T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents

[Jeff of Earth-J]

When I was young, I had always heard that the prerequisite for comic book fandom was owning a complete set of All Star Comics featuring the JSA, and that for second generation fandom it was Wally Wood's T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents. Because we now live in the Golden Age of Reprints, I am able to own both of those series, in hardcover. [NOTE: the title is an acronym for "The Higher United Nations Defense Enforcement Reserves," but don't expect me to continue putting the periods behind each initial throughout this discussion.] DC started releasing the series in archival format in 2002 (wow, has it really been 20 years?), but I only ever got as far as midway through volume three (which I know because my bookmark is still in that volume where I left off and volume four is still in its shrinkwrap). Because the first  of my Comic Collecting Precepts is "Don't buy what you don't read," it is my intention to read my way through volume eight during the course of this discussion.

I have a bad habit of, when returning to an abandoned reading project, starting over at the beginning. Or I should say I used to have that problem, because I resolved in 2009 to always pick up where I left off when returning to an unfinished project. I have been pretty good about adhering to that plan over the intervening years, but this time I am going to start at the beginning because it has been so long since I last attempted it. I have read this first volume at least three times, IIRC: once when it was released, once when v2 was and once when v3 was. So I've read v2 twice, but only the first half of v3. In addition, I have read T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents - Best of Wally Wood hardcover at least twice. 

But because I have started a discussion of the series, I shall start with issue #1. I don't know how much I'm going to have to say about these early issues, but here we go.

ISSUE #1:

"FIRST ENCOUNTER": The four-page introductory story (by Larry Ivie and Wally Wood), sets up the premise: Professor Jennings has been killed by the forces of the Warlord, but a United Nations task force manages to salvage prototypes of three devices the professor had been working on: an "electron molecular intensifier belt," an invisibility cloak and a cybernetic helmet designed to amplify the wearer's brain power.

DYNAMO: Len Brown is chosen to wear the "Thunder Belt" (as it has been dubbed). "Len Brown" is also the name of the scripter; the artist is Wally Wood. The first thing Brown (the fictional one) does with the belt is to punch through a brick wall, a Wally Wood trademark. This story also introduces Dynamo's femme fatale, the Iron Maiden, one of the Warlord's lieutenants. He can wear the belt only for a short time without causing damage to his body. At the end of this first story, he is captured.

NOMAN: Doctor Dunn is the aging scientist who invented a series of androids into which a human mind can be transferred. The catch is, although the mind can be transferred from android to android, the switch from human to android is one way. Dunn transfers his mind into one of the four android bodies shown, allowing his human body to die. For some reason, in addition to having an android body, it is decided that Dr. Dunn also receive the invisibility cloak. He adopts the identity of "NoMan" and is perhaps the most inept agent in all of THUNDER. 

I don't know how much these android bodies cost or how many of them there are, but the one thing I remember about NoMan from the few issues I have read is that he loses a body in almost every story. In this story, NoMan is sent after the Sub-Men of Demo, another of the Warlord's lieutenants. He sets out in a car with a spare body in tow, almost as if he expects to lose a body. (The spare body is incorrectly drawn with a one-of-a-kind invisibility cloak of its own.) NoMan is defeated, his body's "mechanism's demolished." He transfers his mind to the spare body waiting in the car (now correctly drawn sans cloak). He returns to the lab to find Demo and his assistant fled and to retrieve the cloak.

The art is by Reed Crandall and Wally Wood. So far, the agents are oh for two. A text story follows, but I never read those.

MENTHOR: Mr. Janus, the man chosen to wear the cybernetic helmet, is a double agent for the Warlord. You'd think the name "Janus" might have clued someone in, but the Guardians didn't pick up on "Sinestro" so maybe not. Like the thunder belt, the helmet cannot be worn for long without damaging the wearer. It gives him telekinesis and the ability to fire "brain blasts." One more thing: the "H" in Menthor is silent, pronounced "mentor" (but that spelling means something else). I can't tell you the number of time I've heard someone pronounce the "TH" as in "menthol" rather than "Neanderthal." The art is by Gil Kane (with George Tuska and Mike Esposito).

