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 the non-canonical What If #9 (June 1978) and then reappeared in Avengers Forever (1998-2000 miniseries).
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 Mark Paniccia was looking at and 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; it instantly tickles the nostalgia bone".
The team made a brief appearance in the "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 will write an Agents of Atlas ongoing series which is one of the titles launching as part of the Dark Reign storyline. That series ended after eleven issues but the title relaunches 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 cancelled with Atlas #5.
Read more about this topic: Agents Of Atlas
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