| Title | : | Agents of Atlas |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0785127127 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780785127123 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Hardcover |
| Number of Pages | : | 256 |
| Publication | : | First published May 9, 2007 |
During the late 1950s, the U.S. government allowed FBI Special Agent Jimmy Woo to forge a team of unlikely heroes. Together, they stormed the fortress of a criminal mastermind to rescue President Eisenhower - but the group disbanded soon after. Now, almost 50 years later, an unauthorized S.H.I.E.L.D. mission goes down in flames - and from the ashes arise forces from the Golden Age of Marvel!
Collecting: Agents of Atlas 1-6
Agents of Atlas Reviews
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Weird - intentionally anachronistic and earnest, and god help me I'm not a fan of earnest writing. If you call it "pulp" does that immediately make the writing style and storyline more palatable? I guess I far prefer "sweeping" (Brubaker's Captain America) or "noir" (Allen's Scalped) to deliberately naive - which doesn't adequately capture what Parker accomplishes here, but is the impression I'm left with afterwards. I *want* to like his work more (he's a thoughtful, respected writer) but this just doesn't do it for me.
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"Agents of Atlas" is EXACTLY what a comic book should be like. Entertaining, colorful, optimistic and engaging! Jeff Parker and Leonard Kirk hit this one out of the park.
And this reasonably priced hardback is everything a reprint edition should be like. Not only does it reprint the six-issue limited series, but it also includes the character background material originally presented online AND the first appearances of each of the respective characters on Jimmy Woo's team from their Atlas Comics days, INCLUDING Marvel's "What If?" issue that sparked the editor and creative team's interest in producing the book in the first place.
Sparked by a failed--and unauthorized--S.H.I.E.L.D. raid on Atlas' H.Q., hidden beneath the streets of San Francisco, the members of a secret superhero team from the late 1950s gather once again to help their inspirational leader retrace his steps and discover his--and their--great destiny. And it's a doozy!
At a time when the tone and direction of 99.9% of mainstream comics feels like the emotional equivalent of wrestling a smilodon while sinking into a tar pit, "Agents of Atlas" restores your faith in the medium and carries you along on a wild, invigorating ride.
If you love comics, this book is for you. If you wonder why anybody with a brain enjoys comics, this book is proof that the medium is not just for dumb kids.
'Nuff said. -
Book Info: This collection contains
Agents of Atlas issues #1-6, and material from:
Yellow Claw issue #1,
Menace issue #11,
Venus issue #1,
Marvel Mystery Comics issue #82,
Marvel Boy issue #1,
Men's Adventures issue #26, and
What If? issue #9.
(Note: I only read the main six issues of the miniseries by Jeff Parker, so my review will only cover that specific material.)
ABSOLUTE RATING: {3.5/5 stars} (Rounded Up)
STANDARDIZED RATING: <4/5 stars>
In 1959, FBI agent Jimmy Woo and his eclectic team of "paranormals" launched an attack on the villainous Yellow Claw, and rescued President Eisenhower in the process. A couple months after, Woo's group was disbanded, and the agent eventually found himself working with S.H.I.E.L.D. for decades. Jimmy's latest mission, which he decided to keep secret from his superiors, had him storming a base for The Atlas Foundation in San Francisco. This criminal organization had been eluding Jimmy for years, and only growing larger and more sophisticated with time. During this raid, Jimmy and his strike team are attacked and severely burned, leaving him the sole survivor, and in critical condition. After being brought up to speed on Jimmy's condition by S.H.I.E.L.D. operatives, Gorilla Man (i.e. one of Jimmy's former teammates from the '50s) stages an elaborate rescue operation, and ends up snatching him right out from S.H.I.E.L.D. custody! Using advanced technology from Marvel Boy's flying saucer, Jimmy Woo's body is healed and his body "de-aged" by forty years. Lacking any memories following the disbanding of his team, Jimmy becomes a fugitive from S.H.I.E.L.D., and is determined to continue his investigation into Atlas and avenge his fallen comrades.