THUNDER SQUAD: A non-powered group of operatives (Guy, Dynamite, Kitten, Weed and Egghead) with art by Mike Sekowsky. 

DYNAMO: The conclusion to the Dynamo story earlier in the issue, in which Menthor, NoMan and the THUNDER Squad team-up to save him. NoMan loses another android body, the second in a single issue.

I've never seen an actual copy of issue #1 (outside a bag), but I am disappointed at the reproduction value of this entire first volume; it's kind of murky.

[Jeff of Earth-J]

ISSUE #17:

(Nice purple cover.)

DYNAMO: Another story played strictly for laughs, as the unknown writer practices his alliteration by reintroducing the Hyena: "Remember the laughing lawbreaker who almost outwitted our wily Weed?" In the previous issue's Dynamo story, Roxanne hair was blonde. I assumed that that was a coloring error, but I'm sure it's done here in order to recreate a visual joke from Harvey Kurtzman and Will Elder's "Starchie" from Mad ##12. ("My gosh, Bottleneck!... Can't you see how utterly... completely different Salonica is from Biddy! Look at the drawing ion the faces... the lips... both so different!") 

The problem with stories such as this are that Tower can't seem to make up its collective mind whether THUNDER Agents is Nick Fury and his Agents of SHIELD or Captain Marvel. That's the disconnect: if only Wally Wood had hired C.C. Beck to illustrate stories of this nature. Ironically, Wood himself could do humor; witness his own tenure on Mad. 

NOMAN: This is a pretty much by-the-numbers superhero yarn in which NoMan is pitted against King Locust and his swarm of giant, robotic locusts. If this issue's NoMan story would have been better served if drawn by C.C. Beck, this one should have been drawn by Dick Sprang.

WEED: Another story played strictly for laughs.

DYNAMO: This story sees the return of Demo, Dr. Sparta, Mastermind, Tarantula and Mayven, but it's reads like an issue of The Mighty Crusaders. SPIDER ends up with Menthor's helmet and Demo claims it. He uses it to control Dynamo but, when the THUNDER Agents take out Dynamo, the backlash fells Demo. "What Demo didn't know," NoMan explains, "is that anyone wearing the helmet would suffer a sympathetic shock reaction... to anyone in his direct control... like when we blasted Dynamo." The helmet goes bouncing off into another room, where a mysterious arm (presumably Dr. Sparta's) picks it up.

What, this issue has only four stories? 

[Captain Comics]

When Andor sets eyes on Kitten, he rips the control helmet off his head, thereby breaking Uru's control, and kidnaps her. 

They speed up his metabolism and almost kill him... until NoMan leads Guy to believe that Kitten is in danger. Guy rallies, burn the hallucinogens out of his system and capture the Tornado.

Dynamo has also pursued Kitten and been motivated to go above and beyond to save her. I guess when you're a woman drawn by Wally Wood, no man can resist you. (Did she ever reciprocate with any of these men?)

Also, it should be mentioned that Dynamo is a bit of a slut. Alice, Roxanne, "Rusty," Kitten ... if she's female (and drawn by Wood), he tries to date her.

Diana Dawn: "Now that you look human, I've got to re-examine my feelings about you. No, I mean it! You're beautiful! Just beautiful!" "

Linda Rogers: "Brrr... it's cold! Aren't you cold?... Put your arm around me! I'm freezing!"

Wait, even NoMan has two girlfriends?

If only Wally Wood had hired C.C. Beck to illustrate stories of this nature.

Camp Syndrome had throughly infiltrated THUNDER Agents by this point. So few stories were serious that Beck would have been drawing most of the book. And, honestly, I preferred the serious ones. 

