The Agents of Atlas are a superhero team appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The first lineup was composed of characters originally appearing in unrelated stories published in the 1950s by Marvel's predecessor company, Atlas Comics. The characters debuted as a team in What If #9 (June 1978) and starred in the 2006 limited series Agents of Atlas, written by Jeff Parker and with art by Leonard Kirk.
In 2019, the team's lineup was revamped as a new team made up of Asian and Asian American superheroes as The New Agents of Atlas, written by Greg Pak and art by Gang Hyuk Lim.
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Publication history
This group of heroes, which was not a team in 1950s comics, was established through retroactive continuity as having been formed in the 1950s. They originally appeared as a group in the alternate-universe story What If #9 (June 1978) and then reappeared in Avengers Forever (1998–2000 miniseries), in which they and their reality were destroyed.
The limited series Agents of Atlas #1–6 (Oct. 2006 – March 2007) was set in the present day and likewise set in mainstream continuity. The series emerged from what writer Parker called "a huge editorial hunch" at Marvel, and said the revival of the characters "is something that [editor] Mark Paniccia was looking at and [for which he] thought specifically of me, and asked me what I would do with it". Paniccia says the idea came to him when he picked up a copy of the What if? story and found the cover "intriguing".
The team made a brief appearance in "The Resistance", an eight-page story that was part of the Secret Invasion crossover story arc. Parker and editor Paniccia said in July 2008, that the former would write an Agents of Atlas ongoing series which was one of the titles launched as part of the "Dark Reign" storyline. That series ended after eleven issues but the title relaunched as part of the "Heroic Age" under the title Atlas because, according to Parker, it not only makes for a smaller logo but it is a "natural progression to what most people call the book and the team". The series was canceled with Atlas #5.
During War of the Realms a new iteration of the Agents of Atlas debuted in the War of the Realms: Agents of Atlas mini-series. This new team, along with the classic roster, was featured together in the limited series Agents of Atlas.
Characters
The original team, with the individual characters' debuts in chronological order, consists of:
Namora – Marvel Mystery Comics #82 (May 1947)
Venus – Venus #1 (Aug. 1948)
Marvel Boy/the Uranian – Marvel Boy #1 (Dec. 1950)
Gorilla-Man – Men's Adventures #26 (Mar. 1954)
M-11/the Human Robot – Menace #11 (May 1954)
Jimmy Woo – Yellow Claw #1 (Oct. 1956)
Other characters from the original What if? story, such as Jann of the Jungle, made guest appearances. Parker explained that original What if? team-member the 3-D Man was left out "[b]ecause he wasn't really around in the 1950s" books, having been introduced in 1977 in Marvel Premiere, with stories set in the 1950s.
After the Agents of Atlas took over the Atlas Foundation, the following characters joined as Atlas Foundation members:
Mr. Lao – Adviser to the Head of the Atlas Foundation. A dragon who was the Yellow Claw's adviser, now adviser to Jimmy Woo, the new Head of the Atlas Foundation.
Temugin – Second in Command of the Atlas Foundation.
Derek Khanata – Overseer of Atlas.
At the end of the series, the contemporary 3-D Man was invited to join the team, and he did.
During the War of the Realms, Jimmy Woo recruited several of his teammates from the Asian American superhero team the Protectors as well as several new Asian superheroes to form The New Agents of Atlas to stop the Queen of Cinders invading the Asian continent. The current members consist of:
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 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 Eisenhower and remains together for six months until the federal government, deciding the public is not ready for such a group, disbands the Agents of Atlas. 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 invades an Atlas location, resulting in all of the recruits being killed. Woo himself is critically burned and loses his higher brain functions. Gorilla-Man, 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. Namora, whom the group believed dead, is located by the Agents and joins the group. The team learns M-11 is a double agent for the Yellow Claw, and that Venus is a Sirens.
During the War of the Realms event, Woo recruits his Protectors teammates Brawn, Shang-Chi, and Silk as the New Agents of Atlas before departing to defend Asia from Malekith's ally Queen Sindr and her Fire Goblin forces from Muspelheim. While the team is in Seoul, Woo is briefly incapacitated, forcing Brawn to assume leadership of the team. The Agents join forces with the White Fox, Crescent, Io, and Luna Snow against Sindr. When the agents are forced to retreat, Brawn summons Sword Master, Aero, Wave, and Pele to combat Sindr. With the assistance of Sun Wukong of the Ascendants, the New Agents of Atlas defeat Sindr and her army in Northern China, although Sun Wukong and "Pele" (who reveals herself to be M-41 Zu, a mystically enhanced android created by the Atlas Foundation) are killed in the process.
Following the War of the Realms, the New Agents of Atlas and Giant-Man are inadvertently summoned to Pan, a city of portals created by tech mogul Mike Nguyen linking major Asian and Pacific cities and enclaves into a single borderless metropolis. Despite the team's mistrust of Nguyen and the Protector of Pan, Issac Ikeda, a mercenary under Nguyen's employ, they decide to help protect Pan and its citizens after the city is attacked by wyverns and sea serpents and several Madripoorian refugees are harassed by Nguyen's Pan Guard.
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, 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 Comics Bulletin, 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 San Diego Comic-Con to find keywords.
Other versions
In the Marvel Adventures: Avengers universe, a time travel story involved a 1958 version of the Agents of Atlas that found Captain America frozen in ice. The special was written by Jeff Parker and penciled by Leonard Kirk, same creative team as the Agents of Atlas miniseries.
In other media
The Agents of Atlas appear in Lego Marvel Super Heroes 2 via a self-titled DLC, consisting of Gorilla-Man, Uranian, Venus, Jimmy Woo, and M-11.