Okay. I know that was a lot of information I just got through, but there's a good reason for that; this six-part limited series is uncommonly information-packed, and once things get going, they don't really have the luxury of slowing down. I don't mean to give the impression that the book's overly complex or anything, but it's obvious the writer had a lot of setup to get through before
his follow-up series. And considering how much background Parker wanted to cover here, he does a surprisingly competent job of managing to include it comfortably without sorely undermining the story's central plot.
Agents of Atlas is a more light-hearted and optimistic comic book read than I usually prefer, which helps to explain its
Golden Age appeal. However, the book's "old-timiness" was casually achieved without feeling too deliberate, and the mild (but somewhat charming) corniness was tempered by a clever plot and interesting characters. I'd love to more regularly toss in a comic like this in-between my routine diet of harsh violence and grit, but sadly, I've found these kinds of books to be a rare breed; it's true they've got plenty of playfully nostalgic comics out there, but almost none of them are able to escape the inherent failings of the comics they're meant to emulate.
In the 40 years since they've seen Jimmy, it's clear that each member of his team has kept very busy. Parker doesn't quite take enough time away from things to explain everything that went on, but it was more than sufficient to provide me with a basic understanding of who they are, what they've been up to, and why they choose to stick with one another. Other than Jimmy, there's: Gorilla Man (a skilled soldier of fortune-turned-talking gorilla), M-11 (a robot fitted with extendable arms and a death ray), Marvel Boy (a stoic Uranian with telepathic abilities), and Venus (an immortal woman endowed with the power to control the emotions of others). The team lineup is strongly reminiscent to that of the Strongmen of America (from
Alan Moore's Tom Strong), and it seems *at least* as heroically versatile.
Even though he's not really a part of the team, S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Derek Khanata tags along with Jimmy and the gang, and actually takes over narration from issue #2 and beyond. Through his observations, readers are given insight into the team's emotional states and interpersonal relationships. The individual backstories of each of the five main heroes are scattered at different points within the volume. By glancing at the (wonderfully drawn) book covers for each of the issues, one can get a good idea of whose turn it is. Like I said before, the histories are brief, but they do indicate enough complexity and internal struggle to be built on in the future, or to warrant separate origin stories if the writer wanted.
From beginning to end, there were enough questions raised throughout the story that I honestly wondered at times whether Parker could possibly have time address them all; whenever he would take the chance to answer one, another would spring up. Combined with the fascinating origins and worldbuilding, this perpetual mystery kept me engaged. And whenever it got to be too much, I knew I could always fall back to the thoroughly-written recap pages at the beginning of each issue.
If only it wasn't so preoccupied with setting and character background, and took more time to focus on the central plot, this book probably would have gotten the full four stars. Still, it's a decent start to what I hope will turn out to be an imaginative and fun adventure comic book series. The world of Agents of Atlas is fertile ground for expansion, and I think Parker has proven himself up to the task of cultivating it. -
After being convinced by the considerable oratory powers of a staffer at my favorite comics shop, I took a chance and checked out the collected edition of the AGENTS OF ATLAS mini-series and the first six issues of the ongoing monthly book, and I'm hooked. No mean feat, since I'd pretty much lost faith in Marvel Comics.
