Posts Tagged ‘ Atom ’

Everyone else posted it yesterday, so why not?

The image below was released by Toon Tumblers to promote their SDCC exclusive, and appears to feature the newly rebooted Justice League membership in it’s entirety.

For those keeping a checklist, in addition to the big seven of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, Aquaman and MartiaCyborg, it looks like Deadman, Atom, Element Woman (a new Flashpoint character who looks a lot like Metamorpho, so I assume she found the Orb of Ra before Rex Mason), Green Arrow, Hawkman, Mera, and, er…Power Girl?

Well, no, that’s not Power Girl. And according to Geoff Johns, she isn’t blonde – her hair is definitely light though, so maybe…white?

Zealot would certainly make sense – the Wildstorm characters are integrating fully with the DCU, and Lee has an affinity with her since he created her originally. So yes, let’s say Zealot until we hear further.

It’s a largely traditional line-up with a few curve balls thrown in – and all those curves belong to women.

Wait that came out wrong.

Anyway, there you are – and I have to say, now that I’ve got a good look at the full segmented redesigns of Superman, Green Lantern, Batman and Flash costumes, man they look dumb.

DC have been teasing the upcoming Flash-centric event all day, and it appears to be based around the Reverse Flash changing some key moments in DC’s history so things don’t happen the way that they did.

But that might not be all bad…

This post contains Spoilers regarding yesterday’s Titans: Villains for Hire Special.

So…it’s behind the jump.

Posted via web from Comic By Comic’s Wonderous Posterous!

This week on Newsarama, Dan Didio asked:

The second features have to be characters that can’t support a mini-series or an ongoing, and talent that doesn’t have an opportunity to work on the main books, giving them a chance to be part of the DC Universe. What would you like to see in the second features, and who would you like to see working on them?

Glad you asked, Dan – because I have 20 answers for you!

Atom and Hawkman by Fabian Nicieza and Rags Morales

This should be a no-brainer in terms of characters; assuming that Hawkman comes out the other side of Blackest Night, pairing these two best friends again under Nicieza’s pen could be solid gold – and Morales could easily handle the 8-10 pages a month. Stick it in Brave and the Bold and I might just buy that book.

Formerly Known as The Justice League by Keith Giffen, JM DeMatteis and Kevin Maguire.
An ‘untold tales’ kind of thing. Put it as a back-up in the current Justice League of America book. Or, preferably, vice versa.

Suicide Squad by John Ostrander and Javier Pina

Another no-brainer; the Squad don’t seem able to support their own book right now but I’d love to see them in action under Ostrander’s guiding hand again, and he and Pina did wonders with the last mini. Stick it in the back of Action Comics when Captain Atom’s done.

Secret Origins by Roger Stern and rotating artists.

This would be a great revolving back-up in any book, and much more interesting than the current two-page origins we get. Use them to foreshadow future storylines, retweak origins, whatever – and don’t limit them to established characters.

Challengers of the Unknown by Karl Kesel and Tom Grummet.

I think Grummet may be Marvel exclusive at the moment, but getting the old Superboy team back together for these guys is worth it. I think the last time we saw the classic Challengers they were off tripping through Hypertime – so why not have them exploring the multiverse in the back of the Legion-led Adventure Comics?

Superboy – by Anyone
The Kid of Steel is too good a character to leave in limbo now that he’s back, and I don’t really mind who works on him as long as they’re good. Kid Flash/ Superboy split book, anyone?

The Rogues by Geoff Johns and just about anyone.

Well, duh. Add it to the Flash book already.

Aztek The Ultimate Man by Keith Champagne

Don’t laugh; Aztek was a great book for the ten issues it lasted, and even if he did die in Morrisson’s JLA, there’s no reason not to bring in a new Aztek in the city of Vanity.

Power of Shazam! by Jerry Ordway

Bring Ordway in to fix the mess that has been visited on the Shazam family and give the big red cheese a Superman back up, stat!

The Shade – by James Robinson and Peter Snejberg

Humor me here. Robinson’s never been better than on Starman and The Shade mini, and this is a character ripe for a revisit – although I’m not sure which book to stick him in the back of.

Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E. by Geoff Johns and Lee Moder

Please Dan, please, in the back of one of the JSA books – and in the other…

Infinity Inc by Roy Thomas and Al Milgrom

…just do it, okay? I don’t care if they don’t exist anymore. Just do it.

Black Adam by Peter Tomasi and Doug Mahnke

I know Mahnke is busy on GL these days, but show Teth Adam some love in the back of Superman too, alternating with the Power of Shazam! back-up above.

