May present a choking hazard

May present a choking hazard

Monday, December 3, 2007

The All New Atom #16


Upon seeing this cover for the first time in preview, I blurted out "ah what the hell?"
Upon taking it off the rack for purchase I blurted out "eh, what the hell."

Now I can't stop looking at it. I firmly believe that I've been hypnotized by Ladronn's cover here. Hopefully I wasn't the only one.

On to the friggin issue! Roger Stern guest writing, with Mike Norton continuing to make people move on pages.
As you may have guessed from the cover, regardless of who is writing, the oddities continue. Now I've heard some complaint from people about this one, mostly "I just didn't like it." I guess it's not deep and brooding enough.
For me, #16 takes me back to the time of goofy villains and issues of comics where complete and utter disaster threatens, begins to occur, and is thwarted all within that comic.

Having been defeated long ago by the Justice League, Xotar looks to exact his revenge! He starts out in Ivy Town with the ol "transform entire town into hippies with the use of music and psychedelic methods." Of course he doesn't plan on the quantum fields and such (sure) of Ryan Choi's belt (whom Xotar believes to be Ray Palmer). It is said fields and such (yup) that keep the new Atom from transforming into hippie-dom, allowing him to figure out what's happening, and attempt to stop this gargantuan headed baddie.

Meanwhile, the character of Dean Mayland gets all the more mysterious, and head yells a bit.

Stern puts together a fun one here, and as I said, it brought me back. For that I appreciate it once in a while.
Simone returns with the next issue bringing Wonder Woman along with her. That's right, big names are showing up in The All New Atom!

You're excited.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yeah, this issue wasn't as good as the standard fare, although it was a darn sight better than the zombies. Still, it was a fun issue, and a great deal better than a lot of stuff the big two put out every month. I really liked the return of Xotar, although I felt like they could have done more with him. I didn't want him to be a recurring foe or anything, but his thwarting could have been a bit more involved. I did enjoy the hippy Panda though....that was fun.

You know what I wish Simone would do in this series? I wish she would work on giving the Atom a good costumed rogue's gallery. We've got some shadowy, myserious villain in this story arc, and I'm fine with that. I just hope that one day, after she finishes her immediate plans, she'll give us some actual foes. I think that would go a good way toward making the Atom all around a more viable property. Dwarfstar is a good start, and he definitely needs to stick around.

Damian said...

Memorable foes would certainly be nice. I do like Dwarfstar, particularly so after Choi shrunk him.

So yes, need to get some serious evil doers up in this. Of course, the comic needs to stick around long enough for that to happen.

Anonymous said...

Haha, yeah, well I'm doing my part! I keep hearing that it's going to get cancelled, but it keeps chugging along.

This is actually a matter of interest to me in light of my mod, as well. Which villains do you (and any of your readers) think have potential?