AGENTS OF ATLAS is capably scripted by Jeff Parker and dredges up characters from Marvel's Golden Age, forging them into a team quite different from the by now rote Marvel supergroup that somehow manages to fight for the greater good when not being generally dysfunctional or bitching each other out. Lead by former FBI and S.H.I.E.L.D. operative Jimmy Woo — perhaps best remembered from Jim Steranko's NICK FURY: AGENT OF S.H.I.E.L.D. "Yellow Claw" arc, and also for being the rare (if not only) non-stereotypical Asian heroic leading man in 1950's comics — the team are bonded by a loyalty borne out of mutual respect for each other's skills, and it's refreshing to see a gathering of super-types who are all business. The Agents consist of:
JIMMY WOO & M-11, "THE HUMAN ROBOT"
The aforementioned former FBI and S.H.I.E.L.D. agent has been rejuvenated back to his twenties and wastes no time in re-assembling his team of adventurers from the 1950's. That task might sound like it would be a bit of a bitch when taking the passage of time into account, but this is comics and anything is possible. First showing up THE YELLOW CLAW #1 (1956), Woo has obsessively pursued that book's eponymous Fu Manchu knockoff throughout his career (when not accompanying Dum Dum Dugan in battle against the Marvel version of Godzilla in the 1970's), and now he discovers there's more to his game of cat an mouse with the dreaded criminal mastermind than he'd ever imagined... M-11, the imposing old school robot, is reminiscent of Gort from the classic version of THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL (1951) in both form and silent-but-deadly function and wields what can only be described as a "death ray." First appearing in MENACE #11 (1954), it gained the "human robot" sobriquet by fatally absorbing its creator's life force at its creators behest, in order to grant it free will and self-awareness. Now serving as one of the team's heavy-hitters, the robot also performs a wide variety of functions that render it an invaluable member of Woo's crew.
GORILLA MAN
The unwitting inheritor of an ancient legacy that rendered him both bestial and immortal, former solider of fortune Ken Hale is a highly accomplished military man and long-time S.H.I.E.L.D. agent who immediately fucks off from that international law enforcement organization when Jimmy Woo recruits him on his personal quest. Expert in hand-to-hand combat and use of firearms, those skills become even more formidable when coupled with the natural strength of an adult gorilla. Ken is also the team's resident wiseass and is very much reminiscent of Ben Grimm of the Fantastic Four (aka The Thing), only minus the hatred of his transmogrified status.
VENUS
The sweet-natured Venus is a beautiful woman whose voice bends humans to her will, regardless of gender or sexual preference, although heterosexual men are by far the most readily susceptible. Invaluable for defusing hostile situations due to her ability to spread a powerful feeling of loving and good vibes, Venus appears to be the actual figure from ancient mythology, but is she exactly what she seems? I ain't sayin' nuthin'...
THE URANIAN (aka the original MARVEL BOY)
Bob Grayson was originally an ordinary human from Earth whose Jewish scientist father fled with his infant son to the planet Uranus as Hitler came into power, and once there Bob and his father were absorbed into a colony of human-like Uranians who were later revealed to be an offshoot of Earth's own Eternals (waaaay too long of a story to explain here). Bob returned to his birth-world during his teens and, using Uranian super-science, battled crime as Marvel Boy, but has since undergone radical changes in his physiognomy and abilities, changes that make him no longer necessarily categorizable as human...
NAMORA
Representing for Atlantis as the "queen of the sea" and definitely the hardcore physical powerhouse of the Agents of Atlas, Namora is a human/Atlantean hybrid like her more famous cousin, Prince Namor, who's perhaps better known to the average surface-dweller as the Sub-Mariner. Able to fly, breathe underwater and swim at superhuman speed (making her a living torpedo), damned near invulnerable, powerful as a motherfucker, and armed with a nasty temper to boot (although she's on very good terms with the rest of the team), Namora is raw muscle on a scale that makes her foes blanch at the prospect of facing her in combat, and unfortunately for them she greatly enjoys busting heads. (Apparently a trait that runs in the family.)
NOTE: I'm a shameless Sub-Mariner booster, and Namora, while not the Sub-Mariner, is certainly a Sub-Mariner, a blanket term used long ago to describe Atlanteans in general and the singular power of Namor. That said, it's good to see a writer remember just how much of a wrecker a Sub-Mariner can be, and considering what we know about the inevitable results of surface-dwellers and Atlanteans getting their hump on, how have the Atlanteans not actively instituted an interracial breeding program so they can produce legions of amphibious powerhouses? Just a little something to think about...