 Ironically, Wood himself could do humor; witness his own tenure on Mad. 

And Witzend.

This story sees the return of Demo, Dr. Sparta, Mastermind, Tarantula and Mayven, but it's reads like an issue of The Mighty Crusaders.

Blergh.

What, this issue has only four stories? 

Tower is winding down.

[Jeff of Earth-J]

"Did she ever reciprocate with any of these men?"

She dated Guy once or twice.

"And, honestly, I preferred the serious ones."

Oh, definitely. It's just that there's such a disconnect between what I expected this book to be and what it eventually became. 

"Tower is winding down."

...in lockstep with "Batmania."

[Dave Elyea]

The fifth story in THUNDER Agents #17 was a reprint of "First Encounter" from the first issue.  Most of the remaining issues will be padded out with reprints.

It's funny, I always think of Guy & Kitten as a couple, but rereading the comics, they don't seem to have been.  It seems odd that Guy seems to have less of a love life than NoMan.  Kitten actually seems to spend more time with Weed than anyone else--maybe they were secretly a couple?

[Richard Willis]

ISSUE #17:

DYNAMO:

In the previous issue's Dynamo story, Roxanne hair was blonde. I assumed that that was a coloring error, but I'm sure it's done here in order to recreate a visual joke from Harvey Kurtzman and Will Elder's "Starchie" from Mad ##12. ("My gosh, Bottleneck!... Can't you see how utterly... completely different Salonica is from Biddy! Look at the drawing ion the faces... the lips... both so different!") 

Roxanne started out a redhead. Now they’ve changed her and Rusty into blondes. Also, Alice has short hair for the first time. . (and probably the last).

“That’s not your concern”

“But Chief, if I don’t know what it is or what it looks like, how can I tell if he stole it?”

I guess if they told Len the plan he might give it away.

NOMAN:

This is a pretty much by-the-numbers superhero yarn in which NoMan is pitted against King Locust and his swarm of giant, robotic locusts. If this issue's NoMan Dynamo story would have been better served if drawn by C.C. Beck, this one should have been drawn by Dick Sprang.

A U.S. general (2 stars, not even 4) is ordering the Chief around. This doesn’t make sense.

When I was in the Army you-know-where, I was sitting on my bunk reading a book. Then a grasshopper was sitting on the book. Then two more showed up. Then several more. It was late, so I said the hell with it, got under the mosquito net and called it a day.

WEED:

Another story played strictly for laughs.

Nothing to say.

DYNAMO:

SPIDER ends up with Menthor's helmet and Demo claims it. He uses it to control Dynamo but, when the THUNDER Agents take out Dynamo, the backlash fells Demo. "What Demo didn't know," NoMan explains, "is that anyone wearing the helmet would suffer a sympathetic shock reaction... to anyone in his direct control... like when we blasted Dynamo

I don’t think the backlash came up before. How would they know this? They shoot him with a bazooka. A recent story said that that type of hit would kill him.

What, this issue has only four stories? 

GCD tells me that it reprinted the first THUNDER story from issue #1 (4 pages).

The four new stories remain at ten pages, so story pages were cut. The next two issues will have the same format. The last issue, #20, will only have two new stories.

[Jeff of Earth-J]

"The fifth story in THUNDER Agents #17 was a reprint of "First Encounter" from the first issue."

Ah. The archives don't include the reprints. Thanks, Dave.

"GCD tells me that it reprinted the first THUNDER story from issue #1"

...and Richard.

[Jeff of Earth-J]

ISSUE #18:

[NOTE blurb on cover touting "Menthor" reprint.]

Three of this issue's four new stories feature Dynamo.

1ST DYNAMO: This Ditko story (featuring "The Amazing Mr. Mek!") is highly reminiscent of his pre-Spider-Man "suspense" type stories (power corrupts a mild-mannered man and he pays the price). 

