The Atom

Hombre Atomico card!

2008-03-06T00:35:00.003-05:00

This is a McDonald's JLU trading card compliments of Argentina, a foreign land that provides me with more Atom and Hawkman stuff than the place I call home does.

I'm not going to get all worked up about these ridiculous numbers again. Like again, with the feeble fuerza.

Not going to let it bother me.

Seriously though, 7 inteligencia? Dr. Raymond Palmer. Are they aware he doesn't just uncontrollably shrink whenever there's a full moon? That there's was a modicum of inteligencia put into it?!

Unless they've factored in relationships smarts, in which case put him in the corner and bust out the pointy cap.

This is what the other sides of the cards look like:You've got everybody's favorites, along with random alternates such as that blonde guy with the hook and that dopey looking Red Tornado. Lil Doctor Fate for ya, and that magic broad with the big hat.

And Wildcat. Because he's still around.

And although it would have been so simple to just plug Ray in somewhere, he didn't make the cut.

Of course, he did get a card, so it's probably not worth it to let my fuerza go through the roof.

DC Comics Super Heroes Coloring Book: Atom page #2

2008-03-04T23:42:00.004-05:00

Of course after I defiantly stand up to the powers unseen and waggle my finger at the passing of time, vowing to make this a solid week of posting... the internet goes out. All I could do was stare at the computer screen, muttering unheard and unread apologies to the hungry millions that visit this site every day.
I'm sorry I let you down.

Moving on.

Graciously supplied by M.O.T.A member Doug Zawisza, I posted the first of these bad boys here.

Unlike the addition of mad scientist in the first one, this here is just Ray Ray getting down to business. It's classic stuff ladies and gentlemen.

And his fuerza grows with each passing day.

As with the first one, I recommend (insist?) that you print out the large version of this, color it in (stay between the lines) and send it in to DC recommending (insisting) that Damian's Search for Ray Palmer Children's Activity Book get the green light.

El Halcon - the Super Amigos card!

2008-03-03T00:04:00.002-05:00

I'm attempting to swing back into a consistent T3, but forces greater than the power of Blogger keep me away.
Hawkman Monday means the world is right again.

I posted Atomo here.

El Halcon beats him in every category except Peso, which means... weight? Does not compute.

Hey, whatever. Times have changed. Atomo is getting the recognition he deserves. Soon his Fuerza will be unmatched by all.

It would appear that El Halcon is reaching for something on that card. But what could it be?

Perhaps a sánduche so that he may increase his peso.

Comic Books price guide ad - 1983

2008-03-01T10:44:00.008-05:00

This ad compliments of Rob Kelly.

Who hasn't turned their comics into cash at one point or another?
I mean, besides people who don't buy comics.

Come on now, we've all been strapped, needed some quick money (don't fancy prostitution?) and have had to rifle through our beloved stash of goodies (do fancy prostitution?)
This is the time when you need to know how much that Solar Man of the Atom lot you got from a relative who thought they were giving a quality gift, is going to go for (although I don't know that a guide book from 83 is going to help you).

You could go straight to the local comic book store/dealer. But do you trust him to be fair? Or does your comic book sense tingle whenever you get near, knowing that a thief is in your midst.
Now you can live monies and without fear!
The Official *insert year* Price Guide to Comic Books is here! Complete with crazy background!

"But Damian, why are you telling us about this? The Atom isn't on there."

Au contra ire fool. That's some Jose Luis Garcia Lopez looking lineup
I'm nothing if not helpful.

VS*Chronos - Injustice Gang card

2008-02-28T10:13:00.005-05:00

"A minute here. A second there. I've got plenty of time to kill."

YES! Chronos is so bad ass it hurts my internal organs.

I posted my first VS card Chronos badassery here.

On this card, with art by Jonboy Meyers, Chronos looks to be an iron-jawed, iron fisted, powerhouse to be reckoned with.
Which is, of course, what he has always been.

Nice touch, sticking lil Ray in the hourglass.

Hawkman Super Powers stamp set

2008-02-27T00:31:00.006-05:00

DC Guy: "Okay, for our Super Powers stamp set line, we'll obviously go with Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman."

Other DC guy: "Obviously."

DC Guy: "I think we should have 4 characters though. 4 stamp sets."

Other DC Guy:"Hmm... yeah. But who else should we throw in there?"

DC Guy: "Get the hat."

5 minutes later...

DC Guy:"Okay, pull a name out."

Other DC Guy:"Tyr."

DC Guy:"Who?"

Other DC Guy: "He's... never mind. I'll pull another."

::pulls another one out::

"Hawkman."

DC Guy: "Who?
(pause)
Oh wait, the bird dude, right? Yeah, sure. Kids love birds."

And there you have it kids. The birth of the Hawkman signature stamp set. And thank God for it. You can also see there's a bonus Superman stamp thrown in there. Guy has got to get into everything...
I love finding stuff like this. People go to cons and the like for autographs, comics, sketches, and all that other nonsense. I'm the guy stalking around for stamp sets.
15 piece fram try puzzles.
70 PIECE PUZZLES.
Stain*a*stickers!
Can't stop me. Can only hope to contain me.

So when I saw this one from across a crowded room, I knew then... at that moment, that we were destined for each other.

Really, stuff like this will always be my fave. A Hawkman stamp set. I'm saddened by the fact that the Atom will never have something like this. No, he'll never have a mego, or a Super Powers figure, or any of the SP line (Viva Super Amigos!) and that sucks, sure... but he'll never have a signature stamp set from the early 80's. He won't be on a sweet Pepsi glass or a measuring ruler.
It's Hawkman's appearances on random things that makes me glad I took to him as much as I have. He made it on to school supplies. That's when you know you're somebody.

Here's what's going on in the back:
Amidst the card dings, you can see the wonders that await you.

Atomo- Super Amigos trading card!

2008-02-26T09:56:00.003-05:00

Fly Atomo, Fly!

Check out those numbers! Er... whatever they mean, that is. I'm sure 0.15 Altura m. isn't all that good.

Nice art they chose to put on these cards, not to mention that... they put the Atom on a card. The choice to include Ray in some of their merchandise is heartwarming. Warms the cockles. Something the Super Powers line obviously had no interest in doing. Zero cockle warming coming from that lot.

I have 2 other cards from this series. A shiny buffalo nickel to the one that guesses them.

See, I can run sweet contests too!

Tomorrow we'll see how Hawkman put his stamp on random merchandising, back in the days of the A- list.

Bug-Eyed Bandit Who's Who entry

2008-02-24T23:56:00.005-05:00

Continuing on with Atom related Who's Who entries as originally suggested by M.O.T.A. member and aquaman shrine keeper Rob Kelly, I hurl forth... The Bug-Eyed Bandit.

Enough said.

Hembeck Hawkman #3

2008-02-24T02:00:00.003-05:00

The third in the Hembeck Hawkman trilogy. Those guys crack me up.

Now stay tuned for the cgi drenched prequels...

This week coming up promises thrills galore! Maybe not thrills galore, but certainly some pretty cool stuff featuring muh favorites of DC's finest.

The Atom team-up ad

2008-02-23T01:10:00.003-05:00

Finally the unpredictability of my work has caught up to the Titan, so there are gaping post holes. I'm actually surprised I made it this far.

Back to work here, I offer an Atom ad! This, to me, is a beauty. Achieves all it set out to, I would imagine. You've got catchy colors, with the text nicely spread out but not all over the place. It grabs you.

"Fistic Fireworks." It says that. It really says that.

Doesn't hurt that you've got a sweet Gil Kane cover there with the two Atom's being smacked around.
Who the hell is this "Thinker?!" I've got to know!

As always, available at your local newsstand.

The Atom "Legacy" card

2008-02-21T00:55:00.003-05:00

I completely bypassed buying up packs of these cards and waited until I could seek them out individually. I guess I'm just not a good DC fan.

After all, these cards are pretty cool. And as you can see, it's Choi and Palmer, further enforcing the fact that Pratt and Palmer just had absolutely nothing to do with one another.
As far as I know, there isn't a Pratt legacy card, even though they'd get to put his nifty costume transition on the front.

So Ryan heads up the front, while Ray does his "light as a feather" deal on the back.

The card provides a wealth of information, so allow me to share some of it with you.

Raymond "Ray" Palmer, the Atom II, had himself his first appearance in Suicide Squad #44.

M'okay.

Soon after the disappearance of Ray, Ryan Choi took over, becoming the Atom III.

Gee whiz, I wonder what else I can learn from these cards!

They look nice anyway...

The Superman/Aquaman Hour of Adventure production drawing

2008-02-19T00:16:00.007-05:00

This may appear very faint on your computer, so feel free to click the pic to get the real deal version. No extra charge, although gratuities are greatly appreciated.

This is a production drawing from The Superman/Aquaman Hour of Adventure tv series that aired in 1967. I picked up a bunch of these, along with some cels from the same show, and the lot is amongst some of my most favoritest stuff. I think it's just the fact that it's the Atom... on a tv series... in 1967. I do love my history.

This one in particular is exceptional because... well, he's on a cat. Big ol fluffy one. I don't know if he's waking cat up, or putting cat to sleep. Perhaps he's preparing to challenge the 8 second mark of cat riding without getting thrown.

Feel free to throw in your thoughts on what exactly is transpiring here.

DC Official Licensee display

2008-02-18T00:43:00.004-05:00

I am hereby licensed to dish out DC Comics!

Why, you ask?

Because I've got myself a sweet licensee display, that's why damnit!

Sweet! Hey JLA... oh wait... hey Shazam.
As we all know, Shazam shows up on things from time to time. And at the time he was still very much a face and a name, so what better place to put him?

I snagged this from a comic book store which no longer dishes out comics of any kind, and I'm glad I did. Acquired for the inclusion of man with Hawk mask and wings, this is just another one of those items I love having. Although the "DC" is in pink, which I could do without.

And it came with a hefty price. Not monies. I believe I signed something in blood for this puppy. True story...

Justice League Unlimited Atom 10 inch #2

2008-02-17T00:48:00.003-05:00

A few months back I posted the first Mattel 10 inch Atom doll... pardon me, figure, I have here.
Today is the exciting conclusion to the 10 inch Atom doll FIGURE extravaganza.
If you'll look at the first one I posted, you'll notice the two items are like night and day.
One Atom comes packaged with another shrunk Atom, in a blue box.
This one here comes packaged with another shrunk Atom... in a not blue box. Although it's obscured in this picture. Take my word for it, tiny Ray is in there.
This package says "DC SuperHeroes" along the side of it.
The blue package did not say "DC SuperHeroes" along the side of it, but does show the magnificent seven crowded around the bottom.

Let's cut the crap and get to the dollsfigures themselves:

There's no difference.

Thanks for stopping by!

Okay, I think the blue packaged ones were released in 2004. These yellowish boxed ones, 2006 perhaps.

I love... repeat LOVE that the powers that be released this figure again in a slightly different package. I've always wanted an Atom figure to be re-released with only slightly different packaging. It means you're somebody.
And they weren't done. He was one of the few that got himself a JLU die-cast figurine, which I've actually yet to pick up. Sad face. My die-cast day will come!

Hawkman patch

2008-02-16T01:51:00.005-05:00

It's exciting post time at the Titan again! I eagerly anticipate and fear at the same time, the flood of comments that await such a conversational piece.

I love when people get dressed up as their favorite characters and go to cons. It's the dedication.

Wassat?

Oh, turns out this a patch representing the actual Hawkman, and not a fan. Or his half-brother Carl.

You're led to believe it's depth perception, but as you can see, Carter, having hit a rough spot, needs to work out his right arm in order to catch up to his left arm... then work everything out. Otherwise he's just a guy flying around wheeting.
Which will probably be his next incarnation.

It's little nuggets like this that are the cornerstone of any geekly collection. Sure the comics are nice. And the figures made solely for collectors get better and better, but this was where it was at. There just isn't nearly enough new crap like this floating around out there in the DC world.

Mystery in Space and The Atom ad

2008-02-15T02:59:00.004-05:00

Compliments of M.O.T.A. member Robquaman (run with it I say) For the very best in Comics reading.

And for me, it would have been AND is the very best in comics reading.
Hawkman and Adam Strange!
The Atom vs. one of his nerdling villains!

It's a shrinking, flying, mace wielding, tomorrow land living, ray gun shooting bonanza!