But exactly what causes this bizarre group of semi-forgotten characters to band together, especially now? The surprising answers to that can be found in the collected edition of the mini-series, and what follows after the events of that book only continues the fun on a monthly basis, loaded to the rafters with intrigue and often spectacular superhero action of the kind that made Marvel Comics a force to be reckoned with from 1961 through approximately 1987 (sure, there was a shitload of utter crap put out by Marvel in those days as well, but the standout material is deservedly enshrined as classic stuff).
Jeff Parker's scripting is certainly praiseworthy, but the one drawback of the book's balls-out nature is that its scenarios can be labor-intensive for its artist, making it virtually impossible to sustain its rich visual scope on a monthly production schedule. That problem is solved here by employing a number of different artists on the monthly, all of whom are quite good, but the eight-hundred-pound gorilla in the room is Carlo Pagulayan, a talented young find who can draw his ass off and was definitely the wise choice to have in place as the artist for the first issue (you may remember him as the primary artist on PLANET HULK, but his work here kicks his own ass). Pagulayan's work can be found in the entirety of issues #1 and 5, and roughly half of issue #2, and I hope to Jolly Jack that we'll see more of him on this book. A lot more. (I like the work of Leonard Kirk and Gabriel Hardman, but there's no denying that Pagulayan leaves them in the dust.)
Bottom Line: I have not enjoyed a comics series as much as this since I went nuts for EMPOWERED during the tail end of last year, so please me and check this out. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. -
I did not need another mostly forgotten team of superheroes to root for, but here we are. I'm a sucker.
Nice job by Parker and the team undoing quite a bit of the Orientalism that surrounded the original, 1950s Agents of ATLAS run. Everyone deserves a modern-day Jimmy Woo. -
Jeff Parker and Leonard Kirk revamp obscure Marvel characters from the 50s, inspired by an issue of What If from the 70s. This foundation risks wandering deep into a comic history circle jerk, but they pull it off, and end result is a fun caper, deeply informed--but never subordinate to--comic history.
These characters have been dormant for nearly sixty years, and Parker is not only reintroducing them, but presenting them with a very different status quo. As such, a lot of the book is taken up with dancing between and revising old stories, which of course involves blocks of exposition of "this happened, and here's why this wasn't what you thought happened," but Parker and Kirk actually manage it rather fluidly, although it takes some steam out of the book after a fantastically fast-paced first chapter. They keep the intrigue going (what is the silent killer robot's real agenda?) and perfectly insert lighthearted moments (when Marvel Boy nonchalantly turns his digestive system inside out in a diner to eat his meal, in the middle of another scene of exposition) to help move you along. It's densely plotted in an era that shuns such things, but in a nicely updated fashion. These revisions to the characters' histories, combined with a very well executed final twist, help put the characters on a nice contemporary footing without damaging their core appeal.
Kirk's art isn't flashy, but tells the story very well, shifting between the different milieus (jungle adventure, space opera, superheroics) with ease, even delivering a rollicking montage sequence halfway through, jumping from an arcane mystic ritual to a greenhouse full of dinosaurs. Kirk especially nails a moment in the first chapter of the Gorilla Man firing four guns at once while being held aloft by a robot, an image that nicely encapsulates the tone of the book.
There are great supplementary materials filling out the second half of the book (including some uncomfortable yellow peril comics--it was the 50s, after all), but you pay for them. On their own merits, they're stiff and quite unlike the main series. If you just want the main story, $25 is a bit much to pay for it.
Aside from Marvel's steep pricing policy, though, it's a delightful book that I enjoy and admire more every time I revisit it. -
Más que una mini, es una carta de amor al fin de la Golden Age y la transición a la Silver Age.
M-11 encapsula todo lo que representó el cambio de Atlas a Marvel Comics: puede parecer un robot que no expresa sentimientos y solo reacciona a la lógica (monetaria -hipérboleando, digamos- en cuanto a Marvel siendo adquirida por Disney) pero que en sus entrañas lleva a Atlas: la fantasía, el misterio y la aventura.
