The DNAgents

The DNAgents is a comic-book series created by writer Mark Evanier and artist Will Meugniot^[1] and published by Eclipse Comics in 1983. It was later picked up briefly by Antarctic Press. In June 2006, reprinted issues were collected into DNAgents Volume 1.

The series centers on a team of superheroes created through genetic engineering by the Matrix Corporation.

Publication history

Both Marvel Comics and DC Comics expressed interest in publishing The DNAgents, but Evanier and Meugniot decided against signing with them because they would have had to give up the TV and merchandising rights, and since both Evanier and Meugniot had extensive backgrounds and contacts in the television industry, they were confident that they would be able to sell DNAgents as a TV series without help from a publisher.^[1] Mike Friedrich served as an agent for Evanier and Meugniot, submitting The DNAgents to five different publishers. When all five offered to publish it, they decided on Eclipse Comics, a large independent publisher, for the amount of creative freedom they were ready to allow and for their strong plan for promoting the series.^[1]

The DNAgents reappeared in a cameo The Savage Dragon #41 (July 1997).

DNAgents

• Tank: Super-strong, wore heavy body armor to regulate and augment his strength. Naive & optimistic.
• Surge: He could fire blasts of lightning, very short-tempered.
• Rainbow: powerful telepath and illusionist. Since she was exposed to so many people's inner thoughts, she was the most "sophisticated" member of the group, and was involved in nude modeling.
• Amber: She could project disks of electromagnetic energy as shields, weapons or stand on them to fly. Very outgoing socially and curious.
• Sham: Shapeshifter. Since he had no innate attack powers, he was also trained as a commando (in cover art, he is frequently depicted wielding a gun). Insecure and attached to his family. Numerous allusions were made to Sham being the most powerful of the DNAgents, including his kidnapping and use as a power-source for the villain Mega Man.

Other characters

Crossfire, another Eclipse comic of the era written by Mark Evanier, was a frequent guest character, and a romantic interest for Rainbow.

In issue #13, an attempt to create a new DNAgent resulted in Snafu, who later became a pet to Sham.

In issue #14, the DNAgents engaged in a "non-crossover" with the Teen Titans comic where each team faced a homage of the other with the DNAgents meeting up with "Project Youngblood" while the Titans dealt with the genetically-engineered "ReCombatants" in Tales of the Teen Titans #48. At the end of both stories, the homage/parody teams sacrificed themselves to save the main heroes.

The first issue of DNAgents. Art by Will Meugniot & Al Gordon.

Other media

• In 1986 a sourcebook was printed by Fantasy Games Unlimited for using the characters with their Villains and Vigilantes superhero role playing game. This book also contained conversion notes for Champions and Superworld RPGs.

References

External links

• DNAgents Profiles at InternationalHero
• Mark Evanier's homepage: News Frome ME
• Presenting: DNAgents Super Special