All for 24 cents. Oh. Yes.

2008-02-14T11:08:00.002-05:00

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

JLA Classified #52 - The Truth Hurts

2008-02-13T23:51:00.009-05:00

Written by Roger Stern/Penciled by John Byrne/ Inked by Mark Farmer

Part 1 and Part 2

Moving on to the third part of this 5 part mini-offering from Stern, it opens with Wally West hurtling through different dimensions after getting himself zapped by the big bad mofo cleaning some JLA house.
Back at JLA headquarters, Bats and the Atom prepare a big bad mofo thwarting, which ends up... unsuccessful.

After some taunting, B.B.M. manages to zap Ray in mid-shrink, which is no easy task.
While the thing trashes Supes and WW, Bats and Atom fall back to pow-wow with GL Johnny whom due to a bout of unconsciousness is being used by J'Onn to speak through, and a recently returned high octane Wally.
With their noggins put together, it's found that the B.B.M. is a Godling called Titus, that the league, of course, had a run in with earlier.

But what are they going to do about it?

Another nice piece of the mini-epic Stern and Byrne have put together here while the JLA headquarters turns into Drub Med. One might think the continuous beating of Superman and Wonder Woman would get old... but it doesn't.
The series has been a nice change for the fact that each of the characters has had almost the same amount of page time. Everyone is doing their thing, and each play an important piece. And from looking at next issues cover, I'd imagine there'll be more GA and Arthur and friends action in our future.
So that's it, it's just been good fun. The outlook is still bleak for our heroes, but there isn't the grimy "end of everything" feeling I get from Countdown, along with my one page of Palmer per issue. So I look forward to the next.
And I end with this, which is the reactions of some of the folks after Superman, J'Onn, and the Atom launch him through the airlock and over the meadow and through the woods.

Sword of the Atom insert (1984)

2008-02-13T14:43:00.002-05:00

Thanks to numerous obstacles not at all unlike Double Dare, I'm posting when I get the chance during the day.
Frank had asked me if I had these inserts, which I sadly at this time, do not. But he does, and has provided them for me, making him the brand spanking newest member of M.O.T.A.!
Welcome aboard.
He's put them up over at his site nurgh, and that's where you'll go to see the entire sweet setup.

I repeat... that's where you'll go to see the entire sweet setup.

nurgh ! Catch the fever!

In regards to The Shadow War of Hawkman, Frank, I should have it. Although if I do not, and you provide it, you might then become a member of F.O.A.F!

Friends of a Feather?

The Atom: Who's Who entry

2008-02-12T00:50:00.001-05:00

A little ways back, thanks to the suggestion by Robquaman, I posted the first of the T3 related DC Who's Who entries with the Atom. The shrinking one. Here we are having ourselves some Al Pratt Who's Who-ness. Yanno... the first one.

We've got some great Atom artistry going on there from Rick Hoberg and Romeo Tanghal, two men more than familiar with the mighty mite throughout the years.

It's as good a place as any to really see the changes Al went through during his tenure. While he's quite super-heroic looking in his second look, the first one can smell your fear. And that's WITH entire head piece intact, lending to quite a good amount of the fear.
Sans tights was another matter.

Atomic bonus: Treat yourself to some fine chest hair, occurring in the background.

Hembeck Hawkman #2

2008-02-11T00:49:00.001-05:00

I thought we'd celebrate the one week anniversary of the Hembeck Hawkman posting... with another!

Preach on, Carter! Preach on!

Aquaman and the Atom: The Brave and the Bold ad

2008-02-10T12:21:00.001-05:00

If I had even a modicum of timing, maybe I would have posted this before the recap/review of the issue the ad is for. Buuuuuuuuut that's just not me.

But here it is!

It's a great ad, certainly helped along by the B&B cover which was a good one. Unconscious Arthur in his bubble, and squirming Ray in the claw of Galg, the destroyer!

In case you missed it, feel free to check out mine and Rob's dual Aquaman/Atom Crisis on earth's B-List coverage here and here.

All New Atom #20

2008-02-09T11:25:00.002-05:00

Written by Gail Simone/Art by Mike Norton/Inks by Trevor Scott

The issue starts with Choi wrapping up saving the entire population of Superman's planet by shrinking them onto a crystal. He then proceeds to fly back to Earth with the Green Lanterns, hitch a ride with the Flash to his University where he is welcomed with a bright, young class of eager minds raring to learn. After learning minds, he heads on home to his girls, including but not limited to - his high school crush and Wonder Woman..

Of course he's dreaming.

But it's no regular dream. No noooooooo! The evil Dean has him push-pinned to a desk with a big ol purple tentacled thing attached to him causing all sorts of mayhem. Pretty much what you see on the cover there.

What you get in this, the final hurrah for Simone and Norton on this title, is the aforementioned purple tentacle thing, the evil Dean turning into a fangled squid monster, the big boss and guy behind all the evil and chaos and goofery that has taken place in Ivy Town (an old friend), a Destroy all Monsters rubber suit kaiju attack on the town, a clutch appearance by the giant blobby cancer god of the sewers, and head shouting.
Those are just some things that occur.It may seem like a lot to cram in, and for a normal book of this length it is. It's a nice wrap up of their run, but I wish they had more room to let things play out and really have fun with it. Especially since I'm a big ol sucker for every device used in this issue.

But that's all she wrote. In #21, Choi is handed over to Rick Remender, and Pat Olliffe works the artistry. We'll see what these boys can do and how long All New runs on for.

There'll of course be a tie-in somewhere when they kill of Palmer in Countdown.

Atom vs. Ant-man: #2 - Gary Gretsky

2008-02-08T00:15:00.000-05:00

The bout has come to a conclusion, with the Atom's K.O. of that bug only slightly delayed. As you can clearly see, Ray has done this with both brains AND brawn.

Gary graciously did this for me even after my insane reaction to the first piece, which is very cool of him.

Nice job Ray, we all knew you had it in you!

You can view countless Gretsky sketches over at his site, here, free of charge. No height requirement. Fair warning should be given though, there's the occasional raunch!

Atom vs. Ant-man: #1 - Gary Gretsky

2008-02-07T15:07:00.000-05:00

I've been a bit under the weather here, and I was going to skip posting all together. However, something arrived at the house, and I feel it necessary to share with all.

A week or so ago I was randomly searching for Atom stuff, and I came across this. The Atom fighting that bug.
And losing...

I thought, hey, awesome sketch... but I can't believe this guy has the Atom losing to this rip-off insect.
So I, of course, emailed the artist, complimented him on his artwork and lambasted him on what appeared to be the outcome of this miniature battle royale of sketches.
He, of course, never expected some lunatic Atom fan (who does?) to come banging on his door spewing all "he could easily shrink out of that, shift his weight, and knock that punk out..."

So I do kind of feel sorry for him. He was just trying to draw something damnit!

But it's not over...

VS Card * Chronos

2008-02-06T00:36:00.000-05:00

"Been there, stole that."

Yesssss David, you go with your bad self. (send all complaints to the electronic mail address provided on this site)

I'll admit I'm still a bit hazy on how to wield these cards, but I do know one thing: I'm liking the Chronos art, compliments of Stuart Sayger.

You've got some faint clock action in the back, his cape looking great blowing around while he administers some kind of thieving mayhem to that device.

I also noticed that those responsible for this card opted to put "to" instead of the "->" which Siskoid was a big fan of, and can be found on the first vs. card I posted, here. Maybe it's an Injustice Gang thing.
Don't kid yourself, it means something.

Maybe it means it's time for another Chronos comic, with pencils by Stuart Sayger.

Atom switch plate: Part 2

2008-02-05T00:06:00.000-05:00

In my attempt to corner the market on Atom switch plates, I provide this.
Again, custom items do not easily get past security, but occasionally we make exceptions.

Ah, who am I kidding? Take anything the Atom has ever been on and slap him on anything you can find, call it unique, and I'll be all "Gee whiz, sweeet sweeetness!"

"Damian, check out this one-of-a-kind tennis ball with the Atom done in sharpie by an artist who never drew another thing."

Awesome. Sign me up.

The first and finer of the two, can be seen here. That's not too say that the original artwork this was lifted from (a pin-up from that Superman and Batman mag), both by Mike Parobeck, isn't great, but this here doesn't translate as well onto a switch plate as the first one does.
And the fact that he's fighting a giant bug in aforementioned pin-up, leaves one wanting more.

I invite everyone out there to share their Atom switch plates with me, with the T3, in an effort to bring us all that much closer.
____________________________________________________________________

In exciting non-switch plate news, thanks to a hot tip from M.O.T.A. member Ilke Hincer, the Hawkman Companion, from TwoMorrow's publishing, is available for pre-ordering!
Written by M.O.T.A. member Doug Zawisza, through countless hours of sweat and passion, with the grace of a swan and the laborous grunting effort of a Moria dwarf, the Hawkman Companion promises to be the severe hotness. I'll be pimping it (is that correct? I'm iffy with the jive) constantly so ya won't forget.

I'm excited Doug!

Hembeck Hawk-heroes

2008-02-04T02:14:00.001-05:00

It's that time again. Another Monday, another Hawkman, another Fred Hembeck strip.

This is one of my favorites, and I think Carter looks pretty damn cool.

Plus, you men ensconced in some form of relationship take note! There's a lesson to be learned here. Somewhere...

Oh, and it's funny!

Merry Monday folks, enjoy!

JLA Classified #51: First Contact

2008-02-03T00:24:00.002-05:00

Written by Roger Stern/Penciled by John Byrne/Inked by Mark Farmer

Here’s a new one. A post not featuring any Atom, nor any Hawkman. Not even Red Tornado! I said I wanted to go with this JLA classified mini-series (the first part I covered can be seen here), and by God I’ll do it.
Now how, you may ask, is it that there’s no Atom in this issue, when the last one left off with Ray and the Batman tenderly holding each other in the corner whilst some behemoth raises the roof in celebration?
I answer: because it’s flashback time.

The story is narrated by the Martian Manhunter as he explains the first contact they had with the “enemy,” a decade ago.

The story opens on a student archaeological team sorting through ruins on a tiny island in the Aegean sea. Upon finding an altar, that may or may not have been used to worship Hera or Zeus, a great big lunk waltzes up to the team and begins to question them about the temple they’re currently rifling through, and who folks worship nowadays.
A few days later, houses of worship begin to mysteriously collapse.

Aquaman finds a vehicle of sorts on an islet in the Falklands, and Flash, Ollie, Hal, MM, and Canary go to check it out, whereupon they find footprints leading out of the thing. They take it back (much thanks to Arthur) for studying and are… a bit perplexed as to what they find. That’s basically the first half of the book.

The second half could be simply explained as: the pounding of the JLA. Once again this thing cuts through them like butter, crushing ribs, breaking arms, and surprising all.
Supes, who was in Paris attempting to figure out how the spire of the Great Cathedral gets torn off by a thunderstorm flies in and does his normal “those are my friends, now you have to deal with me,” bit.

This is what the “enemy” thinks of him.
Whoops.

The second solid entry by Stern and Byrne (Sternbyrne?). It's great to see old characters (particularly Arthur) hanging around, doing what they do.
As I mentioned previously, I'm a sucker for the JLA running into a seemingly unstoppable force.
I'm looking forward to the next issue.

Comic Cavalcade ad

2008-02-02T02:12:00.001-05:00

Now there's a fun ad!

Hop Harrigan!

Al Pratt stuff is few and far, but the time had arrived for this ad. I like him charging towards the viewer while the Flash,GL, and WW seem... confused.

As always, at your favorite newsdealer.

_____________________________________________________________

Also, do yourselves a favor if you haven't already, and head on over to Michael Netzer's page where Martian saving continues. You'll be treated with Steven Segal references, assorted news, pleas from Martian fans, and the beautiful beginnings of an Aquaman sketch for Rob of the shrine featuring the Martian Manhunter... and the Atom!

The Brave and the Bold #9

2008-02-01T02:44:00.000-05:00

Mark Waid and George Perez are those responsible.

I'm double posting again. I know, I'm out of control.

I wasn't aware of this until I saw it on the shelf at the comics store, and I wish I had just walked away.
But I didn't.

There's 3 stories in this "Star-Studded Spectacular," and with the Hawkman and Atom occupying 7 pages of it, I could have just read it right there and put it back on the shelf.
But I didn't.