Huntress by Gail Simone and anyone else

Helena deserves a shot at the back of Detective Comics more than the Question does. Just saying.

Hitman by Garth Ennis and John McCrea

You didn’t think I’d let this one go did you? Another untold tales series in the back of…er, are there any books from DC that this would fit in? No? Okay, I’ll settle for another mini then.

Firestorm by Stuart Moore and Chris Cross

I still think that Jason deserves a book, even though I always liked Ron Raymond too. I’d say put it in the back of JLA but clearly you’ll be running FKATJL in there so…Titans maybe?

Bloodhound by Dan Jolley and Leonard Kirk

Oh crap, yes. I loved this book, and it’s co-owned creator status means that only Jolley and Kirk can do it – but only they should. Move Clem to Gotham and it’s a Batman back-up waiting to happen.

Chase by Marc Andreyko and Georges Jeanty

I think that Chase is a lot more interesting than Manhunter (no offense, Kate), so I’d love to see her take over the back-up in Streets of Gotham. I’m okay with the creative team staying on though, if DC Johnson isn’t available to pen it.

Resurrection Man by Dan Abnett, Andy Lanning and Butch Guice

I don’t care where it goes, I’ll buy the book. Just bring Mitch Shelley back please.

Inferno by Todd Nauck

I love this idea; Inferno’s name may have been co-opted, she may be from a future that no longer exists but last I recall this hotheaded former Legionnaire was still stuck in the 21st Century. She’s almost a blank slate, but I’d love to see Todd Nauck write and draw her in the back of Supergirl.

EBay has returned to blight me after a good solid six months without purchases (some of which I haven’t even read yet) – I picked up The All-New Atom #1-11 for a song recently and loved every issue. I don’t know why I skipped this first time round – possibly because the captions in the Brave New World story annoyed the crap out of me.

Other recent purchases include the OYL issues of Firestorm – a book I supported since #1 that I felt lost a little steam. When I saw the last issues on Ebay I couldn’t resist – and I suspect the same thing will happen shortly with Green Arrow and Hawkgirl; I just can’t resist completing runs.

I also picked up Ion #1-12 but haven’t had a chance to read it yet – I’ve always preferred Kyle to Hal (I’ve said before that Kyle really got me back into DC just prior to Zero Hour) so this was a no-brainer.

Showcase ’93 – ’96 was another pick up – basically all of 1994-1996 and a few 1993′s. I love anthologies, especially those that highlight characters that don’t get used too often. I’ve also been picking up the Thunderbolts variants of eBay, much as I did the New Avengers ones.

There’s been one other purchase – a dirty secret, really – and that’s Secret Defenders #1-25. It’s not as though I’ve forgotten how creatively bankrupt a lot of the 1990s were, or that I’d forgotten how bad the one issue I picked up at the time was – it was just that it seemed like a good idea.

Good grief. I know this was knocked out at a point where quantity ruled over quality but it is awful. And the really bad thing is that I’m kind of enjoying it….

There’s a few more things that I’m always looking out for – Action Comics Weekly, a complete low-cost run of Sub-Mariner #1-72 (which only exists in my head), and a whole host of recent DC minis – Tales of the Unexpected, Mystery in Space, Omega Men - and regular titles such as Checkmate.

So is there anything you’ve picked up lately?

I’m busy avoiding spoilers this week so just a few thoughts this morning;

Note: There are some spoilers towards the end of this entry about the 2/20 episode of Veronica Mars – sorry, Nick!

Wedded Bliss

Over at Lying in the Gutters, Rich Johnston reports that Green Arrow might be being cancelled and replaced with a Green Arrow/Black Canary title following their wedding later this year.

I see.

Not that I have anything against this in principle, having jumped off GA after OYL, but it doesn’t ring true to me for either character. I just don’t see how Dinah could possibly bring herself to trust him again after the number of times he’s cheated on her. Ah well…here’s hoping at least that they don’t forget Sin as they have in Justice League of America.

If we’re going to have a married couple comic, can’t we just have a Lois Lane solo mini? Please?

Where be Onslaught Reborn #3?

And more importantly, do you really need to know when you can see Rob Liefeld showing it all here with Liefeld-tastic sound effects??

Genius.

I know Rob takes a lot of heat on account of…a lot of things, but I still kinda like the energy he brings to stuff – and these original pages look a lot better than the printed ones.

And hey, now I don’t need to buy it!

