Speed Force

I haven’t read the first issue of the new T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents series, but when I read that issue #2 was going to feature the origin of their speedster, Lightning, I decided to take a look. The concept: An international team of covert operatives use suits that give them super-powers…knowing that the powers will kill them.

Despite being the middle of a bigger story, the issue reads quite well. It’s structured with a framing sequence in which the team is on its first mission. It’s not entirely clear what they’re doing, except they need Lightning to get inside the perimeter. To do so, he’ll need to run faster than he has ever run in training…and he’ll learn the true cost of super-speed.

This is wrapped around the story of Kenyan athlete Henry Cosgei, two-time Olympic winner and three-time world champion, a man who loves life, but most of all loves running…and the brutal way in which T.H.U.N.D.E.R. manipulates him into joining the team. By the end of the issue, he sees all too well what he’s given up in order to regain what he’d previously lost.

There’s good character work, not only with Lightning himself, but with the two handlers. There’s some depth here beyond the mindless slugfests, continuity strip-mining, and roster shuffling (though there is a bit of the latter here, since it’s an origin story) that seems to make up so much of the super-hero landscape these days.

T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents #2: “Live Fast, Die Young”
Writer: Nick Spencer
Penciller (main sequence): Cafu
Inker (main sequence): Bit
Artist (Lightning sequence): ChrisCross

With issue #3 coming out in a couple of weeks (December 8, the same week as the next issue of The Flash), Top Cow has released the first issue of the Velocity miniseries online…free!

Cyberforce’s speedster has one hour to find a cure for a deadly virus before it kills her teammates — and herself. It’s engaging, has fantastic artwork, and is surprisingly new-reader-friendly. (Here are my reviews of the first two issues.)

You can read the full issue at Newsarama. UPDATE: CBR’s copy of the issue is larger, making it easier to read the yellow-on-green text.

The Source has a new article on T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents, focusing on the team’s speedster Lightning. Joining regular artist Cafu, ChrisCross steps in to illustrate Lightning’s backstory…and the “crazy-scary toll his new power takes on him.”

ChrisCross is no stranger to speedsters. Two years ago, he was all set to draw the scrapped Velocity series that would have spun out of Top Cow’s first Pilot Season. He completed at least one issue and several covers. The interior art hasn’t seen the light of day, but Top Cow has been using the covers as variants on the current Ron Marz/Kenneth Rocafort Velocity miniseries.

THUNDER Agents #2 goes on sale December 8.

Shortpacked! cartoonist David Willis posted these photos of the completed Robin DeSanto statue from Patch Together. I’ve got to say, it looks great. I’m not usually one for buying statues and such (though I do make an effort to buy print collections of webcomics that I really like), but I am tempted by this one.

If you missed the earlier post about the prototype, you can read up on the webcomic’s sugar-powered speedster.

The statue is available for preorder.

DC has posted a 3-page preview (4 if you count the two pages of the double-page splash) of T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents #1, including art of the team’s resident speedster, Lightning, in action.

T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents #1 by NIck Spencer and CAFU arrives in stores November 10.

Last week, web cartoonist David Willis posted the final design for a statue of Robin DeSanto, the sugar-powered hyperactive speedster from It’s Walky! and Shortpacked!

Robin initially used her super-powers in a top-secret alien-fighting squad (the main story of It’s Walky!). In the years since the alien invasion was thwarted, she has become a simple retail clerk at a toy store (Shortpacked!)…when she’s not moonlighting as a United States Congresswoman.

The statue is available for pre-order now.

Tomorrow night is the series premiere of No Ordinary Family, a TV drama about a family on the brink of collapse that suddenly finds itself with super powers.

Helpless-feeling Jim Powell (Michael Chiklis) suddenly finds himself super-strong, near-invulnerable, and able to leap tall buildings in a single bound. Always on-the-go Stephanie Powell (Julie Benz) gains super-speed. Their self-involved daughter Daphne becomes telepathic, and their learning-disabled son JJ becomes a super-genius.