I initially planned to just include in my previous post as a "hey, look at this," but after reading, I couldn't.

I'm not interested in the other two stories. They were cute. One group fought another. Good guys won.

Let's catch up first:
The last contact the Atom and Hawkman had involved Ray telling Carter that he was going away for a while, and not to tell anyone else. Then Ray disappeared and the two have not been together since.

Fast forward to The Brave and the Bold #9. We're at Ivy University where an auditorium full of people are listening to some speaker drone on. Sitting two seats apart are Ryan Choi and Carter Hall. Neither has any knowledge that the other puts on a costume and fights crime. Carter has no idea someone else has been running around, performing "Atom" duties.
Ryan sits there wondering to himself how someone of the physical nature that visiting Curator Carter Hall is, manages to be literate.
Then there's an explosion, people scatter, the Warlock of YS appears, and two superheroes suit up.
Whatever, that's fine.

Here's the first meeting of these two. The first time Carter sees someone, whom amidst the chaos , hethinks is Ray.
After that, it's business as usual. The story ends with the duo defeating the Warlock thanks to quick thinking by Ryan, and the baddie spinning off into some bad place. Nothing else is exchanged between the Atom and Hawkman.

The "Don't embarass yourself in front of the famous super-hero" bit is funny...

But what the hell is this?

First of all, aside from the mild feeling akin to finding the mailman in your bedroom, I want to know the purpose behind this team-up.
Are we testing the waters here, seeing how the "new Atom" and Hawkman feel as a team? Or are we planning to "off" Ryan in the near future, but feel he should at least meet up with Hawkman? So we'll throw him a bone in an article length B&B.

This is how Choi and Hawkman meet up?
And that's Carter's reaction to someone who shows up mirroring his best friend?
"Palmer? Wait, who are you? M'kay, let's do it!"
"You're my new BFF!'

There's no mention of Ray again. No questioning who this guy is. Carter's been around long enough to know that people try to infiltrate!

I understand someone thought this was a cute idea. Cuz, yasee... The Atom and Hawkman were slapped together into one series way back when.
So gee willikers, let's get the "new Atom" and our "old, new, old, both Hawkman" into one action packed 7 page epic!
No. NO. Didn't work. And what have you done?
Whatever lies ahead for Choi, if it was necessary for he and Carter to cross paths, it could have been quite a book. There are numerous paths from every angle that could have been taken.
If we could erase this from history and do a slight rewind, I'd help you guys come up with a humdinger. It can even be a choose your adventure book, because that's how many options there were to go with it.

But no. The half-assed treament is applied, Hawkman looks like a friggin moron, and once again someone had to get cute in what amounts to the length of an origin story, with no looking back.

Letting it get to me too much?
Tell that to the one, single tear that is currently making it's way from my duct to my cheekbone.

Well, that's obviously not true or I'd be utter madness. But I'm pissed!

JLA Classified #50

2008-02-01T01:42:00.001-05:00

Written by Roger Stern/Penciled by John Byrne/Inked by Mark Farmer

Barren yet intriguing cover by Joshua Middleton.
This is the first story in a 5 part "epic."

I wanted to get into this small series because it features a lot of old faces (the first 2 parts anyway) from the JLA, getting absolutely thumped, and that was just appealing to me!

Also, in tune with our "Save the Martian" blog-a-thon we've got going and lack of Atom/J'Onzz BFFness, this is perfect.
It's got the Martian Manhunter.
It's got the Atom.
It's even got the Atom and the Martian Manhunter in the same room!

Aw, too bad by the time Ray gets there... JJ has been knocked out.

Potential spoilers ahead, maybe, but I'll try to sidestep them and wrap it up. For those looking for JLA vs. giant, unstoppable beast... it shouldn't matter anyway.

The story opens with J'Onn looking out at Earth, admiring how beautiful it is and commenting on how it's the only home he has now.
Head on over to the JLA basketball court (!) within the watchtower, where Wally and GL Johnny are shooting some hoops. (they both end up cheating).
It's just pleasant times and pleasant heroes, living the dream. Oh... that is until some gargantuan beast, hearing the faint whispers of the Martian Manhunter, bursts through some lunar surface, makes a bee-line for the JLA base and right through the wall just as our three heroes are doing a "what's up with that proximity alarm?"
Supes, WW, Batman, and the Atom are all preoccupied with their own individual catastrophies, and are forced to temporarily ignore the signal. Although Ray appears to be the only one who thinks it's slightly odd that a signal designed to go off only when the hull has been breached and there's no one around to countermand it, continues to "Meep."
Immediately after bashing the Flash to the ground, MM informs the beast that he has made a "grievous error!"
Monster then informs him, that he and the JLA... have tangled before!

There's a slight scuffle, but big 'n' orange easily drops the three.
Upon Stewart's dive into unconsciousness, his ring sends out the message to the other four that he and the other two have been drubbed, and that the end is nigh. Maybe that's not exactly what he said.
Well, our other heroes must get back! Whoops, Batman informs them that the transport tubes are down to 5% power.
Damn, if only there were someone small enough to...
Right, right.

The Atom heads on through to check out the damage, and it's pretty bad. He and a mangled GL transport J'Onzz over to sickbay, while Bats, Supes, and WW snail it in her see-through jet.

Ray decides to confront the thing and see what he's all about.
Although he actually just winds up standing on the thing, shrinking and unshrinking, dishing out the taunts, which surprisingly only serves to infuriate it. He ends up being the only one to come into any kind of contact with it and remain conscious. That punch by Supes is the last one any of them will get in.

The issue ends on 2 great shots: One of the giant orange rock beast, arms in the air celebrating the pounding of the world's greatest superheroes, while Batman and the Atom hide out in a corner. Or rather, a creek. No paddles.
The other is the Manhunter desperately trying to communicate his thoughts that he knows what this thing is and that the situation is... not so good. But alas, no one can hear him.

I do enjoy a good JLA getting drubbed story. Particularly when it ends with the Batman and Atom hiding from a big, scary monster.
Stern and Byrne have both worked on the Atom in one shape or form in the past, and I appreciate what they've done here with Ray. I enjoy that he's a part of this team, a pivotal part of the story, and someone that can be counted on.
I also don't mind him talking the talk to a big, giant rock monster every now and then.
With all of the action taking place in the watchtower, Byrne's work is for the most part uninvolved as far as backgrounds go, yet perfectly serviceable for what it needs to be. He and Stern help create what turns into a claustrophobic little piece, with no where to run for our heroes.

So who/what is this thing? Eh, can't say as of yet....

JLA vs. Teen Titans poster

2008-01-31T02:48:00.001-05:00

Here is a... busy poster. It's one of these deals where you're to go into overload from the abundance of heroes present, and that (if available) said heroes are pitted up against mentor/sidekick, power equal.
I wasn't crazy about the miniseries, nor am I in love with the poster. I'm over (was then) scores of heroes facing off against one another artwork (although I occasionally enjoy the prospect of the Atom drubbing that Marvel bug) and this is not my favorite from Phil Jimenez.

But I suppose it serves/served it's purpose.

"But where's the Atom, Damian?"

Need help tracking Ray down? Wait no longer!

As you can see, Ray has been streaking across the poster, leaving little Atom logo's in his place. I've also taken the liberty of arrowing out two other celebrities:
The Martian Manhunter - Whom has been the topic of discussion at several sites the past week or so and since you just can't get your fill of the Manhunter, take a trip on over to Frank and/or Mike Netzer's site, to see what's new there. As you can see, J'Onn is right under the Atom. BFF! He's got his cape all closed up there, definitely something going on. Perhaps he's not wearing his red x underneath, the little minx...
Aquaman - As we can see there (assuming you can find him even with super helpful arrow!), he's about to shove his hook up Garth's nose.

Justice League tv pilot continued...

2008-01-30T01:13:00.001-05:00

Who says Ray and J'Onn never hung out?!

I was going to post something else today, but all of this Martian Manhunter business, and the lack of interaction between himself and the Atom got me thinking about the pilot.
This pilot. And what could have been.

I had posted a photo I had from this gem a few months ago, which can be found here free of charge.
And here's another beauty (although it came without the helpful arrows and names which I've included for your ease). Would you just look at them.
Obviously a great deal of work was put into crafting the perfect, versatile Atom costume in case it ever became the Justice League of American Gladiators.

As I type this on going tribute to the cold-war friendship that has gone on between The Atom and The Martian Manhunter in an attempt to not only save one (and one who's not far behind I'm sure) and urge those in power to develop a kinship between these two, I must admit... this pilot and any evidence of it probably doesn't help.
But look at them (not a photo I own, courtesy of BeyondHollywood.com).

They're destined for greatness together.

Michael Netzer Atom and The Martian Manhunter sketch #2: We will not go quietly into the night...

2008-01-29T01:08:00.000-05:00

Michael Netzer is at it again! Amidst the maddening Martian manslaughter attempts, Mike has managed to give birth to two beautiful works of Atom & J’Onzz camaraderie.

If you’ve been here before (or there, or elsewhere) you know at this point in time Mr. Netzer has launched a worldwide plea to stop the eradication of The Martian Manhunter, offering up his comics wizardry services which the character is in dire need of. You can get yourself up to speed, lend your voice, and keep up to date at his site, here.

The first of the Atom/JJ sketches that Michael whipped up for me, featuring Ryan Choi possibly leading the duo hot on the trail of someone/something, can be seen here.

After commenting that it was in fact the first Ryan Choi sketch I had received, Michael went ahead… and did a Ray Palmer sketch… within the same setting!

Ray is at the feet of The Martian Manhunter while Ryan rides the brow helm. Could it be foreshadowing?

Is Ray to step to the side while Ryan (whose book sales do not exactly justify it) comes to the forefront as resident Atom? If we listen carefully, will we be able to hear the tiny shouts of the world’s smallest superhero as he’s thrust into the Petri dish of comics’ oblivion?

Or will he just meet the same end that is threatening J’Onn J’Onzz and that Aquaman with the shoulder pads?

Ryan has been offered a permanent chair in the Justice League by none other than Wonder Woman, so there could possibly be something there.

I've made my Ray Palmer bed and by God I will lie in it!

Regardless of what happens, Ray looks awesome here, dishing the upward sass at the two preoccupied heroes. This is just another outstanding piece of artwork from a severely talented man. One whom should be re-routing a certain green, bald man-hunter’s life.

Maybe JJ, Arthur, and Ray can form their own squad in their own comic.

They’ll be known as:

M.A.M.L.S.S.

(Multiverse, air, micro-worlds, land, sea, space)

(it’s a work in progress)

Perhaps the first page will read:

"We will not go quietly into the night... we will not vanish without a fight!

We're going to live on!

We're going to survive!”

Four minutes prior to typing this, I would have bet you my house that I’d be the last person on Earth (this one or any other) to quote Independence Day.

Damn me.

Too bad for you.

M.O.T.A

2008-01-29T00:34:00.000-05:00

Not wanting to divide my specific post for tonight, I'll double up. Besides, I felt if news worthy to note that M.O.T.A is official!

That's correct, word to my mom.

Not only did Mr. Kelly of the JLA Satellite (mixing it up!) get behind my "heavy borrowing" of his F.O.A.M membership... he expertly put together, like an android from the future, the M.O.T.A. membership certificate!

It's sort of like the Oscars, except the people that receive these earn them...

So, if you want to see one... well, an Atom TEEM bottle cap would do the trick.
Or you could just ask someone who already has one, but that's not the point here!
And remember, if someone asks you what the hell a "M.O.T.A." is, just snicker and walk away. They may have your lunch money, but you know that M.O.T.A is Atom backwards!

Perhaps in the future we'll have contests and club meetings and secret decoder rings and field trips. You'd like that wouldn't you?

Catch the fever!

Hombre Halcon bottle cap - 1978

2008-01-28T01:35:00.001-05:00

"Go ahead... build up that thirst until you can't stand it any more... then blow it away with TEEM!"

If' you're putting DC Comics superheroes under your caps, I'm game!

