Agents of Atlas

Agents of Atlas is an American comic-book limited series published in 2006 by Marvel Comics. It features a group of superheroes composed of characters collected from various unrelated stories originally published in the 1950s by Marvel's predecessor company, Atlas Comics.

Publication history

This group of heroes, which was not a team in 1950s comics, was established through retroactive continuity as having been established in the 1950s. They had appeared as a group in:

• What If vol. 1, #9 (June 1978),
• the Avengers Forever (1998-2000 limited series) and
• Marvel: The Lost Generation (2000-2001 miniseries).

In these issues, the team was dubbed the Avengers, an alternative grouping to the actual Avengers founded in the 1960s, albeit from a different timeline. In Avengers Forever, for example, Immortus destroys the reality in which the 1950s Avengers live. The Agents of Atlas miniseries ran six issues (Oct. 2006 - March 2007), set in the present day.

Fictional team biography

The group was formed in Spring 1958 by Federal Bureau of Investigation agent Jimmy Woo to rescue President Dwight D. Eisenhower from the villainous Yellow Claw. Woo first recruits Venus and Marvel Boy. He then tries to recruit Namora, who declines but tells Woo where to find a broken but potentially useful robot named M-11. While Marvel Boy fixes M-11, Woo asks Jann of the Jungle to take Marvel Boy to extend an invitation to Gorilla-Man, who accepts Woo's offer. The group quickly rescues President Eisenhower and remains together for six months until the federal government, deciding the public is not ready for such a group, disbands it and classifies information about it. Years later, Woo, by now a high-ranking agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., attempts a secret raid of a group identified as the Atlas Foundation. Going AWOL and taking several other willing agents with him, Woo infiltrates an Atlas location, resulting in all of the recruits being killed. Woo himself is critically burned and loses his higher brain functions. Gorilla-Man, by now also a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, gives the organization a record of the 1950s team, of which S.H.I.E.L.D. had no knowledge, and rescues Woo with the aid of M-11 and Marvel Boy, who restores Woo to his 1958 self. Namora, whom the group believed dead, returns and joins the Agents. The team learns M-11 is a double agent for the Yellow Claw, and that Venus is one of the legendary Sirens given flesh, and not the Venus/Aphrodite of legend. Using M-11 as a beacon, the heroes find the Yellow Claw, who reveals his true identity, Plan Chu, an almost immortal mongol khan who claims he has orchestrated each of his battles with Woo only to establish Woo's worthiness to marry Suwan and succeed him as khan. Chu created Atlas to put Woo again in the spotlight. Woo accepts his destiny, takes over Atlas hoping to turn it into a force for good, and the Yellow Claw, having found his heir, appears to commit suicide.

Temple of Atlas

As part of a viral marketing strategy to promote the series, fans could participate in an alternate reality game centered around the "Temple of Atlas" weblog on Marvel's website. There, readers received weekly prose excerpts of the exploits of Jimmy Woo and his team, and were given "missions" from the Temple's curator, the mysterious "Mr. Lao". The goal was to discover each week's keyword by following textual clues Lao would post on the messageboards of such comic-book webzines as Newsarama and Comic Book Resources. They, along with IGN.com and Silver Bullet Comics, would also feature fake news posts that players would be led toward, containing more clues for finding keywords. Anagrams were regular, and on several occasions one keyword had to be taken "into the field" by going to a local comic shop and saying the phrase to the staff in order to receive a keyword in response. On two occasions, players were required to attend a Heroes Convention and the San Diego Comic-Con International to find keywords.

Collections

• Agents of Atlas (256 pages, Marvel Comics, May 2007, ISBN 0-7851-2712-7)

Trade paperback collection of the miniseries plus the first appearances of major characters: Yellow Claw #1, Menace #11, Venus #1, Marvel Mystery Comics #82, Marvel Boy #1, Men's Adventures #26, and What If? vol. 1, #9.

References

• Agents of Atlas official site
• Secret Avengers Reassembled? Paniccia Talks Agents of Atlas, The Marvel Universe Now with Extra Pulp: Parker Talks Agents Of Atlas, and The Weight of the World on his Pencil: Kirk Talks Agents Of Atlas, weekly articles by Davie Richards, Comic Book Resources, May 12-26, 2006
• Jeff Parker and the New Adventures of Old Marvel, by Mitch Montgomery, Silver Bullet Comics, September 27, 2006

External links

• Jimmy Woo and Jann of the Jungle, by Jess Nevins form A Guide to Marvel's Pre-FF #1 Heroes
• The Human Robot, Appendix to the Handbook of the Marvel Universe