NOMAN: "Professor Reverse" has invented a de-evolution gun, which changes men into cavemen, housecats into sabretooth tigers, birds into pterodactyls and common lizards into tyrannosaurs. One of NoMan's bodies gets chewed up by a t-rex. I had to go all the way back to #14 to update the count, but this brings it up to...

Total NoMan bodies lost: 52

2ND DYNAMO: Another retro-story, visually reminiscent of EC's Valor (which is appropriate since it was drawn by Reed Crandall), but quite fanciful, like a "Marvel Family" story. Dynamo is buried in an avelance and wakes up in ancient Rome. He awakens with amnesia, and a woman speaks to him in Latin. "Quo vadis?" she asks. "Cave canum" [sic] (which means, "Where are you going? Beware of the dog").  "Hey, that sounds familiar!" thinks Len. "I studied it somewhere." Of all the extraordinary things which happen in the story, the most unbelievable is that Len Brown speaks Latin! After spending a few days there, he gets buried in a cave in. When he digs his way out, he's back in the present. the final twist is that he's been gone for two months.

3RD DYNAMO: Something in Nepal is causing satellites to veer off course and burn up on re-entry. Dynamo investigates reports of abominable snowmen sightings in the area and his belt  is stolen on the first night. He also meets red-headed British Secret Service agent Carnaby Mod. (We know she's British because she says things such as "Coo" and "Guv" and "Ducky.") "I'm ashamed to tell her I'm Dynamo now," decides Len. "and I'd better not tell THUNDER I lost the belt--there's be the devil to pay." The next day they are captured by the Chinese "Red Lama" in disguise as a Tibetan monk, who has been using Yeti robots to frighten natives. He recovers his belt and defeats the red Lama, but Carnaby is re-captured by one of the robot Yeti. the "twist" (if you can call it that) is that she was captured by a real abominable snowman. 

[Richard Willis]

ISSUE #18:

[NOTE blurb on cover touting "Menthor" reprint.]

GCD tells me that this is “A Matter of Life and Death!” from T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents #7.
the indexer notes say "Last two pages are in black and white on inside back and back cover."

1ST DYNAMO: This Ditko story (featuring "The Amazing Mr. Mek!") is highly reminiscent of his pre-Spider-Man "suspense" type stories (power corrupts a mild-mannered man and he pays the price).

Though he threatened to bring down a passenger jet, it may have been an empty threat. After turning off Dynamo’s belt he stops the two SPIDER agents from shooting him. To finally stop them he fries their car with electricity from the building’s wiring.

NOMAN: "Professor Reverse" has invented a de-evolution gun, which changes men into cavemen, housecats into sabretooth tigers, birds into pterodactyls and common lizards into tyrannosaurs.

The first caveman looks more like a gorilla, and growls like one. I like that the sabretooth tiger isn’t stopped by NoMan’s invisibility, following him by scent. NoMan smartly confuses its nose by spilling gasoline (which is the only clever thing in the story). The general turning into a caveman is the only temporary change, so some zoo is getting a T-Rex and a sabertooth. The caption incorrectly says that NoMan has a personal hideout in a mountain. The professor also has a tweak to the device that lets him change himself into a caveman (not looking like gorilla) without losing his own mind, who inexplicably has superstrength.

2ND DYNAMO: Another retro-story, visually reminiscent of EC's Valor (which is appropriate since it was drawn by Reed Crandall), but quite fanciful, like a "Marvel Family" story. Dynamo is buried in an avelance and wakes up in ancient Rome.

Actually, this is supposed to be a pocket-sized Roman empire under the mountain.

He awakens with amnesia, and a woman speaks to him in Latin. "Quo vadis?" she asks. "Cave canum" [sic] (which means, "Where are you going? Beware of the dog"). "Hey, that sounds familiar!" thinks Len. "I studied it somewhere." Of all the extraordinary things which happen in the story, the most unbelievable is that Len Brown speaks Latin!