This Argentinian cap, if you don't already know, is from a lemon-lime flavored soft drink called TEEM, compliments of the Pepsi-Cola company.
I don't know much about the caps, or really this drink TEEM, aside from their tag line there and that they were blown away by Slice.
Aside from Hombre Halcon, I've seen a Green Lantern, Aquaman, Batman, Supes, Batgirl, Cheetah, Green Arrow, and Mr. Mxyzptlk I belive. I'll just go ahead and assume there were/are others.
Do I dare assume there's an Atom? Why oh why hasn't it found me?!

Carter there is obviously trying to stop a cab because he brought the small mace along with him when he definitely meant to take the big one.

I got this at a con from a man who obviously thought it was the Lost Ark and not a soda bottle cap, with the way he had priced it. I expressed interest and he in turn expressed interest in me.
I maybe said, "ooh."
He then gave me some Argentinian background, mostly made up, asked if I liked Hombre Halcon (he may have called him Hawkman).
I possibly replied, "I love me some Hombre Halcon." (I may have said Hawkman)

I don't remember his exact asking price, but I probably could have walked out and bought the truck that lugged them to Argentina for around the same.
This guy didn't want to lose me, I could see that. Obviously there were not all that many people interested in severely overpriced bottle caps.
I had to inform him that there was no way I could justify spending that kind of money on a bottle cap without regenerative healing powers.
"But it's vintage!"
"It's from the late 70's, it's not like you found it combing the beach in Normandy. And Hawkman's on it. I'm your only chance of pawning that off on somebody." (that's obviously an exact quote)

Needless to say, I won the day and gave the guy like 8 bucks. And not because I'm a cheap ass haggler. I don't generally haggle because I'll just fold.
But this guy might as well have had a ski mask on, and I know the market for Hombre Halcon bottle caps!

DC Comics Super Heroes coloring book: Atom page

2008-01-27T00:57:00.001-05:00

This page was taken directly from my Search for Ray Palmer Children's Activity Book!

That's obviously not true as no one would dare green light my Atom activity book.

But this fun scene is from a 1996 Golden Books DC Comics Super Heroes coloring book, featuring mullet Superman, provided to me by fellow F.O.A.M. member and Hawkman nut Doug Zawisza. As you can see, Ray is readying his atomic punch for some mad scientist face. I had no idea The Atom was in there, so I give thanks to Doug for sending this to me.
What needs to happen next is that everyone gets a copy of this (click on the picture for the colorable (?) version. There's another one as well), colors it in, and sends it to DC begging them for Damian's Search for Ray Palmer Children's Activity Book. It's like where's Waldo, but much cooler. And there's coloring!

Speaking of ripping things off, having acquired several Atom related things from gracious senders in the last few weeks, it had occurred to me that maybe I should rip-off (excuse me, the term is "borrow") Rob Kelly's F.O.A.M. group and put something together of my own. Sort of a "thanks for this wonderful thing you sent me, now you're part of such and such, here's your membership." We're looking for a team atmosphere here at the T3.

Maybe M.O.T.A. Yanno, Mates of the Atom.

On the positive side, it's a lot like SOTA (Sword of the Atom) and POTA (Power of the Atom) with the lone exception being one letter. And if you're familiar with the Atom fleer tattoo, or perhaps a mirror, you might just see... Mota spells Atom backwards!!! I am out of control good!

On the other hand, I'm not Australian, so "mates" might be a bit of a push. And to anyone not familiar with it's inception and not particularly interested in researching it, might just seem like a list of people Ray Palmer tried to breed with.

Maybe it's not a good idea. Suggestions?
(Here's one: Get your own identity!)

Chime in on all matters. And as always, we're excited.

Thanks again, Doug!

Michael Netzer Atom and The Martian Manhunter sketch

2008-01-26T04:09:00.001-05:00

This beautiful, gorgeous beast was born out of Martian madness, which is currently delved into a post below in my own nonsensical ramblings.

To date I've never had a Ryan Choi sketch done. Generally when I'm talking to someone, "Ray Palmer" will involuntarily blurt out. It's particularly ineffective when speaking to someone with no knowledge of comics, and not named Ray Palmer.

And that's where Mike Netzer, with myself just showing a little support, gave birth to this!

I seriously considered just putting the thing up and leaving it at that. Doesn't really even need to be talked about. It's just awesome.
HE'S SITTING ON HIS GIANT ALIEN BROW!

As Frank Lee Delano and I have talked about, The Atom and J'Onn J'Onzz haven't really hung out together. They haven't even really talked to each other, despite being in the same friggin league.
There's one point in POTA where J'Onn tries to talk Ray into re-joining the league, but it's possible that's not even Ray. And J'Onn may have been on something.

So to see something like this, is really nice. Perhaps it's a glimpse into a very near future where Ryan Choi and the Manhunter team-up to bust somebody up!
Of course, where does that put Ray? I don't even want to think about it. I'm no better than Jean...

ANYWAY! I could see this as a great pillow case. Perhaps one wall, just this. Or maybe just a nice frame, as it hears the call of the Atom shrine...

Gorgeous, fantastic drawing Michael. Thanks so much!

The Martian march towards death row...

2008-01-26T03:32:00.001-05:00

This was initially going to be me posting a sketch Mike Netzer did for me, but I feel a rant coming on, so I didn't want to clog the two together. Therefore, without further adieu... I believe we've got a double posting.

With the potential execution of the Manhunter from Mars for a quick buck, Michael Netzer has launched a massive plea on his website, asking people to sign up and speak their minds against a character who's been around long enough for any comics fan to know him, but isn't so plastered on every piece of merchandise to cause an epidemic if they kill him.
I know there's been rumblings that such a plea and petition can lead to the exact opposite effect J'Onn J'Onzz enthusiasts are going for, and sure... they could be right.
If DC is so eager to do this, reaction of this magnitude spells $$$. For a limited time only, of course.

I've also heard around the horn that the worst part of this or any telegraphed execution is the prior knowledge of it. And that's very true. Instead of just picking up a comic book, getting to a point in it and seeing your hero/favorite character/guy you know getting his ticket punched, which should be an emotional experience on many levels (of course you could always just tell yourself that somewhere in an undetermined future... he'll/she'll be back), you see what you've expected for quite some time. "Look at that. They sure did kill em."

So there you go. Now everyone knows, so there's no point. Pull a humdinger of a move and have him save the world!

I've mentioned it before, and I'll say it here... I'm not against characters getting theirs and moving on to that happy fun afterlife. If they want, I'll provide a detailed list of characters that have far exceeded their usefulness, and were begging to expire long ago.

I've a problem with the potential expiration of JJ because of why I think it'll be done. Which I've already stated, is because they don't have the comics balls to take out a seriously heavy hitter. And why would they, right?
It's slated for moderate shock value of a familiar enough face. He's got some screen and toy time with the JLU, he's been out there meeting and greeting so he's a prime candidate.
But not too much.

And if this can happen to J'Onzz, what the hell will happen to my Ray!!! He's already been gone for years. Gonna crank him up a few notches then take him out too?
I had a suspicion that Choi was a test, thrown out there to see who bit and how many, soze they can throw Ray Ray in as a bonus kill.

"See the Manhunter from Mars die horrifically! w/bonus Atom death included"

Ah well. Those that are about to die, I salute you.

For some real Martian Manhunter madcappery and fun times, I'd suggest you visit Frank Lee Delano's Idol-Head of Diabolu site, a daily dedication to that bald, green dude.

Hawkman Brave and Bold ad

2008-01-25T01:00:00.000-05:00

Another appearance by Carter at the T3. He's found a home, just where he should be, with his best bud.

This ad, courtesy of Rob Kelly over at the aquaman shrine and other rear kicking bloggage, is gorgeous.
It should just sell itself, and it works for me! I want to know who this Hawkman is, how he comes to fight all of these menaces, and why he "wheets."

If that's not enough or just doesn't do it for you, he's obviously putting his fist through someone or something on the cover of that comic.

That does it.

Although if I didn't know any better, I'd think with all the "who's" on there, maybe it's an ad better suited for Owlman.

Ba-dum-dum

Fred Hembeck sketch

2008-01-24T00:50:00.002-05:00

I messaged Fred informing him that I had put up his and Bill Anderson's JLA/JSA meeting, here.
He was quite enthusiastic about it, apparently having forgotten he had ever done it!

I figured then was as good a time as any to get an Atom sketch out of him.

As you can plainly see, it's the greatest thing ever created.
Look. At. That. Mug.
I often sat here and wondered what he was going to send back, and this topped anything I could have thought of.

He also included a little drawing of himself as the Atom, which I have to say, puts him in my mind as the next guy to wear the suit.

Thanks Fred!

JLA Pocket heroes: Day 2 - Martian Manhunter with JLA Conference Table and Chairs

2008-01-23T02:46:00.001-05:00

There was quite a bit of time between my purchase of the JLA box set and this beauty, because I just didn't know about it. The fact that I hornswaggled it for a cool buck makes the victory a sweet one that'll rot my teeth for years to come.

So that's where's the Manhunter form Mars went! I was going to say it would be mental not to include the charter members of the Justice League in either one of these sets.

Oh wait, aquaman is...
I think that...
It's rubbish is what it is.

But, he's got a seat at the table, and that's pretty cool. 8 chairs to go around, and each chair has the logo of the hero it's meant for.

You've got J'onn, Flash, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Green Lantern, Hawkman, Green Arrow, and of course, never one to be left off of anything... The Atom.

You might ask, where in the mighty hell do Batman and Superman sit? Well, not at this table. How this came to be I'll never know. Is it possible the powers that be figured those two had been on enough and it was time to slap the logo's of some of the other schmucks on something?

It's just a very cool little piece (actually, it's much bigger than I had expected it to be. It certainly won't fit in any pocket of mine).
I don't even mind that Ray's chair is the same size as the rest of the lot (although with them throwing in "bonus" Atom stuff, I would have guessed The Batman would get his normal chair, and they'd shove in a lil Atom seat as a "bonus" for lucky folks!). I don't mind that if you try to sit any of these members in their respective seats, you must do so with their legs straight out. And if Ray is in attendance, he'll be so standing up in his chair.

To recap, I was and am very happy that Ray got to be a part of this JLA set. I look forward to that happening more AND more down the line.

JLA Pocket Heroes: Day 1 - Box set

2008-01-21T23:43:00.001-05:00

Awesome picture, I know. Not an easy one to find online. Stare directly into the light.

This is the Pocket Heroes JLA box set, released in 2003 from the wonderful DC Direct, blessing us with quality toys since... whenever they started making them.
I do enjoy me some Pocket Heroes. I've heard people complain about them, that they're ugly. But it's what is on the inside that counts.
I just think they're really cool, throwback-ish figures. They're nearly worthless for a child to play with, but as it's more important to make toys for collectors then it is for kids, we're all good.

5 out of 7 founding heroes. Hey, that's not bad. We'll find out what happened to the other 2 tomorrow. It would appear that Ray is blue and orange there (supporting the Mets during a playoff run /choke?) but he's not. At least the one I have is appropriately colored.
Maybe he was originally painted this way because they didn't know what his getup looked like due to lack of merchandising! (zing)

Now, I'm going to complain. Slightly.

Well, we'll see.

The Atom included in a JLA box set. Great anywhere, everywhere. He's rarely included in anything other than art as far as JLA anything goes, so it's great to see and have. It's cute too, because you see... he's smaller than all of the other figures, which are already small to begin with.

Ray doesn't have another, separate packaged pocket hero figurine(Al does), so this is him represented here.
As a bonus.

Hey, spend your hard earned cash on this box set of heroes that have appeared on anything we can mass produce, and we'll throw in the little guy that stands on people made from left over aqualads.
I understand he's generally smaller than everyone else, I do get it. So it makes sense to make his figure "life-sized" as they say. I still would have liked to see him get his own. Package it with a Chronos?
Now I'm pushing it, I know. Still a little pocket slap in the face. Thanks for the bone throw guys!

Things improve tomorrow with the highly anticipated, award winning JLA Pocket Heroes: Day 2!

Hawkman transfer

2008-01-21T00:59:00.000-05:00

Continuing on with the Leisure Arts iron-on transfer book, of which the first Atom one was posted here.
Today we've got ourselves a little Hawkman to fill up that empty hole you've been feeling since the gap of time from the Super Amigos bootleg.
Actually, whether this helps would depend on if you like this version of Carter or not. As you very well know, Hawkman's history is one of the few solid, dependable things you can count on in a crazy comics world.

