In the best superhero concepts, superheroic status comes at a cost — a damaged heart, radiation-induced blindness, the murder of parents or a beloved uncle, the destruction of an entire planet. But though terrible, those are usually one-time costs.
In the case of THUNDER Agent Lightning, that cost was ongoing and fatal.
“Perhaps the most ambitious and successful non-DC or Marvel superhero comics of the Silver Age were published by Tower,” wrote comics historian David W. Tosh. “The company was founded in 1965 as a division of Tower Books (paperback publishers), and lasted throughout the remaining Silver Age, finally ending in 1969.”
“Tower publisher/editor Harry Shorten gave (Wally) Wood freedom to do his thing, and the result was THUNDER Agents.”
Guy Gilbert, a part of the title from the beginning, didn’t get his super speed until the 4th issue.
“The weak sister of an otherwise excellent group of strips, the (THUNDER) Squad was drawn in all four issues by Mike Sekowsky,” wrote Lou Mougin in TwoMorrows’ THUNDER Agents Companion. “It starred a group of five (later four) non-super specialists who cooled off hot spots around the globe. Each one was pretty stereotyped: Guy Gilbert was the squad leader and matinee idol.”
Then, having bravely volunteered for the job, Guy got a makeover in the form of a canary-yellow super-suit and exposure to a speed-inducer beam that would accelerate his movement even as it shortened his life.
“Dynamo was the brawny guy of the group — he had a high-tech belt that could make him invulnerable and super strong,” recalled comics historian Don Markstein of THUNDER’s nod to Superman. “NoMan was a spook type, similar in appearance to a DC character, the Spectre, and with spook-like super powers as well — but again, with high-tech rather than mystical sources for his abilities. Lightning was a knock-off of the Flash, and Raven one of Hawkman.”
If would have been interesting, if grim, if they’d had serial Lightnings as each one died.
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