There’s a Word for that…

I forgot to mention that I had an email last week from the New York ComicCon (this weekend!) that read:

Hayden Panettiere, who currently stars as Claire Bennet in the hit NBC series
“Heroes” as a high school cheerleader with a healing factor, will be appearing
at New York Comic Con.

A limited number of tickets are available for Hayden’s Meet & Greet reception are now available to advance ticket holders. Meet Hayden, get her autograph, spend an hour with Hayden at her New York Comic Con Meet & Greet reception on Saturday and receive the limited edition New York Comic Con exclusive World War Hulk T-Shirt and Variant Sketch Cover Sensational Spider-Man #35 Comic Book. This package is only available to New York Comic Con ticket holders for $250 and is limited to only 30 fans.

Er…so you can pay $250 to spend an hour with a pretty blonde 16 year old? I’m fairly sure that there’s a word for that but I can’t quite put my finger on it…

It’s almost worth doing just to see (a) the people who would do that, and (b) the poor girl’s reaction to them.

Ah, Veronica (Spoilers from Last Night)

TOLD YOU THEY WERE COMING!

HERE THEY ARE!

I can’t believe they killed off Sherrif Lamb.

And I really can’t believe that Booker did it.

Also – Caged Heat starring Kristen Bell? Yeah, I’d watch that. (Oh, I’d kill for a whistling smiley about now.)

Will the real Thor please stand up?

Someone at CBR has come up with a great theory on the ‘real’ identity of Civil War’s Clor. If only Marvel thought of that.

And hey, doesn’t President’s Day delay comics til tomorrow? Gah!

Occasionally I drift off into a little world of my own and start thinking about comic characters that I’d like to take to film. As a lot of the good Marvel ones are already there, this tends to be DC-skewed. Plus, the lists tends to change around pretty regularly.

Anyway, in lieu of a real post, here’s today’s top ten:

10. Guy Gardner – yes, there’s the kick-ass CGI ring powers, but that’s not the draw; how often do you get a lead character who’s a complete ass? I love the Beau Smith-era Guy and those couple of issues he spent completely without powers and that’s the time I’d focus on. I’m willing to admit he might work better as a back up character in #4 ‘s movie, though…

9. The Atom (Ray Palmer) – I’m willing to admit that it’s probably as a result of reading Power of the Atom recently, but I can’t help but think a movie about a shrinking hero would be cool. The villain, of course, would have to be Chronos.

8. Stargirl – she’s a teenage girl with a pet robot (kinda) and a hi-tech rod trying to live up to a legacy she didn’t know she had. Think Buffy and iVeronica Mars and you can see where I’m heading with this.

7. Ant-Man (Eric O’Grady) – #10+#9= no brainer!

6. She-Hulk – you have built in name recognition, a touch of legal drama and killer super-heroics. Pitch it as the Hulk meets Ally McBeal. What’s not to like?

5. Nick Fury – David Hasselhoff’s version doesn’t count. I’m not talking about the Sam Jackson-alike Ultimate version either, or the MAX’d out Ennis version. I’m talking Sgt Fury, WWII troop leader who takes the assignments nobody else can. A big war drama on a scale not seen since Saving Private Ryan - only with killer Nazi robot.. End with him losing his eye and taking control of S.H.I.E.L.D. and you’ve got a set-up for a 1950s period-spy drama. How great is that?

No, no, no, no, no!

4. Green Lantern (Hal Jordan) – a fearless fighter pilot inherits an alien ring, goes crazy and has to reclaim his status as protector the universe that he almost destroyed? That’s a trilogy right there! Star Wars by way of Top Gun and Indiana Jones. Too bad Harrison Ford’s too old for the role…

3. Daughters of the Dragon – Colleen and Misty are made for movies. Hell, they have their origins in the movies of the 1970s, so how could this fail? Drop the bionic arm and play it as this generation’s Thelma and Louise as bounty hunters tracking down supervillains, cast a couple of bombshells who can act and you’re made.

2. Heroes for Hire – see #3. Because kung-fu+blaxpoitation flicks=beyond cool. Set this one in the 70s, tie both Luke Cage’s origins and Iron Fist’s business into Bushmaster though and I’d be all over this. I hear that Luke Cage is possibly in development, and there’s been rumors of Iron Fist for years but stick these guys together – dynamite.

