Weekly Comic Book Review

By: Nick Spencer (writer), Cafu (main penciller), Bit (main inker), Santiago Arcas (main colorist), George Perez (penciller), Scott Koblish (inker), Blond (colorist)

The Story: Dynamo learns firsthand being a T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agent isn’t all it’s cracked up to be—not that it was much to begin with.

The Review: “Less is more.”  This old bromide has been tossed around for Lord knows how long, but its practical implications are as relevant as ever—especially so for comics.  It is, after all, a medium that places equal weight on text and art.  When writers go even a little overboard with the words, the comic gets dragged down in a hurry.  In those cases, it’s frequently best to cut back on the narration and let the art and reader’s imagination do some of the storytelling.

Spencer could have gotten a lot more done by applying that lesson to this issue.  By now, we’ve all had it hammered to us over three issues that there’s a price to being a T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agent and that price is death.  This point hasn’t only been told to us, it’s been illustrated with very effective, chilling detail.  It’s easy to understand the importance of emphasizing this major distinction between the Agents and the rest of the superhero teams out there.

But now it just feels like Spencer is preaching to the choir, and that’s a waste.  Consider this issue’s opening sequence—it’s executed well and offers a few useful pieces of info about the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. program and Dynamo’s powers.  But if you take a step back, you realize that’s five pages devoted to exposing information you mostly know already, which means five pages avoiding the action at large.  And there really hasn’t been much action to spare since this series began.  Even by issue’s end, you’re still left in the first—what?—fifteen minutes of the mission.

Even more problematic is a whole page devoted to Toby’s sales pitch.  Again, there’s nothing wrong with the way it’s written.  It just feels like we’ve heard this speech before, three issues ago, and the only real payoff from having it redone is Dynamo’s deadpan, “So what’s the money like?”  Like I said, the scene itself plays well and there’s a lot of humor and character work that follows it.  Still, that makes you foam even more at the mouth to get newer material instead of this old news.  You just really want to see Spencer give you more of the unexpected.

Like the curve ball he throws at you on the last page.  Now, I have to confess—I did not see that coming.  Well, the first inklings of suspicion popped up in that conversation between Colleen and Toby, where you really got a good show of Toby’s salesmanship (read: string-pulling).  But still, the revelation of how deep Spider has sunk its fangs into the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents still hits you in the gut.  If only there were more of these twists (and more about what the stakes of this mission really are), this issue would have knocked it out the park.

At least Cafu and Co. keep hitting winners on the art side.  That brutal splash of Dynamo ripping into Spider drones sells his super-strength like no Superman panel I’ve seen lately.  Imagery like that makes it even more frustrating to see a full page of Toby close-ups.  Joining Cafu on art is the impeccable George Perez, who can still draw densely populated, richly detailed scenes like no one else.  It’s a terrific homage to the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents legacy.

Conclusion: The plot still seems to be dragging its heels in mud, but at least it feels like we’re finally getting somewhere.  The strength of the writing and art team can only do so much to cover up a plodding story, however.  It’s time to go big or go home.

Grade: B

- Minhquan Nguyen

 

Filed under: DC Comics, Reviews Tagged: | Bit, Blond, Cafu, Colleen Franklin, DC Comics, Dynamo, George Pérez, Nick Spencer, Santiago Arcas, Scott Koblish, Spider, T.H.U.N.D.E.R. #4 review, T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents, T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents #4, T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents #4 review, Toby Henston