That jumped out at me, too.

After spending a few days there, he gets buried in a cave in. When he digs his way out, he's back in the present. the final twist is that he's been gone for two months.

As usual, it’s implied that Len is getting a lot of female attention. What bothered me is that when the gladiators and other slaves rise up to fight against the people who are cheerfully murdering them, they are referred to as “renegades” in the caption. I guess Ditko wasn’t the only one against protesters.

3RD DYNAMO: Something in Nepal is causing satellites to veer off course and burn up on re-entry.

Instead of satellites, the art shows Mercury Program astronaut capsules. I recently watched Attack of the 50 Foot Woman (1958), in which UFOs are referred to as satellites. The first Sputnik launched in late 1957 and the first communications satellite, Telstar, launched in 1962. There was some confusion back then.

Dynamo investigates reports of abominable snowmen sightings in the area and his belt is stolen on the first night.

Taking the belt off may be slightly more comfortable, but if I were him I think I’d wear it to bed. (He has just darling leopard-spotted pajamas)

He also meets red-headed British Secret Service agent Carnaby Mod. (We know she's British because she says things such as "Coo" and "Guv" and "Ducky.")

 ….and her name is Carnaby. She saves his unprepared butt from a cobra. Why doesn’t he carry a gun like her? I guess it would have been stolen, too.

"I'm ashamed to tell her I'm Dynamo now," decides Len. "and I'd better not tell THUNDER I lost the belt--there's be the devil to pay." The next day they are captured by the Chinese "Red Lama" in disguise as a Tibetan monk, who has been using Yeti robots to frighten natives.

Oddly, the Yeti robots (and the later real Yeti) have brown hair when you would expect creatures in a snowy area to have white hair. Dynamo claims he knew they were robots by sight, which I find hard to believe. The robots and the real Yeti all wear colored shorts.

[Jeff of Earth-J]

ISSUE #19:

As Tower winds down, no one even bothered commissioning a new cover. As with #18, #19 features three Dynamo stories and one NoMan.

1ST DYNAMO: Dr. Orgo of SPIDER has learned how to make android duplicates of THUNDER Agents with his Transformer device (although his Raven duplicate uses Manny Stallman's costume design, not Gil Kane's redesign). The action begins when the Chief assigns Dynamo to investigate a bomb threat at the U.N. "But Chief," protests Dynamo, "what if it's a hoax?" "Good point," the Chief responds. "Better just ignore it" (said no law enforcement executive ever). "Fooey!" protests Dynamo (to himself). "why do I get all the dumb jobs...?" (and Dynamo did actually think that). But the bomb threat was actually a ruse to get Dynamo away from the premises. When the real Dynamo returns, he finds the Chief dead and Alice missing. (I should mention at this point that THUNDER's security scanner did actually detect the android Dynamo.)

Having no clues to follow, Dynamo goes home. The SPIDER duplicate of the NoMan offers him a ride. Meanwhile, the "Chief" comes to life in the morgue during the autopsy and kills Dr. Brand. the real NoMan notifies Dynamo by radio while he's in the car with the fake NoMan. A fight ensues. At least eight other androids join the brawl, and Dynamo is overcome by sheer force of numbers when his belt clicks off. Back at SPIDER HQ, Dr. Orgo orders that the belt be removed, but is surprised to discover that it has no clasp.

"That's a little improvement we've made," Dynamo informs him. "It's one solid band of metal" (which actually raises more questions than it answers). Orgo, incorrectly assuming the belt is turned on, attempts to switch it off but actually switches it on, activating the reserve (we must assume, at this point, that the "five minute reserve" has replaced the "five minute warning"). Dynamo forces Orgo to have the androids destroy the lab, then march to the bottom of the sea. Dynamo then finds the Chief and Alice alive. Later, Len suggests THUNDER "may be able to come up with a jamming device" to prevent such a thing happening again.