1. Birds of Prey – forget the TV series. Spin this out of the new Batman franchise, throw enough money in for cameos from Christian Bale and Gary Oldman and it’s a done deal. You’ve got Oracle, Huntress and a non-screaming Black Canary as the leads going after the Joker following his escape from Arkham. He gets involved with the mob that killed Huntress’ family to bring her into the story, and Canary is Barbara Gordon’s friend and a part-time Bat-sanctioned vigilante. Sold, sold, sold!

Before the Crisis on Infinite Earths, Ray Palmer had given up his civilized life to live with a race of six-inch yellow aliens in the amazon rainforest.

Seriously.

Never exactly a marquee name outside of one solo series (later retooled to co-star Hawkman) in the 1960s and a back-up run in Action Comics, the Atom really hadn’t taken the spotlight much. In the early 80s, he was re-imagined (read: transplanted to take advantage of a trend) as the six-inch warrior-leader of this tribe of near-barbaric aliens in a 4 issue mini-series (and 3 subsequent one-shot specials) called Sword of the Atom.

However, after the Crisis and Legends, DC had been trying to reinvigorate a number of their properties. Superman had his Man of Steel reboot, Batman had his early years explored by Frank Miller, Wonder Woman was effectively rewritten entirely; the Hawks even had their shot with Hawkworld, and The Atom was next on the list.

The tribe of aliens – and his lady love, Princess Laethwen – were summarily done away with in the first issue of the Atom’s new ongoing series Power of the Atom, by Roger Stern, Dwayne Turner and Kez Wilson, and the Atom was returned to society to reunite with his old supporting cast without further ado.

Norm Brawler, Enrica Negrini, Jean Loring and Paul Hoben were all re-introduced in the first few issue as the Atom came to terms not only with the loss of his adopted people but also with the fact that he had revealed his identity to the world before leaving to live with them, as he never thought he would be coming back (Peter Parker really should have read this series to see how that affected Ray Palmer!).

The series as a whole was pretty much run of the mill super-heroics laced, as were many DC titles of the time, with a touch of governmental conspiracy; a rogue element at the CIA had arranged the death of the aliens to bring the Atom back to the real world in the hope that he would become an agent for them. There were some nice touches, such as Palmer’s reunion with best friend Hawkman and – in a retrospectively bittersweet issue – vacation with Ralph and Sue Dibny.*1

There’s also a nice arc as the Atom battles Chronos, himself much altered following his last appearance, and an interesting couple of issues as Paul Hoben (Jean Loring’s new husband) uses the Atom’s spare belt to shrink down and attack Ray when he feels that Jean is falling for him again. You’d think that maybe Ray would have second thoughts about leaving his spare belt with Hoben and Loring after this but apparently not.

And then there’s Jean.

I think that it’s the knowledge of what was to come that makes me say this, but Jean’s mental state here seems a little off. She spends half the time wondering is she still loves Ray and half reassuring Paul that she doesn’t, seemingly unable to come to a decision. Driving around in her nightgown and telling people that she’s trying to help a shrinking man seems to be the solution to half her problems too. I can imagine a young Brad Meltzer reading this series and saying, ‘Hey, I could make something of that…’

There’s an interesting villain introduced here who I don’t think has been used since – Humbug, (‘the Reusable Man’ shouts one cover). Essentially a creature from the id*2 of a gestalt think tank – and I’m sure that sounded better in principal than in execution – Humbug has the ability to leap between a number of synthetic bodies and comes across as a cross between the Joker and Plastic Man; he seems like the perfect candidate for resurrection today.

The series – after 18 issues – fell victim to a slow start and falling sales. It wrapped up with a Tom Peyer-penned three-parter that resolved the CIA subplot and had Ray once abandoning his identity to become the Atom, leaving best friend Norm Brawler and Jean with a bestseller on their hands.

In later years, a further one-shot would flesh out the Atom’s time following this series. He would also show up in Suicide Squad, faking his own death and going under cover with a band of shrunken villains, before being de-aged in Zero Hour, starring in another special and then joining the Jurgens-era Teen Titans (during which a freshly single Jean Loring also showed up). The de-aging didn’t stick and it wasn’t long until he was back doing guest shots in books like JLA and the new Hawkman.

And then there was Identity Crisis. And that may have been the last we’ve seen of Ray Palmer…for now.

Overall, the Power of the Atom series has little impact on the DCU but it’s still a fun book and worth picking up from the quarter bins or on eBay (as I did). It’s reminiscent of an older school style of comics, with running subplots that go unmentioned for issues at a time, and love triangles galore. Plus, the majority of the issues are written by Roger Stern – so how wrong could you go?

Hmm…its almost enough to make me give The All New Atom a try…