copyright law at the time of it’s publication had to be “either upon the title page or upon the first page of text of each separate number or under the title heading.”
Secondly, it was hidden in the artwork, which goes against the part of the law that stipulates that “The notice should be permanently legible to an ordinary user of the work under normal conditions of use and should not be concealed from view upon reasonable examination.” According to US copyright law, all works published between 1923–1977 that did not comply with copyright law became public domain upon publication. So, because the first issue had an incorrect notice, the characters fell into the public domain.
Only the Tower Comics version of the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents is in the public domain. All subsequent versions published by DC Comics, JC Comics, Deluxe Comics, etc. are NOT. Also the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents are currently trademarked by John Carbonaro’s estate (Carbonaro himself died in Febuaury 25, 2009).
Thaddeus Howze is a California-based technologist and author who has worked with computer technology since the 1980’s doing graphic design, computer science, programming, network administration and IT leadership.
His non-fiction work has appeared in numerous magazines: Huffington Post, Gizmodo, Black Enterprise, the Good Men Project, Examiner.com, The Enemy, Panel & Frame, Science X, Loud Journal, ComicsBeat.com, and Astronaut.com. He maintains a diverse collection of non-fiction at his blog, A Matter of Scale.
Thaddeus is a popular and well-read writer on the Q&A site Quora.com in over fifty various subjects. He is also a moderator and contributor to the Science Fiction and Fantasy Stack Exchange with over fourteen hundred articles in a four year period.
He is an author and contributor at Scifiideas.com. His speculative fiction has appeared online at Medium.com, ScifiIdeas.com, and the Au Courant Press Journal. He has a wide collection of his work on his website, Hub City Blues. His recently published works can be found here. He also maintains a wide collection of his writing and editing work on Medium.