I, personally, could do without Native American arm band Hawkman and whatever other jazz he's got going on. I could always have done without it.

Otherwise this is a fine little animated transfer, with man hawk in Heisman pose. I'm still considering buying a lot of blank grey and white sweaters and ironing these babies on.

I, will be all the rage.

We're excited.

Skybox card - 1994

2008-01-20T02:22:00.001-05:00

This is The Atom card from the DC Master Series set circa 1994, art compliments of Hector Gomez.

It may come as a surprise to some of you, but The Atom didn't make it into that many card sets, so when he does make an appearance, it'd be nice if... yanno, it was a cool card.

I can't say I'm all that in love with this one. Gomez has certainly done far better work.

Ray would appear to be in some device here, and he's awfully shiny. I don't care much for the colors, nor am I particularly fond of his uneven eyes.

But he's on something, right? Awesome!

DC favorites subscription ad

2008-01-19T02:49:00.001-05:00

I'll take the lot!

I found this uber sweet offer in an old Atom issue. Feel free to click the pic for enlargment, no pills necessary.
Obviously if I'm reading an Atom comic, chances are I probably like comics, know all about the subscriptions being offered here, and need little else to make the drool fall from my mouth.

However, if I were a non-comics fan and saw this ad... eh. Let's have a peek through the windows:

The first guy up would appear to be shrinking. Either that, or he's like one of those Russian egg toys where you keep opening him up and there's a smaller one in side (somebody call DC!). That's interesting. To me anyway. Apparently not to everybody though...

Second window, it's obviously Batman but it's called Detective. Perhaps the child with the zorro mask is the detective. They seriously couldn't find better art to use here? We get it, Batman AND Robin are in this.

That third window... what the hell is Robin Hood doing wearing red gloves and hanging out with some bald green dude deep in thought?
Actually, that would probably be enough to make me go out, right then and there, and purchase this comic. What's it called? The Brave and Bold? Wonder who's who, I'm there.

Move on down to this Justice League. There's some familiar faces, except that guy in the orange shirt and green gloves is obviously not wearing pants, so that's strange. And there would appear to be a small rocket flying over their heads.
General running, I love it.

Awesome, Superman talking to a... this time, pink bald man deep in thought. Wow, that looks exciting, let me pick that up. I know Superman flies and is strong and can do everything else and stuff, but he's running in that Justice League so this may be the comic where he stands around talking.

Batman! Robin too! Running in an Egyptian tomb! Pyramids?! Seriously, sign me up!

Okay, this ad probably doesn't deserve harsh punishment. It probably shouldn't even warrant more than a "oh word to my mother, look at that."

But I was looking at it, saw the Supes ad, and thought "what the hell is that?"

To be honest (I don't think it's bias, but I can't be certain), the Atom panel is the only one where I felt like I would think "hmm, I wonder what's going on there, let me check that out."

Which would be ironic, because...

Chronos Heroclix figurine

2008-01-18T01:48:00.001-05:00

Ohhhhh Chronos, how do you do?

Thanks to Benton, during one of my complaining sessions I was alerted to this thing's existence and wasted ZERO time in acquiring it. Today, I'm a better person for it. Thanks Benton!

For a quick refresher course in my history involving heroclix: this is it. I own some figurines.

This really is a cool little figure, and I'm a big fan of him on the dial with his cape flowing out the back. It's much more enjoyable than the Ryan Choi one here (why is it there's no Ray Palmer heroclix? There's no Ray Palmer heroclix, right? That's mental.), although lack of early Chronos signature pants is a bit of a disappointment I must say.

The figure came with this card here, which displays some of Chronos's finer qualities.

Point value of 77. I wonder if that's good. Maybe one day I'll dirty my hands and leap head first into a no holds barred Heroclix game.
Either way, I'm quite happy to have my newest friend.
Does it fill my need of Chronos action figure with spring loaded wrist watch? Of course not. One day...

Of course I'll never have that beefy Super Powers look I'm desperate for in a Chronos figure. That is, unless I get my hands on a time machine...

Sword of the Atom - Book 4: Look Homeward, Atom

2008-01-17T10:41:00.001-05:00

Art: Gil Kane - Story: Jan Strnad

The issue starts off with Ray staring at Morlaidh, thinking that only a few weeks ago he could have stepped on the joint.
After a lil smooch session with his new alien princess, Voss informs them they have a spy in their midst. It would appear that Bikus has been sending "arrow messages" to Deraegis. Bikus spills the beans about Deraegis's plan. How he's been messing with King Caellich's mind, and planning this attack on the kingdom to get his fat head into the hot seat. Bikus knows he's done wrong, and he knows he must be punished.
The punishment? Poisonous arrow through the hand of course. Bikus, like a big boy, willingly puts it through his own hand for that long goodnight.
And so the attack begins! Forces and battle frog horses face off against one another! Caellich's men join in with The Atom's as all are aware of the mad monk's plans.
Meanwhile, an angry King confronts a sniveling little pud in Deraegis, calling him on his plan to overthrow, and informing that him that although he will most certainly go down from these actions... so will Deraegis.
Caellich calls for the guards to take him away for the last time, but his royal roundness will have none of that. He pulls one of those fast moves where he ends up behind the King, knife to back... then in it!
All the while the Sword of the Atom cuts through evil alien guards like a hot prod through a vat of butter. He and the princess make their way to the king... but it's too late. The knife was driven too deep, and the king's time is limited. He and princess Laethwen share a final moment, and that's all she wrote.
Fortunately, that final moment consisted of the king telling them what that crazy, round s.o.b. is up to with the star drive, and that he plans to activate it.
Voss explains to them that the piece of star that the star drive consists was once hoped to be converted into a power plant, but it was far too unstable.
Too late.
Deraegis has activated it and radiation leaks like the melted butter from that hot prod. He exits the facility where the star is housed, looking like something from a Hammer film, eyes glowing red and informing the mass of people, I am your King!" He reaches out and grabs the wrist of an unfortunate observer, the man screaming in pain and falling unconscious.
He's out of control! What can be done!
Of course, put an arrow through his skull. Compliments of voss.

But the star drive is still humming and leaking. Ray goes in to shut it down, but it's too late. Evacuation is the only answer now. Unfortunately, he's absorbed so much radiation, this evacuation is going to play much more like a Toho attack then a superhero at work.With Laethwen refusing to leave her wonderful Atom behind, and various townsfolk running around in a frenzy, Ray knows what he must do:
Stomp and kick the city to smithereens until everyone decides to leave.

There's a buzzing in the Atom's skull, severe pain, then an explosion. Then this panel:I love disoriented Palmer there.
As you can see, Ray stumbles on over to some water and winds up naked and asleep(ah college...).
He wakes in a hospital, and gives his name as "Atom." He's free to go as he's physically fine, and not exactly being cooperative.
Oh yes, one more thing! There's a very pretty woman waiting in the lobby for him. She thinks she might be his husband!
That's your last page. He knows he has a great deal to resolve with Jean, but he promises... VOWS to return and find his alien princess!

That concludes your SOTA mini-series. It's followed by (so far?) 3 special issues, which I'll get to.

When SOTA came out I was still too young, so I missed the opportunity of seeing a character like Ray get flipped and flopped before my very eyes. So when I did get the chance to be able to read all that Ray would go through, it was a helluva ride. Taking a very early member of the Justice League and a golden boy of his own comic series and putting him through this was pretty fascinating to me. Allowing his wife to have an affair and sending him off to the jungle for some sword wielding. I would get The Atom series, find him teamed up with Hawkman, and then the Sword of the Atom series, with issues of JLA and action comics sprinkled throughout.
I didn't have a chance to watch Ray's title get canceled and then bark at the thought of making Jean into what she became, or removing the Atom's mask dome, sticking him in the jungle. It was already done, and just a part of the journey. So I welcomed it. It was a pretty interesting character arc, even at the time, for a wee child like myself. Maybe too interesting!
I had never heard of a superhero having to go through something like that at the time. One with a wife like Jean, so I was immediately swept up in my own Atom mania. That and I knew he ruled.

Sword of the Atom: Action pin-up Part 2!

2008-01-16T01:29:00.000-05:00

This here action pin-up just happens to be for the next issue, so I felt it appropriate to put it up beforehand. You understand?

And seriously, the only thing better than an Atom pin-up is an Atom pin-up featuring battle frog. And look at the expression on that thing (click pic for closeup of battle frog expression). They're either about to land on something sharp and hot, or he's about to swallow him 2 or 3 alien guards. Either way I love it.

This was of course, at one time, featured on my wall. With pins in it. It is after all, a pin-up. You can have Bettie Paige, I'll take SOTA!
So of course I had to re-acquire the series later on in adulthood and resist the temptation to yank the pin-ups out again and plaster my walls with them and/or send them to DC offices with specific instructions on what I want my SOTA playset to look like.

Sword of the Atom - Book 3: Mourning's End

2008-01-15T23:26:00.000-05:00

Conceived by Gil Kane (art) and Jan Strnad (script)

Without further interruption...

When we left off here, the Atom was about to impale himself on a poisonous spear, held at him by Voss, one of Taren's men. Ray of course thwarts the attempt to end himself by said spear, and gives Voss a slight throttling. Having been charmed by this attempt at his life, and the loyalty in which Voss exhibits towards Taren, Ray chooses him as second in command. A fine lesson for the children.
Taren is amazed that the Atom would choose a man that just tried to take his life, and Laethwen is amazed at how warm she is for the Atom's form.
Meanwhile, evil right hand monk man, Deraegis suggest that the king activate the star drive (for his own evil purposes of course), but king says nay. He actually says it would be the "work of a madman! It's unstable," which is why they shut it down in the first place.
Deraegis scampers off all hurt, but his own power hungry drive only feeds the evil doings.

Back at the Palmer residence, Jean has been given the only thing found of Ray... his ring. Believing him to still be alive, she books a flight to Brazil, and fully intends to use her powers of insanity to track him down.

Back in the jungle an animal stampede goes down! But what causes animals of all shapes, sizes and species, to run like hell, completely ignoring each other?
A serious army of ants. It's true.
Laethwen and Voss climb to the safety of a tall tree, while the Atom retrieves the blind Taren (whom he had to clock to get moving) from the path of the army.
But Taren has had enough. He informs Ray of what a good friend he has been, and swan dives off the branch into the swarm.

Ugh. Things gotta be real bad...

The Atom slays a few rogue ants all the while telling himself he's not yet worthy of Taren's position of merry men band leader.

Deraegis, being informed of Taren's death, knows that an attack on the city will soon occur. And with this ever welcome news of death, he also knows that he is next in line for the king's crown. Which will assuredly come soon, what with everyone pissed off and blaming the current sap.

Back in the death dealing jungle, mourning comes and goes leaving love in the air!

That Palmer...

Is it too soon? Lady, your previous love just died 3 pages ago. Who can blame her though? Look at Ray's hair.

At the same time Ray's previous love, Senora Loring, is at a bar downing drinks and assuring no one in particular that she'll find her husband.

The time has come. The time to earn that good life. To our frogs! To Morlaidh!

Super Amigos: Hawkman!

2008-01-14T01:54:00.001-05:00

First things first.

I invite you to click on that picture for a full sized blast.

Now, I sat down here with the intentions of finding an image of bagged Super Amigos Hawkman figure on the internet. Perhaps a fine representation. Then I thought, "it would be criminal not to show the world (uh huh) the one I've got sitting in front of me." I also figured this may very well mark the first time bagged Hawkman Super Amigos action figure makes an image appearance on the internet. If this is the case, what a special day indeed.

Represent!

While this is the day I generally post non-Atom related things, this also marks the first solo appearance (I think) of Hawkman (sort of) on the T3. I had toyed with the idea of incorporating the gobs of Hawkman stuff I have on here, and then I toyed with spinning off into separate bloggery. This had led to various people (Hawkman fans?) emailing and informing me that I must share my Hawkman stuff, whether it be here or in separate bloggery. If I were to post Hawkman things here once a week, I would eventually run out of steam with Atom stuff (I cringe to think of it) and still be left with an abundance of things Hawkman, for there is a great deal.

Point is, I still don't know what I'm doing, and anyone who started reading this has already gone off to another site by now.

