Dynamo
Entry updated 13 October 2025. Tagged: Comics, Publication.
US Comic (1966-1967). Tower Comics. 4 issues. Artists include Steve Ditko, Mike Sekowsky, George Tuska and Wally Wood. Script writers include Dan Adkins, Ralph Reese and Wally Wood. 68 pages, with five long strips each issue. One of two spinoffs from the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents comic (which see for setting details), the other being NoMan (1966-1967).
Leonard Brown is the Superhero Dynamo, an employee of the "Higher United Nations" whose "Thunder Belt" – a product of science – giving his body the strength of steel (see Superpowers), though only for a short period. He is the lead character in four of each issue's stories; other T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents also appear, particularly NoMan. The fifth story centres on locksmith Weed, a slightly gormless member of the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Squad, and are mainly light-hearted.
#1 opens with "Menace from the Moon!" where Earth's observatories are being destroyed by flying saucers (see UFOs) coming from a base on the Moon. The urgency of the situation means NoMan takes an experimental one-way Rocket there and is quickly captured, yet does not transfer his consciousness back into an android body on Earth (see Identity Transfer); Dynamo takes another of the rockets, laden with supplies, hoping the Earth can cobble together a return rocket or he can steal an enemy Spaceship. NoMan had been hit with an Alien paralysing ray, only recovering and managing to transfer back after Dynamo's departure, but warning him by radio of the situation. On landing, Dynamo fights off flying saucers and Robot tanks – assisted by NoMan briefly transferred back into his Moon body – then destroys the base and uses a flying saucer to return home. In "A Day in the Life of Dynamo" he faces Red China's Supervillain The Red Dragon, who has created a "Red Frankenstein" robot to let loose on New York, but is interrupted when the Warlords (recurring villains from T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents, here also called Subterrans) attempt to start a nuclear war between the USA and China. "Back to the Stone Age!" finds Dynamo imprisoned in an artificially created Lost World housing both Dinosaurs and cavemen. "Dynamo Meets the Amazing Andor" has the Warlords brainwashing a human baby into hating humanity and providing him with superpowers, including Immortality, super-strength and Telekinesis: once on the surface, though, he falls in love. #2's four Dynamo stories all involve the criminal organization S.P.I.D.E.R.: in one they take over a European state and build an atomic bomb (see Nuclear Energy; Weapons); in another, they steal an advanced submarine to start a protection racket for shipping.
"The Unseen Enemy" (#3) is a sequel to "Menace from the Moon!": NoMan has been examining the destroyed alien Moon base, where he finds an undamaged device and sends it to Earth. Unfortunately, it turns out to be a matter transmitter (see Matter Transmission); robots come through and begin destroying everything in sight. Dynamo uses NoMan's Invisibility cloak to enter the T.H.U.N.D.E.R headquarters and destroy all the robots. Otherwise the issue's adventure plots are intertwined with Dynamo's romantic problems.
"The Maze" (#4) begins with Dynamo experiencing a nightmarish, surreal Labyrinths, which turns out to be a Psychological test in preparation for his using the matter transporter from "The Unseen Enemy" to reach the alien homeworld, known not to be in this Solar System ("The matter transporter had to be sent by Rocket thousands of years ago"), who may "want to invade our planet or are just testing various worlds for signs of life". On arrival, he's attacked by Mecha and flying saucers, but on entering a City he meets an alien wearing a Telepathic headset who informs him his species are the Immi and they are in the Alpha Centauri system, but then fools Dynamo back into the matter transporter: both Earth and the Immi immediately turn it off from their end, the latter remarking "We're well rid of him, can you imagine an army of those?!" A recurring character is Iron Maiden, an armoured supervillain who has a crush on Dynamo (not entirely unreciprocated); in this issue's "The Weakest Man in the World!" she builds a robot version of herself that absorbs energy, so that turning his belt on makes him a weakling – when this leads to his capture by S.P.I.D.E.R., though, she rescues him.
This was the best of the three T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents comics. The average story quality is higher, whilst the artwork (particularly Wood's) is consistently good: on both accounts the series involving the aliens is the strongest. The Weed strip is the weakest. There is occasional Humour and Parody, as Dynamo is effectively a civil servant who does not get on with his boss, and is also portrayed as not the brightest superhero – at one point an opponent's mockery persuades him to turn his belt off. [SP]
links
previous versions of this entry