The coloring of the SPIDER henchmen's uniforms varies from issue to issue, but this is the first time it has varies from the beginning to the end of the same story.

2ND DYNAMO: First of all. interesting splash page: three "widescreen" panels with the title, "Dynamo vs. the Ghost", spread across them and casting shadows on the ground. It depicts the ghost phasing through walls and Dynamo, in pursuit, smashing through them, and appears (to my eye) to have been drawn by different hands than the main story.

As the story opens, the chief introduces "recently promoted trainee" Tom Conroy to Len Brown. Conroy has been chosen to be the recipient of the "atomic polarizer" which "dematerializes the wearer's atomic particles by suspending their electromagnetic polarity!" It is not without its drawbacks, however. For one thing, the wearer must materialize in order to pick up objects, then "re-dematerialize" with the object inside the devices field. For another, should the wearer materialize within a solid object, doing so would cause a "tremendous atomic explosion." (I think Tower Comics thinks "atomic" means "really big"; that's how they've been using it all along.) Finally, the wearer must also wear a gravity belt to keep him from sinking into the ground. With the resolution to the story firmly foreshadowed, the story is ready to begin.

"Something about Conroy rubs me the wrong way!" Len confides to the Chief. Three panels later, Conroy, as The Ghost. is caught ransacking the Chief's office, thereby re-emphasizing THUNDER's lax security and vetting procedures. (Len's hunches are more accurate!) Alice takes a bullet meant for the chief and the Ghost escapes. Over the course of the next several days, the Ghost infiltrates "U.S. Defense installations, missile sites and the War Room under the Pentagon." THUNDER decides to set a trap, baited with "a full dossier on Russian and Red China missile bases" in the hope (with the expectation, really) that the Ghost will overhear. He does, but he also overhears that it's a trap. D'oh!

Dynamo locks himself in a safe hoping that "the Ghost shows up before these oxygen capsules are used up," but is surprised himself when the Ghost uses dynamite rather than trying to crack the safe. D'oh! I'm not sure how they thought the Ghost was going to open the safe in the first place, because Dynamo thinks, "I'll have to grab him at just the moment he materializes to grab the 'dossier' before he dematerializes again." It seems to me he'd have to materialize to crack the safe in any case. Anyway, Dynamo activates his belt as soon as he realizes the ghost plans to use dynamite. But the Ghost walked into their trap on purpose in order to spring one of his own. 

He leads Dynamo through the walls of THUNDER HQ and out onto the street where he is met by S.A.G., the "SPIDER Assault Group."  After Dynamo defeats them, the Ghost sics a robot on him. All this must have taken 59 minutes because suddenly Dynamo realizes "another minute and I'll have to turn on my five-minute reserve!" Dynamo defeats the robot and confronts the Ghost at his true objective, his personal file. "Ever since you were revealed as a SPIDER agent," Dynamo deduces, "you must have been anxious to cover your tracks for fear they'd lead us to SPIDER!" Wait a minute. Are we supposed to believe that something in his file indicated that he was a SPIDER agent and that THUNDER didn't catch it before assigning him to wear the atomic polarizer? If that's the case, THUNDER deserves to be infiltrated.

But Conroy doesn't understand how his own gravity belt works. Like Dynamo's thunder belt, it also runs out of power. I don't know if it, too, has a "five minute reserve" or not, but if so, the Ghost doesn't know about it, "so he'll just keep sinking till he hits the Earth's core... 4,000 miles down!" As far as Alice getting shot is concerned, "the next day" we learn that "it was close... but she's past the crisis."

3RD DYNAMO: Len Brown, apparently taking advantage of the fact that Alice is recuperating from a gunshot wound, meets Roxanne for lunch. Suddenly, he is accosted by a woman named Cynthia Updike, who lures him back to her apartment. It's a trap. of course, and, Len being Len, falls for it. He escapes, however, and returns to HQ to find that an "all-girl gang" has been terrorizing the city. The Chief receives a phone call which seems to upset him. Later, the THUNDER Agents receive vague assignments which scatter them far and wide. Dynamo, Dynamite and Weed are sent "to investigate the situation in Nebraska"; Raven is sent to "check out the situation in Buenos Aires"; and Lighting is sent to "see what's happening in Cambodia." 