Back to that figure: What a beauty. As you can see, the figure and packaging is in mint condition.
I remember when I first laid eyes on it. I knew it had to be mine.
I remember wondering why anyone, after the creation of this, would ever make another action figure. Like, ever again. Once someone has reached perfection on something, isn't it time for everyone else to just politely applaud, cut their losses, and attempt something else?

Now, the winged wonder here doesn't have a mace. As far as I know, the package hasn't been opened, aside from Carter's foot bursting out through the bottom, so it may have not come with this particular figure.
Although as far as I know, someone not involved with the creation of this treasure stuck it in a crinkly plastic bag, and stapled it to this fine piece of artwork. In fact, I hope that's what happened, because the paint here looks as though some child got into his mom's makeup case and went to town.
And because the artwork is obscured by the slight bend in the card, I'll provide a marginally better one here. At no extra cost!

No way, Jose! ::wink::

I welcome any Super Amigos expert (or anyone who just knows more than myself... it's not hard) to come on down and fill in the blanks, either on here or through email. Help explain the difference between my (soon to be shown... somewhere) carded Amigo, and crinkly bagged, paint sneezed on amigo.

Update: It's not really an update, actually. I found myself staring at this thing, and it occurred to me I think my favorite part of the whole deal is that his wings aren't attached. They're just folded behind him in the "package."

I have to believe the founders of this gem wanted kids to feel as though they were part of the creative process. The building process. So as a child, after selecting and bringing home your Hawkman bootleg, you, and only you, were the one responsible for providing Hawkman the ability of flight.

Wow... thanks bagged Super Amigos people!

The Atom and Hawkman trading card

2008-01-13T14:19:00.000-05:00

This card came in a sheet of other cards and you were instructed to cut along the dotted lines, then proceed to collect them all. This one is part of the "Great Teams" category of the set, and the Joe Kubert art is taken from The Atom and Hawkman #45, which incidentally, was the last issue of an epic Atom and Hawkman run.
And because the cover of the comic isn't enough, whomever is responsible for these things has taken to including ballistic designs on the outer edges. Reminiscent of a trapper keeper. Way to go.

The back of the card reads:
"Fellow Justice Leaguers Atom and Hawkman - the Titan and the Fury - found they worked well together, their individual powers and abilities frequently melding into a finely tuned crimefighting machine."

So true.

Put out in 1989, the Titan and the Fury were on a sheet with some strange company, including Geo-Force, Black Manta, Man*Bat, Justice League Europe, Black Hand, The Phantom Stranger, and Halo.

There's more of these sweet babies to come, so no worries. You're excited.

The Atom subscription offer!

2008-01-12T01:30:00.001-05:00

I found this whilst joyously reading through an early Atom comic.

Not only could you be the first in your neighborhood to read each issue of The Atom... but you could save money too.
Ten issues for a buck. It's mental. Why it's like finding twenty cents. Sheer madness...

I'm just an absolute sucker for old ads. They charm the socks directly off my feet (unfortunately for them).
The art used for this particular ad though... it would look to me as though some guy is grabbing for The Atom, and he's waving their hand away.

Waving their hand away?

Rear back and clock them! Get people to read this thing! Nobody wants to read about the little doll man who scampers around and waves people away when they go for him.

"Unghhh! Get awaaaaay!"

Maybe I read too much into it.

Sword of the Atom - Book Two: A Choice of Dooms

2008-01-11T14:12:00.001-05:00

Script: Jan Strnad - Art: Gil Kane

When we left off, our hero and his rebellious new friend, Taren, were dumped in a chamber quickly filling with rats. It was there that I cleverly unleashed the phrase, "aww rats." But before I can make anymore rat jokes, the chamber begins to fill with gas, and someone ushers The Atom and friend out.
But who?
Why it's the King's little monkish advisor/right hand man, Deraegis!
But why?
Ah yes, of course. So that the two of them can get dumped into an arena and fight to the death.
Taren and The Atom square off in what the crowd hopes will be a gladiatorial battle for the ages. Except someone has made sure it couldn't possibly be...

Having been blinded, then blindfolded (way to pour it on) it's obvious Taren needs some new friends.

Not surprisingly, The Atom absolutely refuses to fight a blind man, reserving all beatings for those who can see... or at least have some device that sees for them.
Surprisingly, the crowd wants no part of this, and shouts things like "boo," and "unfair!"
See, part of the charm of SOTA is the caring gladiator/death match audience.

The crowd calls for the Kings head, not knowing he had nothing to do with it. But who...

Deraegis! He is the one responsible for he is eeeviiil!

Princess Laethwen and her band of merry men show up to take the hero's (now that he's been blinded he's a hero, k) away from the rioting crowds and the mad monkish advisors. Besides, Laethwen and Taren... they're an item.

Ray drubs some guards, grabs Taren, and hops on a battle frog (which incidentally I could never understand why I wasn't getting a playset of. Still don't...)
Whilst riding frog, Ray gets lost in thought, and begins to have war flashbacks of himself and Jean. He begins to question life, such as which one is safer? The Amazon jungle with tyrants, mad monks, giant snakes, lizards, rats, and where every step you take could be your last?

Or with Jean?

Upon stopping, Laethwen tells him their story. How they were sent to Earth decades ago to set up a penal colony. But without continued support from their home, each generation fell apart more and more. And here they are.

Meanwhile, the mad monk advisor continues to tell the King one thing, do another, and tell the people of the city that it was the King's idea. What a little bitch.
Our 3 meet up with Taren's gang, complete with very suspicious idiot Voss, who is awfully concerned about this costumed fellow.
The Atom and Voss throw down, and while it's short lived, it ends in a great little action sequence where The Atom leaps, is in mid-air when both combatants notice that Voss landed next to a poison arrow. One that can be simply held up in the air for anyone gliding through the air to easily impale themselves on.
Nice.

The book ends with a seriously worried Jean, laying in bed... phoning the guy she was making out with in the car. See, she needs someone to talk to. Not to worry, he's coming over!

Gotta love that girl.

Sword of the Atom - Book One: Stormy Passage

2008-01-10T13:35:00.001-05:00

Conceived by Gil Kane (art) and Jan Strnad (script)

Oh Ray. Dear, dear Ray...

You're driving Jean crazy, you are.

A pacing Ray Palmer wonders where his wife is. After all, she said she would be back.
Was that headlights?
Ray runs out into the rain to investigate headlights only to find Jean lip locked with some dude.
She's got a dude.

Everybody loves Raymond.

This of course doesn't go over that well, but Jean immediately goes on the offensive and blames it all on Ray.

Between research and running around as that Atom character, husbandry duties are being shirked here. Who could blame Jean for anything she does from this point on, eh?

Ray needs a vacation.
He decides to hire a small plane with a two man crew to take him over the Amazon jungle in search of a piece of white dwarf star material he believes landed there. He plans to locate such a small thing in such a vast area using a scintillation detector.
Getting a reading, Dr. Palmer wishes to fly closer, but... ah yes, the two men are involved in cocaine smuggling and Ray Ray has just gotten too close.
An on-plane brawl ensues - booo
Someone shrinks - yay!
A shot is fired - booo
The shrinker easily knocks out bad guy - yay!
The first shot finds a home in the pilot, and the plane is going down with The Atom hanging on the cargo door.

The Atom lands in some refreshing Amazonian water, takes a nap, and wakes to find that he can't work his size controls and would appear to be stuck at a height of six inches.
To further a slap in the face, a particularly nasty jungle snake had decided The Atom would make a nice snack. Without the ability to control his size or shift his weight to give him that atomic knockout punch, he's just a lil guy against giant jungle animals.

It's then that tiny poisonous arrows glide through the air, slaying the beast, and saving The Atom from having to do some fancy footwork.
But who shot these arrows?

Why it's a race of six inch jungle aliens!
With nobody knowing what the other is and not speaking the same language, this lilliputian race ties The Atom up (no fight put up by him of course) and brings him back to their jungle kingdom.

It's here that our hero finds the joint to be under the control of a mini-tyrant, along with some unhappy people. The Atom sides with another six inch alien prisoner upon his beating and jumps into action choosing to throw down with the guards. Holding up very well, sheer numbers over take him, and the two are dumped in a subsurface chamber.Aw rats.

All New Atom #19

2008-01-09T01:31:00.001-05:00

Written by Keith Champagne/Penciled by Jerry Ordway

Ladronn's cover here features some great cave work and some very cool creatures, but The Atom looks gangly AND lumpy... and nothing like what he will appear as throughout the entire story line. He also equips himself in the story with a sweet red flare for spelunking, which adds to the gorgeous lighting.Not that flat book light he's wielding there. Hey, it would have
helped...

We've got a guest team putting this one together, so break out the Champagne! (groan somewhere else)

After a team of spelunkers led by one of Ivy Town's own professor's goes missing, someone has got to go down there after them.This is why superheroes are good to have around. Particularly ones that can shrink and stuff.

All the Atom does down there is stumble upon an Ivy Town set back a few hundred years and steeped in ghastly horrors. An abundance of cannibalism, random executions, and extreme ugliness rule the roost here. Just another day in Ivy Town...
A man's gotta eat!

Choi gets bonked on the head by a C.H.U.D., and awakens to find himself firmly secured next to his newest best friend, Panda. Shortly thereafter, a man who calls himself Phineas Cadmish waltzes up, informs the two of what a gentleman he is, then starts handing out the slaps!

With Phineas dragging Panda off for what will almost assuredly be "no good," Ryan is in a bit of a pickle. Fortunately, what he's got going for him is that ol Atom charm! A seriously "misunderstood" underground Ivy Town school girl finds herself lost in Ryan's eyes, and therefore becomes his ticket out of wood prison.

I've already said (and shown) enough.

This is a nice little guest spot. It's cool that you can get into a 5 or 6 book long storyline with this character, and then dive into a quick wrapper upper like this one.
Champagne has spun a nifty little horror story here, and his Ryan is different, but still likable. His sense of humor is not quite as quirky, yet whenever he's laying them down, they're full of an almost depressed sarcasm. The storyline of this one, and all that happened before this issue is almost certainly responsible for Ryan's behavior, but it was definitely interesting to read him like that.

Jerry Ordway brings his gorgeous style to this comic for an all too brief stint. His work here is beautiful, and seriously appreciated. The man whips together a very atmospheric under ground Ivy Town, and I adore the lighting in his all too brief cave sequences. I would like to see what he could do with the real Ivy Town.

Next issue, Simone and Norton return for their final hurrah, where after they will be replaced by Rick Remender and Pat Olliffe for #22.

The Atom: Who's Who Entry

2008-01-08T02:57:00.001-05:00

Ray Palmer, that's who.

Compliments of continuous T3 provider Rob Kelly this here is The Atom's Who's Who page.
The art was done by a man named Gil Kane and I freakin love it! I wish for my walls to be papered in such beauty. Of course I'd be alone...
Check out that Sword of the Atom Ray jumping out at you (Sword of the Atom, coming up, I swear). Look at it again. Aaaah!

The entry here goes into the small relationship troubles Ray and Jean had. Of course if it were to be updated it might mention that she went full hilt and causes epic horrors regardless of what planet she's on, or perhaps just in space.

They just get better and better, and I will not withhold them! Anybody who's who anybody will keep checking back to see more.

Red Tornado Shrine: Custom Red Tornado Lego!

2008-01-07T01:15:00.001-05:00

I saw this custom Red Tornado Lego and thought about how far Reddy has come, that he's getting into merchandise with all the heavy hitters, you can build your own whilst collecting various others, and he's in the spot light enough that there are those out there making customs of him. And pretty damn cool ones too.
And he'll always have that hostess ad...

This one was made my Mark Marquez, of Mark's Toy Corner, and he's got quite the knack for putting these little guys together.
Of course I won't just throw any old custom into my collections, but you have to make exceptions for your seriously lacking in stuff, low on the totem pole B-listers. You don't actually have to, but I occasionally do.

I believe he's got one for you too, Frank.

Thanks Mark!

Model and Toy Collector #24

2008-01-06T00:20:00.000-05:00

I really like this cover here, done by Brian Clarke. I get a very comfortable feel from it. Of course I'm very strange...

But seriously, what a beautiful picture! The JLA sitting around, playing the Flash board game. Just having a good ol time taking a break from the wear and tear of everyday super hero life.

Anything missing?