I got to see the pilot episode at Comic-Con, and it was really promising. There’s an Incredibles-meets-season-one-Heroes vibe to it. The special effects are great, particularly Stephanie’s first super-speed run. (Later scenes rely a lot on the standard vanishing/reappearing act plus wind.) Here are my thoughts on the episode as screened at the convention. They’ve reportedly added a scene or two to set up one of the ongoing storylines.

The Flash movie writing team is heavily involved in this series as well. Greg Berlanti co-created the show with Jon Harmon Feldman, and Marc Guggenheim is involved as a consulting producer.

No Ordinary Family premieres Tuesday on ABC at 8:00pm / 7:00 central. Hulu has an extended trailer.

Velocity #2 of 4
Written by Ron Marz
Art and cover by Kenneth Rocafort
5-page preview at CBR.

It’s been a while since the first issue of this miniseries, but the second issue jumps straight into the action as if no time had passed. The members of Cyberforce have all been infected with a virus that will kill them within an hour, and Velocity is the only one fast enough to save them. Of course, she’s been infected too — it’s only her super-speed metabolism keeping her conscious. The clock is ticking. Literally. Every page shows a countdown timer, starting at 58:07 and finishing at…well, why spoil the surprise?

Like the first issue, this continues to be extremely accessible. I’m a Top Cow neophyte, and had no problems following the book even as it twisted through other parts of the Top Cow universe. I was mildly confused when the Hunter/Killer organization showed up, but the heroine’s inner monologue covered the basics in a couple of short narration boxes a page or two later, and a text page in the back describes it in more detail.

Kenneth Rocafort’s art continues to be a major draw, both in the stylized art itself, and in the creative panel layouts. Two double-page splashes manage to show off completely different ways of showing super-speed. The first (shown below), features a staccato 4×4 grid across each page overlaid with a giant close-up of one moment in a fight. The other is a great example of the classic wide shot of a room with multiple images of a speedster doing different activities all across the panel.

Don’t miss an artistic in-joke: one scene takes place out in the deserts of the American Southwest. There’s a bird visible in the foreground: a roadrunner.

SPOILERS BELOW!

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After a long wait, Velocity #2 comes out next Wednesday. The first issue of this four-part miniseries was quite good and new reader–friendly. You can read my review at First Comics News.

CBR has a 5-page preview of issue #2.

As the members of Cyberforce lay dying from a fatal techno-virus, their only hope for survival is their teammate Velocity. Carin Taylor has never been more in need of her super-speed as the races around the globe, trying to find and cure her teammates before the same virus kills her. The issue continues the inaugural creative union of writer Ron Marz (Witchblade, Angelus) and artist Kenneth Rocafort (Cyberforce/Hunter-Killer).

Starting in November, Image Comics will publish Halcyon, a five-issue miniseries by Marc Guggenheim (Flash, JSA) and his wife, screenwriter Tara Butters (Dollhouse, Reaper), about what happens to super-heroes when they win the never-ending battle against crime. In an interview with Newsarama, Guggenheim describes several of the major characters, including…

There’s another character named Transom, who’s a speedster. And what’s cool about him is the fact that, once you remove war and crime and any sort of man-made aggression, the only thing left for superheroes to deal with are natural disasters, like plane crashes and earthquakes. The problem is that Transom is the only superhero on the planet who is fast enough to get to these disasters as they’re happening. So he’s the one superhero who’s being run completely ragged, because he’s the only one who’s able to still be a hero.

The “what now?” question has been raised before, even in the DC Universe. Countdown to Final Crisis featured Earth-51, a world in which the heroes managed to eliminate super-crime and retired to pursue civilian careers. Of course, since this was Countdown, the world was created as cannon fodder, so it wasn’t explored much.

Between this book, Justice Society of America, No Ordinary Family, and (if Warner Bros. approves the treatment) the Flash screenplay, Guggenheim is going to be busy with speedsters this fall.