5/5. -
Second read - 3 out of 5 stars. Verbose to say the least but the backbone of a decent story is here. Some decent artists should have been allowed to express more of the story. Did feel better than the last time I read it about 10 years back.
First read - Released at a time when good ideas had been expunged by Marvel. I was one of the many suckers who picked this up to check out what the hell was going on. Suffice to say - not much at all. 2 out of 5 stars. -
You know, if you as a writer were instructed to use these old characters and put them in the modern world -- you could do much worse than this!
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3.5
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This was an interesting story. Characters from Atlas comics (which is what the company was called between the Golden Age Timely Comics and the Silver Age Marvel Comics) are reactivated after over 50 years to fight a new menace. (Except that the new menace isn't really new.)
The biggest problem is bringing everyone up to "today." So there's lots of "Curses that Prevent Aging", "Suspended Animation", and "Uranian Technology" that makes sure a Gorilla Man is still alive, a long-dead Atlantean Princess is reanimated, and two 70+ year old men are now physically 30.
My problem with all that shtick is it wasn't necessary for the story. It could have easily been set in the 50s.
The characters are all based on 1950s-era comic book characters, and their origin stories are all included, which is really handy, since these books aren't widely available. They also included a 1970s "What if?" comic which came up with the idea.
I enjoyed the story and the art. But I'm being extra crabby about erasing 5 octogenarians back to 30 year olds for a comic book. -
A favourite series of mine, Agents of Atlas takes a one-off team from an issue of "What If..?" and brings them back to the modern Marvel Universe in a really fun way. Jeff Parker does a great job fleshing out some lesser known characters and actually addresses the racism of the "Yellow Claw" moniker. Leonard Kirk is an amazing artist and he gives the series an exciting visual identity.
This collection also showcases the first appearances of each agent plus the issue that asked "What if the Avengers had formed in the 1950's?" which are also lots of fun. -
I had trouble getting into this. I didn't connect with any of the characters.
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This was fun to read! Jimmy Woo’s reactions to the present are hilarious, but my favorite funny moment was when Marvel Boy didn’t get the Uranus joke.
But jokes aside, it was a very good read, like an epic adventure movie. Namora and M-11 were my favorite characters.
Give this a go if you want a simple adventure classic.
Enjoy :) -
Read as single issues.
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Nice to see really "classic" characters get rebooted
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I was only familiar with Jimmy Woo from his appearances in Ant-Man & the Wasp and WandaVision. I don't remember having bumped into him in comics ever. Atlas sees and aging Jimmy Woo rebooted as his younger, 1950s-era self. The story is entertaining enough, and I do like the 50s callbacks, but it still feels a little like if Doom Patrol was a network television series in 2003. It didn't grab me, but the premise is interesting. I might check back in later on.
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This is a fun book about the 1950s Avengers being driven into a new mystery surrounding their point man from back in the day, Agent Jimmy Woo.
This is fun, but I should warn that these character are obscure. If you know who the likes of Venus, Marvel Boy, Namora, and the Human Gorilla are than you can jump right into the story. If not, this is a book it makes sense to read the back subject matter first which includes first appearances of all these characters and the 1970s WhatIf Comic that revealed the existence of this team. Read it and then get ready for a fun team-up book written by the ever-entertaining Jeff Parker. -
It's been a long time since I enjoyed a comic book quite like this. A collection of odd characters from the pre-Marvel 1950s in an old-fashioned pulp-style spy adventure with a very modern comic book twist! Two things set this apart from any other Marvel team book. 1] Thanks to brilliant scripting, the reader doesn't have to be well informed on fifty or more years of comics continuity to know the characters or understand what's going on. 2] If the character interaction seems entirely different from what you find in any Marvel book, it's because these characters actually get along and like working with each other. Sure there are still realistic tensions that arise and tempers that flare; but it's refreshing to see a Marvel team that can actually function as a team and a kind of family. They seem even more loyal and devoted to each other than the Fantastic Four. A nice addition to the book is the section of reprints of the first appearances of each of these motley characters and the issue of "What If . . .?" that inspired the book. The individual stories are all as charming as any piece of nostalgia. The "What If . . . ?" story is a great template to build on; and I'm glad the writer had the sense to not treat it (and the character origins) as word-for-word Marvel canon. His reinterpretation of the events of that story for this book make for something much more enjoyable. I'm definitely going to be getting more Atlas in my collection.