Dynamo, Dynamite and Weed arrive in Nebraska to find nothing wrong, but are immediately redirected by the chief to Montreal. Dynamite and Weed follow orders, but Dynamo return to HQ (but I'm not sure how he got there since they all arrived in the same jet). Back in New York, Dynamo sees headlines that the all-girl gang has struck again. Suspecting something is wrong with the Chief, he calls the "electronic department" an authorizes a tap of the Chief's phone line (which doesn't seem like something a subordinate should be able to do, but this is THUNDER after all). Roxanne is on the line and informs him that she has been kidnapped (which raises the question of why he has been cooperating up to this point if he only just found out). 

Satana (Demo's former assistant and leader of the all-girl gang) instructs him to drop off a briefcase full of top secret documents in the park. Dynamo follows, but is stymied by the all-girl gang. "What can I do?!" he stammers. "I can't bash a girl! It's not... I can't..." They gas him and escape. He awakens in the office of the chief, who admits he had been following Satana's orders, but slipped a tracking device into the briefcase full of fake documents. Dynamo tracks the signal and somehow recognizes Satana as Cynthia Updike, even though she's wearing one of Marla Drake's old catsuits (which Selina Kyle would eventually buy in a Gotham City resale shop two decades later). Kitten is masquerading as one of Satana's A.G.G. and, when Weed turns out the lights, she takes Roxanne to "safety" (well, an old mine that Satana immediately discovers). 

Just as Satana is about to kill Bunny, Dynamo saves her life but still finds himself unable to "hit a girl." "Maybe not," comes a voice from off-panel, "but I can!" shouts Kitten as she tackles Satana. Dynamo makes a bad pun about the case being "wrapped up" as Dynamite and Weed throw a net over the A.G.G. Later, back at HQ, the Chief resolves to "face the music" for his actions.

NOMAN: SPIDER has "given" amnesia to Dr. Einzwei (Dr. "Onetwo"), "the world's foremost authority on electrical transmission and cybernetics," the practical upshot of which is that he can control THUNDER's matter transmitters remotely. In this story we learn that the super-agents all have matter transmitters installed in their homes. All of a sudden, after many examples of THUNDER Agents walking home in their costumes, it has become important that "no one must know that this building is THUNDER HQ... or be able to track you to your homes." NoMan has one, too, but doesn't use it; he simply transfers his mind to a more human-looking body at home. 

The next day, Dynamo, Lightning and raven are all late to work. Two hours later, NoMan arrives (he must be working a different shift...?) and the Chief asks him to use the transmitter, the only commonality in their disappearances. I don't know where NoMan thought he would end up, but it's in a cave in which the others are being held captive. Dr. Einzwei is really a good guy who has been told that the organization he now works for, "SPIDER Peace Central", are good guys, too. NoMan frees himself from his bonds and fight long enough that his android body is killed by SPIDER agents. Witnessing this is enough to shock Dr. Einzwei to his senses, and he ends up sacrificing his life to betray SPIDER to THUNDER. The Chief later reveals that THUNDER HQ is wired in such a way that, had SPIDER successfully invaded, he could have killed everyone in the building without harming any innocent bystanders. 

Total NoMan bodies lost: 53

[Captain Comics]

I wonder what the story is about these last two issues having no ads.

[Richard Willis]

Captain Comics said:

I wonder what the story is about these last two issues having no ads.

I don't know if the previous issues had ads, but it was probably an attempt at attracting a buyer to their 25-cent comic.

[Richard Willis]

Jeff, I just received my set of the eight IDW original comics. Did you get the TPBs?