Well, rumor has it that after catching the Flash cheating (at his own board game) for the third time, and with Ollie stirring the pot, the Martian Manhunter, (who was apparently not doing so well) got up from the table and murmured ,"This is b.s., and that game sucks. I'm outta here."
There's also tell of Aquaman, in a rare burst of on-land anger, heaving his chair across the room.

I also suspect that no one knows Ray is actually even standing on the table.

This was actually a very cool magazine to rifle through even aside from all the JLA goodness. It's from 1993, so it was fun to see what the kids were building waaaaay back then.
There's a whole JLA custom section in it, and I just had to share.

First up we've got a Hawkman custom featuring The Atom!
I believe this was made from a Superman aurora kit, and Carter looks pretty good.
I don't know what the hell Ray is doing.
Cheering Hawkman on?
Raising the roof?
Must be difficult for the man Hawk to fly around and stuff having to palm Palmer like that.
Maybe he's practicing his table waiting skills...

Over here you've got custom Hal, Jonah Jones, and Arthur.
Hal looks like he may be a nice custom.
MM looks afraid.

Now what the hell is Aquaman doing? Has he gone and tied some rope to a manta ray for skiing purposes? I just can't believe he did that.
He always seemed like such a nice guy.
He was always so quiet, kept to himself...

Subscribe today!

What the...

The Martian Manhunter up front and Batman squoze in behind!?

Somebody call somebody! Whoever is responsible for this obviously did not get the memo.

And The Atom has no face. Maybe it's a kewpie doll.

Moving on, there's a custom Atom in the left hand corner! Looks like it may be a nice little figure, unfortunately the picture is so dark I'll just never know.
If Pete Dibenedetto would like to send me this (and any other) custom Atom pieces, I will happily show them in full light on the T3.
The Tiny Titan accepts no responsibility for lost or kept items sent to The Tiny Titan, unless you really, really want them back. But things get lost, yanno...

And last but not least, conceptualized superhero kits. Kits that these people think should have been made.

Sweet moses are they right. I'll take 10 of those Atom's. That Aquaman would be fantastic as well I would think. Who wouldn't want a Jonah Jones kit?
Flash and GL get quite enough, thanks.

It goes to show (in 1993 anyway) that there are other people out there whom demand B-list merchandise!

It's cool though, keep churning out different variations of the same group forcing people to make their own crap.

JLU Atom sketch double header!

2008-01-05T00:12:00.001-05:00

I figured it was about time I threw another sketch up here. What you didn't figure was I'm throwing up 2! It's a combo of two unknown and under-appreciated artists, whom the world may never fully understand.

I approached the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art table at an NY con to see what all the commotion was about. Sitting at the table was a guy named Adriano, blowing through character sketches left and right. I chucked a small donation into the donation bin, then got into talks with the museum barker (I don't know what his official title was) trying to flag down people as they walked by. He spotted the JLU Atom figure hanging out in my pocket, we started talking about Ray until he asked me if he was dead (the conversation just happened to end there, I didn't flip the table over on him or anything... I was tired as it was). Adriano pointed to JLU Ray, I handed him over, and this is what he handed back to me (along with Ray) 5 minutes later, signed "Adriano the Merciless."

It's a very devious looking Ray. I'd expect him to be hiding out in the grass, waiting for some magnifying glass wielding villain to stumble upon him and this is what he's greeted with.
I enjoy the whole top heavy Atom going on here, and it's impressive for the amount of time it took to put this together. It is in color after all.
I tried to find out more about this guy (how bout a name?) to give him a bit more credit here, but the "MoCCA" website and Myspace page are... uncooperative. As in they don't respond.
_____________________________________________________________________

This beauty was done by my 2 and a half year old nephew Jake!

I saw him doodling today, asked if he would draw a picture of something for me, and he said he would. I retrieved JLU Atom in hopes that Jake would produce a master piece that I could double up with Adriano's, and he did not disappoint!
Jake's Atom here is much more serious. The driven, dedicated Ray Palmer that I've come to know and love. Give it a click for the easier to see version, he went about it lightly.
I think he felt that it didn't represent his best work, and therefore refused to sign it. I told him that I would take credit for it, but he just didn't care.
That boy is all art, no glory!

The Atom #10 ad

2008-01-04T02:35:00.000-05:00

What you're seeing here is a beautifully done ad for an issue of The Atom (and some other comic) with a gorgeous cover. .

This was provided to me by Rob Kelly of the aquaman shrine and other beautiful bloggery. Thanks Rob!

The "Ride A Deadly Grenade" cover, done by two guys named Gil Kane and Murphy Anderson, has become a favorite amongst many people (and some even admit it) and for good reason.

For the very best in Comics reading...

Atom Pocket Super Hero

2008-01-03T03:02:00.000-05:00

I've got Sword of the Atom coming up, but I need to get one of these pocket heroes on here. Let me just say, I love these things. Love them. They're just seriously cool little figures (cool is in the eye of the beholder) from the ever so giving DC Direct.
That said, I do have a gripe with the pocket heroes line. A complaint. It's in the ball park of what I normally complain about. But I'll save it for the big Pocker Super Heroes extravaganza.

So you've got original incarnation Al Pratt here complete with bikini bottom, packaged along with Dr. Mid-Nite, which I thought was pretty cool. I mean, when they're just sitting there on the shelf, alone, while variations of Batman, and Superman, and Superman's family, and Krypto, and the GL squad go flying off the shelves... at least the Doc can see in the dark. So they won't be scared.

Very cool figures and DCD made pretty much any hero you would want, so if you haven't already, track yourself down a pocket hero. I personally have my geekfest unopened ones, and then loosies who hang around causing trouble.

Sword of the Atom: Action Pin-up!

2008-01-02T11:52:00.001-05:00

Gil Kane
Ray Palmer and a tribe of 6 inch jungle aliens
Gil Kane
Jean cranks up the crazy a notch
Gil Kane
Ray Palmer wielding a sword
Gil Kane

Sword of the Atom, coming up!

Crisis on Earth B-List!

2008-01-01T04:24:00.000-05:00

Happy New Year to all, and welcome to the tiny titan's first official blog team-up!

We’re looking to bring in the New Year by offering up a double review of Brave and Bold #73, which features the world’s smallest superhero, The Atom, and the King of the Seven Seas, Aquaman!

Both the tiny titan and my buddy’s Rob’s aquawesome aquaman shrine have decided to get together on this, so thanks for heading on over here! If for some reason you were here first, please head over to the shrine afterwards and read Rob’s take on Arthur sleeping an entire comic book off.

“Hail, Galg the Destroyer!”

Written by Bob Haney, penciled and inked by Sal Trapani.

Cover by Carmine Infantino and Chuck Cuidera, making Galg look especially nasty.

Our story begins with Aquaman and Aqualad finding evil afoot when they come across some raiders thieving treasure. Aquaman assumes it’ll be a swim in the pond but a giant blast and a “holy hagfish” later, our two sea heroes watch the baddies get beamed into a ship that shrinks into seemingly nothing.

Utterly puzzled, Aquaman takes a sample of the water and brings it to Dr. Vulko, a well regarded Atlantean scientist. Dr. Vulko runs a few drops through every test in the book, but finds nothing. The mystery looks to remain unsolved, until… another drop lands on the microscope and the raider ship appears! Holy Haddocks, it was hiding in a drop of water!

Marauding thieves living in a microscopic water world!

But how can our heroes get to the bottom of what’s going on when they’re so big and the microscopic world is… oh so microscopic?

Aquaman knows. Aaaaaw yeah!

With instructions from Aquaman, Dr. Ray Palmer takes a Trans-Atlantic (who pays for that?) flight, enjoys himself some lunch, then gets in Atom mode and bails out when he’s over Atlantis.

It is around that time that out of nowhere a beam shoots out of the syringe holding the microscopic water world, hitting Aquaman and sucking him in! Nap time.

The Atom shows up, gets the lowdown from Aqualad, some action (as seen to the left) from Mera, and a lil oxygen pill from Vulko, then proceeds to do this thing. Into the water drop he goes where Ray locates and climbs aboard the raider ship, only to bring him face to face with… GALG!

A giant, one-eyed, purple starfish looking galgy plankton thing. A seriously arrogant galgy thing too.

Galg shows The Atom an unconscious Aquaman, trapped inside a diatomic prison, which is where the King of the Seven Seas will spend the remainder of this battle of wits and shrinky dinks.

Now, Galg is all about himself. Packing a serious Napoleonic complex, he admittedly has a modicum of intelligence and some sweet technology, but he gets mentally slapped around here by the mighty mite.

Twice he attempts to imprison Palmer, only to have him shrink out of one, and grow out of the other. With this, Galg feels he has met an equal, someone with whom he can take over worlds with. The Atom convinces him that he’s game, as long as he can return Aquaman back to whence he came. After all, he promised.

With Aquaman returned, The Atom shrinks here, shimmies there, and manages to get ol Galg teleported right out of this world and into the big one, where he proceeds to explode in the greatest of Hollywood style.

Cleaning up after himself, the tiny titan expands back to his normal size, destroying the water world behind him!

(Now you may wonder why The Atom didn’t just return Aquaman and then say “see ya” and grow to his full size then, destroying everything INCLUDING Galg… but then we wouldn’t have a giant galgy starfish plankton splosion.)

Everyone is all smiles, Ray explains that Galg’s body couldn’t take the pressure outside of his own world and that he’s glad he could be of service. Aquaman apologizes for sleeping the whole issue, and the world is safe again!

Well, I think it’s obvious that this isn’t the issue featuring Aquaman that Rob would take to a deserted island with him, but I know he’s aware that Haney worked on a lot of Aquaman, and probably wanted to have his go at shrinking The Atom and bouncing him all over the place.

With that said, I enjoy the way he handled Ray. He used him intelligently, but he wasn’t without his stumbles.

The art appears to get cooking towards the end, particularly where The Atom and Galg square off against each other. There’s some great looking panels in there, such as that one to the left, which I’m a big fan of.

It’s a fun read, doesn't quite care if it makes sense or not, and Galg makes for a dopey, yet arrogantly entertaining villain. Of course we prefer when Arthur and Ray are side by side (feet on shoulder?) handing out beatings to the bad guys.

So, we hope you enjoyed this trip into the teaming up of two B-list obsessive blogs. When you’re a rabid fan of the hero behind the hero, its clutch to have someone that knows what it’s like. Someone that has gone through the pain… of one cancellation after the other. Rob and I will continue to battle the forces of the B list, and vow to keep up the good fight in trying to get the spotlight to shine through past the usual suspects.

We’re hoping this is the first of many team-ups, and when that Atom and Aquaman film gets greenlit, you’ll hear it here first!

Animal Man ad!

2007-12-31T11:07:00.001-05:00

I was debating what to put up here, so much so that it put off putting up anything, therefore leading to the breadown of many a person, and now here I am. I've been posting non-Atom related stuff on Monday's, but I thought that maybe I should go with The Atom due to this being the eve of the New Year.
But this ad kept popping in my mind. And it's all I could do not to throw another piece of Red Tornado goodness (for Frank) into the mix. Besides, we're starting off the New Year with a beauty, I decided to end it with one of my favorite ads, for one of DC's more deserving and underused.

Grant Morrison's Animal Man! Yeah boy!

Be sure to check back in tomorrow when the T3 (the tiny titan, I'm really pushing that one) teams up with another blog born of heroism in an attempt that might just save the world!

All New Atom #18

2007-12-30T01:02:00.000-05:00

Thumbs up to Ladronn's cover here It's kind of eerie, and made me instantly want to start reading the thing. Like on the drive home.
I figured I'd get into #18 (although I figured it would be sooner) as #19 is due out on the 2nd. I also figured I'd wait and throw in some "spoilers" too, because that's the kind of guy I am.

It's good time central in this issue, and it's going to be sad to see the team of Simone and Norton leave. But we'll cross that bridge when it appears... which is very soon.

It's a normal, average day in Ivy Town. That of course means that some baddie has brainwashed the entire town into thinking that The Atom must be destroyed.
Unfortunately for them, Ryan Choi don't go down so easily.
Also unfortunate, Diana Prince is in town investigating the "strange" going's ons.

The team up is really a blast to read. Simone writes them together wonderfully, and it's a rare kind of fun these days, to get such enjoyment out of a comic.
That's just some good old fashioned fun right there.
Norton's work has gotten better with each issue and is top notch here. With him and Gail at the top of their games, this comic is something that should be getting people's attention.