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I'm so glad I got the chance to read this. It shouldn't work -- a book full of random Golden Age characters who might as well be original, for all intents and purposes? But Parker endows his characters with such sparkling characterization that I never felt lost or bored, and the plot was tight and fun, with just the right amount of twists and turns. I was also very, very impressed with the handling of Jimmy Woo. I can't imagine it was easy to make a Chinese-American character from the 1950s whose main adversary was a man named "Yellow Claw" into a non-stereotypical, non-racist modern character, but Parker succeeds with aplomb. I'm very much looking forward to the ongoing series that just started.
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Jeff Parker has built the Agents of Atlas into a successful brand at Marvel by delivering an entertaining story as he fleshes out the background of some of the colorful figures from Marvel's dustbin. Jimmy Woo, Marvel Boy, Venus and even the Yellow Claw get a little life breathed into them. Leonard Kirk's art perfectly matches the tone of the text. Thanks to a slow start, this is a good book and not a great book. Agents of Atlas is a series worth reading because Parker does an excellent job at subverting the reader's expectations.
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Big fun if, like me, you like a new twist on old characters.
Kudos for pulling off this revival in midst of ongoing "big event" driven superhero books.
SPOILER ALERT...
Case in point, Namora returns in this fine series from the 1950s, unseen since a fine Bill Everett run on his creation, the Sub-Mariner in 1973. This just as her daughter Namorita (from that great last hurrah of Bill Everett Sub-Mariner stories) turns up as a casualty in the first chapter of Marvel's Civil War by Mark Millar and Steve McNiven. Boo hiss.
Recommended. -
I had next to no knowledge of these characters going into this book and came away pleasantly surprised. The plot was intriguing and the dialogue was very good. Jeff Parker really did a good job here. The art by Leonard Kirk was very good. All these characters were easily identifiable. My only real problem with the book was the pretty convoluted villain with a history that was pretty dense. I think these characters could grow to be popular I just don't know if they'll ever get the chance. But, if you want a fun book with a couple twists, this is it.
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This could have been an alienating deep dive into comics history, but it manages to stay charming and fresh throughout. Excavating obscure, decades-old characters and bringing them into the modern world is ambitious and fraught with all kinds of literary and political pitfalls. Parker addresses the racism and xenophobia which underwrote so many stories from the 1950s, contextualizes them in-universe, reclaims the characters and manages to craft a nice little action/suspense yarn while doing so.
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This may be one of my favorite Marvel Minis of all time. Jeff Parker successfully resurrects a 50's era supergroup (retroactively inserted into continuity) using characters form the old Atlas imprint and it is fucking awesome! If you like talking gorillas, spacemen, merpeople and goddesses as well as kick ass Asian super spies, you'll love this book! I did!
P.S. - This also includes a ton of making of material and the first appearances of all the main characters. -
Great fun, which is no surprise coming from Jeff Parker. Would have given it five stars except for a loss of focus near the middle of the book, and a personal irriation for how he transformed Venus, one of my favorite "golden age" super heroes. I know Parker will be doing more with these characters, and I'm really looking forward to it.
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I really enjoyed this story, mostly because each of the characters that they bring together really add something to both the team and the tale. Usually in this sort of comic, I latch on to one character that I like and I get frustrated with any time they are not featured, but no one is useless here, and everyone gets a chance to lend their unique skills to the group.
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This is one of my favorite series ever. Parker does a great job of making these oddball characters and concepts all stick together, and he does it with an immense sense of humor, as well. Just excellent.
