T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents: Vol. 1

In this relaunch of a Silver Age superhero comic, two young agents, Colleen Franklin and Toby Henston, are assembling a new T.H.U.N.D.E.R. (The Higher United Nations Defense Enforcement Reserves, in case you were wondering) team after losing almost all the members of the last one. If the prospects accept, they will receive superhuman abilities, but they will also face debilitating physical side effects and all but certain death. As a result, the chosen few are desperate men whose need to redeem themselves is stronger than their fear of death. Creative team Spencer and CAFU throw the reader into the middle of several situations at the start of this volume, and then flash forward and backward throughout the narrative, from the original mission in which teammate Raven was lost to Colleen’s and Toby’s recruitment pitches to their prospects, all the way back to the original 1960s T.H.U.N.D.E.R. team. The main narrative, drawn by CAFU, is finely detailed, almost delicate at times, but still capable of dynamic action sequences, while the backstories are drawn by other artists, with varying degrees of success. The lack of a continuous narrative gives the development of characters and relationships a fragmented feel, but the plot twists are satisfying. (Dec.)