M-11/The Human Robot- Old-school Sci-Fi character. Gorilla-Man- Standard "Talking Gorilla", though was originally a regular dude. Jimmy Woo- FBI Agent and enemy of the Yellow Claw. Same way Audrey Hepburn killed the bust for women, but that one didn't stay dead). And didn't focus enough on bad-ass 1950s hats (Kennedy killed the hat for men, it was later pointed out. Turns out Marvel was just a bit too early. Of course, that one was more about fashion, handsome men and crazy people (seriously, EVERY CHARACTER on that show was this tormented nutbar- it's basically a soap opera done with a budget and more style.
What's odd is that immediately following the book, Mad Men became a HUGE HIT, capping off nostalgia for the late '50s, early '60s era. It went eleven issues (following a Limited Series) before being relaunched in the Heroic Age (which relaunched a TON of stuff), but only lasted five issues- the Agents just weren't popular enough to continue. With Jeff Parker & Leonard Kirk as creators, and the name Agents of Atlas (Atlas being the name Timely/Marvel was going by at that point), it had some positive word-of-mouth and a TON of hype from Marvel, but was never a big seller. The characters (who'd been teamed-up in a random What If? story from 1978, which was again seen in Avengers Forever as an Alternate Timeline) were Retconned into having been a team in the 1950s, and reforming in modern times. He teams up with the Gorilla-Man, Namora (Namor's cousin), Marvel Boy (possibly Marvel's top-selling act of the 1950s) and The Human Robot- all 1950s-era characters, and faces down the Yellow Claw- a "Yellow Peril" villain also popular in that era. He didn't look like the Blackhawk's squinty-eyed, short, coolie-ponytail'd Ethnic Sidekick, either). The book revolves around Jimmy Woo, a government agent from a mostly-forgotten 1950s comic book (yes, really- an ETHNICALLY-CHINESE PROTAGONIST. Theoretically this could entirely be in my head (I've never read of anybody else noticing this), but it irked me. But doing it endlessly, for just this one book, made me dislike the characters for no other reason than the hype. Showcase their line and build hype for lower-selling acts by letting some more-popular characters shill for them. comics could stand to hype more off-kilter books like this FURTHER. I was like OH MY GOD I GET IT ALREADY YOU WANT PEOPLE TO BUY THIS BOOK. Read ANY Marvel comic? Well here's some ads for Agents of Atlas. Reading the phenomenal Incredible Hercules series, before it went to shit around Chaos War? GREAT STUFF- now here's your Agents of Atlas Cross-Over and hype. Pick up the odd Winter Guard Limited Series? There they were- in the first issue, showing up just to have their book shilled.
much like how Wolverine annoyed people with his constant Cross-Over Appearances and Hype, The Agents of Atlas did the same to me. I wasn't enamored with it, but it was Perfectly-Acceptable Comics, featuring characters with a bit of chemistry, a unique concept ("Heroes From Long-Dead 1950s Comics!"), and it was a different batch of characters than you'd normally see featured in an all-too-static Marvel Universe. The Agents of Atlas were EVERYWHERE.Īnd honestly, it annoyed the hell out of me.ĭon't get me wrong- I READ the book's first arc, and it was FINE.
NIFTY GAY AUTHORITARIAN HIGH SCHOOL ENERGY DRINK REVENGE SERIES
I dunno if it was just the comics *I* was reading, but it felt like everywhere you turned, there they were- either featuring prominently in ads, getting big "Crossover" Limited Series with more-established heroes, or just plain crossing over into everyone else's books.
Chances are, if you were reading a Marvel comic between 20, you were reading a lot of hype for the Agents of Atlas. Hopefully it doesn't break anything to have so much text. So I'll make a page here devoted to re-posting them in big blocks. Okay, so some people can't read my older builds, owing to RA sucking ass.