T.h.u.n.d.e.r. Agents #3

We're amidst a recession, apparently the worst since The Great Depression (so great that each word gets capitalized). What has the comic book industry done in the last few years? Yep, raise prices. Most books are $3.99 now. DC Comics decided to launch a new campaign this year. It's called “Drawing the Line at $2.99.” All DC books are a buck cheaper now. What they aren't telling you is that all their books have been cut from 22 pages to 20. It's good and bad I suppose. I read most comics in a matter of minutes, so even three bucks seems an outrage, but you have to factor in that it takes most artists one day to draw a single page (the average number of weekdays in a month is 22...so that's where the page count came from). Plus most books have a writer, an inker, a colorist, a letterer, and a few editors and sometimes a cover artist. It's not cheap to create a book and comics aren't as popular or profitable as they used to be. I do hope that the $2.99 price cut gets a few people to check out this book, the newest incarnation of the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents. It was created in the 60's and has a long history at various companies, but I'm new to it and I think that it's a terrific book. Superstar writer Nick Spencer (Morning Glories) is on board and artist Cafu (yes, his name is Cafu) is doing some great, clean, exciting work. The premise is that the U.S. Government gives regular people super powers to pull off jobs that nobody else wants to do. The catch is that these super powers will eventually kill them. Would you be a superhero if you knew you'd only be a star for a few years? That concept is lurking in the background at the moment while two crack agents are setting up the new team. Spencer has done a phenomenal job with the dialogue and the pacing so far. It's definitely an intriguing and unusual book but it's also weird, fresh, and entertaining. The one problem I had with this issue is that the character NoMan is way too similar to Alan Moore's Dr. Manhattan. Once I learned that he actually pre-dates Watchmen I was pretty shocked. I've never heard of this book and even the great Alan Moore copied from it. That tells you right there that's it pretty damn special. ***