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Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Undersea Heroes Part 2: Undersea Agent

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Part 2 of our "Undersea Heroes" theme week, where we take a look at Tower Comics' Undersea Agent!
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First Appearance: Undersea Agent #1 (1966)

Created by: Samm Schwartz & Ray Bailey

Powers: Has some minor powers, mostly amplified strength, vision, endurance, etc. Has access to lots of high-tech weapons.

Group Affiliation: T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents

Likes: Hanging around with trained dolphins, lots of air in his oxygen tanks

Dislikes: People that waste valuable time (see below)

Fun Facts: "Undersea" was actually an acronym:
"United Nations Department of Experiment and Research Systems Established at Atlantis."

Sample panel from the above issue of Undersea Agent:
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As you can see, the Undersea Agent (real name: Davy Jones--no, really) didn't bother with niceties when the chips were really down.

Some of his stories were drawn by Gil Kane (who drew the cover), who brought his trademark dynamism to the strip. The one story in this issue drawn by Kane, "To Save A Monster", is a rip-roaring adventure featuring the Undersea Agent fighting a giant sea creature, and is fast-moving fun.

Current status: Was part of the the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents revival by Deluxe Comics in 1984. Sadly, he, with the rest of the Agents, are now mired in a quagmire of copyright problems, where no one seems to be sure who owns the rights to the characters.*

Could he beat Aquaman?: No way. It might take Aquaman a minute or two to learn and adapt to all of Undersea Agent's Batman-like accessories, but eventually he'd just crack UA's helmet like a coconut and that'd be it.


Tomorrow: Sharkman!



*Update: In between writing this and posting it, DC announced at this year's SDCC that they have bought the rights to the T.H.U.N.D.E.R Agents! So who knows, maybe we'll get to see an Aquaman/Undersea Agent team-up!

7 comments:

Richard said...

Well, I think we know who owns Undersea Agent now...

David Cutler said...

Loving undersea heroes week--I'd never even heard of Undersea Agent!

If you ever do this again I'd love to see similar profiles on Namorita, Seaguy, and that short-lived (literally) Fishman from the early Invincible comics!

BentonGrey said...

Let's see Lagoon Boy! Ha, anyway, I'm enjoying Undersea Heroes Week as well. This is a character that I've only heard about once or twice, so it is cool to learn a bit more about him.

Wings1295 said...

I have NEVER heard of this guy, but when you decide to blog about him, DC coincidentally gets the rights? How odd!

Scurvy said...

Wow. Weird timing.

Diabolu Frank said...

Undersea Agent, the other T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agent. It must suck to be the next least popular after Vulcan, even including the traitorous Menthor and even the various vaguely defined replacements in that role. Or to have your actual membership be in dispute, seeing as how he was supposed to be an agent of U.N.D.E.R.S.E.A., not T.H.U.N.D.E.R.*

*I almost always miss a letter in T.H.U.N.D.E.R. and have to go back to fix it. Stupid acronyms.

Earth 2 Chris said...

I wonder if Kane drew this cover before or after his brief stint drawing the Hulk in the 60s? Because that sea creature looks A LOT like the Abomination, who Kane drew during his Hulk stay!

Chris