Notable moments are too many to list, but when Ryan's brainwashed best friend deactivates his belt and carries him out to the front lawn where the rest of the town waits for him to be burnt alive... in a Ted Grant grill (which Choi loves, apparently), it's just good stuff.

Last page

Give the pictures a click for better viewing!
And as you may or may not know, that whole search thing going on has ended, and Ray has been found. Certainly interested to see where that'll go.

Hembeck back cover: The Comic Reader

2007-12-29T03:19:00.000-05:00

I posted the first of the Hembeck's here.

That one up there? Oh yeah. That's right. Second.

This is the back cover of The Comic Reader #197 from 1981, done by Fred Hembeck and I believe Bill Anderson.

Look at them all! Palling around, hanging about. Legends and heroes meeting up!

What we like to see here is of course the Atom's. There's Al leaning down to shake Ray's hand. Ray of course has led to many back problems throughout the hero world. He's amongst friends here, just mingle at your normal height.

Maybe it's costume only.

Or perhaps he's wary that he and Pratt may go at it again.

Even with the two Atom's on here, my attention always goes to whatever tom foolery is about to unfold around Dr. Fate. It's obvious Supes is just talking him up so that Martian Manhunter can pants him. Then when he curses and reaches down to pull his trousers up, the helmet comes off and it's the old "Helmet of Nabu keep away" game that they love to play at these things.
You can totally see that Hawkman doesn't know what the hell they're doing, but he wants in on the good stuff.

Every now and then they'll give Fate the ol "all right, we were just joking" and hand the helmet back to him, only for him to try and put it on with great difficulty, thanks to a Ray Palmer infestation.

That's what I got from the cover anyway...

Click that sucker for the big picture.

I'm sticking this in that new Hawkman file too, so there!

Debut of the Atom ad Part 2

2007-12-27T23:53:00.001-05:00

Here I posted the first debut ad and great galaxies here is the second!

I received this compliments of Rob Kelly of the aquaman shrine and various other top-o-the-line blog action, who found it, along with many other beauties, in old JLA issues.

So there's heaps more to come! You're excited.

I'm still loving the "Big, big, small, small" thing.

Beautiful ad. People should have picked this thing up and read it and stuff. At newsstands no less!

Schnapp!

As I was firmly entrenched in Atom fandom whilst being a child, naturally, Hawkman had a place in my heart as well. So naturally, I've got gobs of Hawkman stuff. So please check out the Hawkman poll I've got going on over there and throw in your 2 cents.

VS Card: Ray Palmer * The Atom

2007-12-27T02:29:00.000-05:00

I'll be honest here, aside from holding this card and staring at it, I've not a clue what it's for.

Bicycle spokes?

It's informative though. It says Ray Palmer, then goes on to tell you his superhero identity, which is The Atom, so that's cool. And then you get sleek, scrutinizing art form version of him on the card, so that's great.

I'm not sure about the stats and stuff at the bottom, but it does say "Return Ray Palmer to his owner's hand ->" And of course in the version of him above, he's in the palm of someone's hand. Now, it could just mean, due to some event in this card game, to give the card back to the person who previously had it

Or...

Perhaps this is some kind of future enslaved and/or domesticated pet Ray Palmer. A kidnapping conspiracy?!
This is a wild game.

The artwork was done by Phil Noto, whom is responsible for some severely sweet covers. For those not familiar, I recommend you go to his website, Phil Noto Art and spend some time there. So go have yourself a look at some of the seriously cool stuff he's got up in that mother. There's something for all of us!

As for the card, maybe some day myself and the rest of the B-list loonies will get together and throw down in some VS System DC action. Keep your eyes and ears out for that.

You're excited.

Green Lantern #24

2007-12-25T23:55:00.001-05:00

Christmas time (the gift giving and receiving portion anyway) has become all about the little kiddies in my family. Between myself and all my siblings, we've got 5 youngins running around, so near midday you've got dozens upon dozens of toys honking, hopping, blasting, blaring, and vrooming around whatever place we've chosen to act as the holiday house romper room that year. So the adults decided not to exchange gifts, just concentrate on the lads (I actually said I still wanted to get stuff but I was overruled). Still, someone will slip a gift in here and there, big and small, and sometimes it's the smallest ones, that "just had to be gotten," that are the best.

I found this copy of Green Lantern #24 in my stocking at my parents house. I saw it immediately, pulled it out and with a smile on my face thought "what the hell?"
Turns out my father got it for me and put it in there.
Now, my father isn't completely unaware of comics. He knows I like them, and tells a fine yarn about how my mother threw away his #1 Conan, and then proceeds to ill-inform whoever is receiving this story about how many thousands of dollars it would be worth today. He knows the big names, and when I pulled this issue out of the stocking I got to hear about how his Green Lantern comics cost 12 cents.

He also knows I like me some Atom.

So he tells me that he was in the store (not sure which because it didn't matter, but you can, after all, buy GL comics in places like Supermarkets) saw this, looked at the cover and saw Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman... and the Atom.
He knew I liked The Atom, so he wanted to get it.

The Atom is on here?

I did my "Atom honing search" which failed me upon first pickup, and sure enough...

there he is by Superman's feet! Way to go dad, nice catch!

Now it turns out that The Atom isn't actually in any of the comic, which was fun (although it's a Part 8, and I've not read any of the previous) pitting the Sinestro Corps against the GLerns, and Hal and Kyle busting out of Parallax. There is a frame of the JSA in a heated battle, and you can plainly see Damage, son of Al Pratt, also featuring some Ray Palmer DNA in him...

so he's in there!

Either way, I loved it. Loved that my pops scanned a busy as all hell cover for the world's smallest superhero, found him in a less than obvious state, and that's all he needed.

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas, the appropriate dose of holiday fun, and caught A Christmas Story on TBS more than once!

DC 100 SUPER SPECTACULAR PAGES: The Man Who Murdered Santa Claus!

2007-12-25T00:27:00.000-05:00

Don't give me that.

Fine. This cover doesn't exactly induce warm fuzzy feelings and a sense of joy. But maybe that's because you haven't read it...

For if you had, you'd know that this thing is all over the frickin place, and is in fact a bondafide Christmas miracle. And look at that cast of characters on the front there! And plenty are missing!

Bats and Supes meet with a costumed Claus for charity. A splosion goes off, our heroes save the kids, faux Claus goes down like a sack of toys.
They find a key and a letter beside his body.
The message: find the door this key opens or a city block will be destroyed.

That's the spirit!

All sorts of fools get involved in this one, except for The Atom, Flash, Elongated Man, and Aquaman who would prefer to "do their own thing."

This is the type of issue where the JLA seems like an incompetent bunch. Aside from the Phantom Stranger that is, who saves the day.

The Christmas miracle? Red Tornado learns the true meaning of Christmas, and nabs himself a brand spanking new suit! He hasn't taken it off since.

Way to go Reddy!

So it's not the fun and sweet DC Christmas message I was going to put up originally (not that I had many options), but for various reasons it's what I decided on. Besides, Ray's mom was Jewish and I'm a Christmas boy. So we met halfway.

And put up a cover featuring a sploded Santa Claus? Whatever!

Happy Holidays to all that have been stopping by and dropping off comments, emails, and just reading!
To those who haven't been, enjoy your Ant-Man blogs you dirty rat bastards!

I seriously do appreciate it though, and maybe DC will pick things up in the Atom merchandise department so I can make it to next Christmas!

Super Powers: Mister Miracle

2007-12-24T01:31:00.001-05:00

In keeping with the giving to non-Atom related DC B-lister favorites of mine, behold the Mister Miracle Super Powers figure!
He's one of the finest members of a line that also provided me with Hawkman, Red Tornado, and Dr. Fate.
Now I'm not going to use this opportunity to complain about the lack of love for various other CHARACTER. I've already threw my 2 cents in about creating characters for a toy line instead using the ones they already had. It all makes sense. You want to bring in some new blood with that third wave.

Samurai? Really?

Get those New Gods in, absolutely.

Desaad? Stop it.

Ah well. I just want Ray to be part of the fun.

But this isn't about Ray! Noooo sir! This is about Scott and his sweet Super Powers figure! So there it is!
I got him a while back and for various reasons he never escaped from his package. He's certainly not going to now. And although my jacket/shirt pocket is usually reserved for a Ray Ray figure, I'm on the lookout for loose Scott with cape and perhaps shackles to accompany me once in a while. Constant vigilance!

Countdown Special: The Atom #2

2007-12-22T23:02:00.001-05:00

Written by Gerry Conway
Art by Arvell Jones

Again, super job here with the cover by Ryan Sook, although Hawkman and his stubbled nipples play NO part in this book (click picture for enlarged stubble). Captain Comet on the other hand, plays an huge part. Don't know what's going on there. Guess the Hawk-man sells...

From Super-Team Family issues #13 & 14, we starts off in the JLA Satellite where a collapsing Ray Palmer stumbles in mumbling (stumbling and mumbling apparently) something to Captain Comet (who had just dropped off a beaten Wally West) about Jean.
Then disaster strikes as cataclysmic events begin to occur all around the world! Comet heads out for Korea while an exhausted Atom (what a hero!) heads to Naples. Meanwhile, Aquaman defends New York in a neat little sequence where he instructs dozens of octopi to pick refuse off of the ocean floor to halt giant tidal waves. So quit whining about pollution damnit!
But who is behind such madness?
Who has the power to cause such atrocities?

Your first guess is probably the right one:

THE WIND PIRATES!

No, seriously.

Well, it turns out that Jean has gone so bye bye that there's some form of berserk power in her mind that's about to go kablooey and the Wind Pirates are accidentally tapping into it. It's all very complicated and very Wind Piratey.
In case you're not familiar with the Wind Pirates, first: shame yourself.
Now that you're shamed, the head wind pirate... the captain, used to be a scientist for the Navy, yasee. But all he wanted to be was a sailor, yasee. But he was too important, so they never let him see any action. So somewhere along the line he got himself a pirate costume, mates (the sea types), and gobs of serious butt kickin technology. Yet amidst all these space-bound pirate ships and laser firing cannons, he attempts to do Cap'n Comet in with a sword. Just a sword. Crazy guy, I'll never understand him.
While all that's going on, all Ray is doing is bopping around Jean's FREAKIN HEAD. For real.
The first part ends, and while I won't blow (yes!) the wind pirate vs. Aquaman & Cap'n Comet climax, Ray finds out that Jean must remain unconscious to remain powerless. He yells.

In part 2, Ray enlists the help of Wonder Woman who brings him to her testerone-less island and completely ignores his "luckiest man alive" status to continue to help nutter Loring, who incidentally has since been kidnapped by Gorilla Grodd, Star Sapphire, and The Floronic Man. Yikes.
Worlds are threatened, heroes are captured, punches are thrown and walls are smashed. But who will win the day? I'm not telling.

Overall, the Atom special is a good deal. You get a well played story line with a nice mix of interesting and familiar characters, and you can get it with these for a decent price. If you can get the original STF issues, great, go for it. Otherwise, get your wind pirate on with these.

Oh, and with all that went on in these 2 meaty books, this is perhaps the finest moment, right after The Atom clocks evil Sapphire in the head:Oh, that Ray...

First Appearance - DC Direct: Ryan Choi

2007-12-22T01:54:00.000-05:00

No Adam Cray?

This is the toy world we live in now. It took Ray Palmer decades upon decades to get his own action figure. Think of all those kids in all those countries from all those years gone by who have longed for an Atom to call their very own. To rest upon the shoulder of some name brand hero, only to find Golden Pharaoh and Cyclotron (I'll never stop complaining).
And here we are today. Ryan Choi gets a cup of coffee as The Atom and no time is wasted in creating his very own action figure!
Series 4 was released in April (maybe) of 2007, and it featured the Atom, fancy hair and shoulder pad Aquaman, sharp and pointy monster Blue Beetle, Warlord (sure), and extremely miffed J'onn J'onzz.
Mine has yet to leave his box, but here he is ready for action: Pretty nice figure from DC Direct (would I ever complain about ANY Atom figure?), although there's little sign of the goofball Choi actually is. It'd be nice to get one with his now famous (famous?) "bangstick" that he flies around with. Soon, soon.

The more the merrier. How about Al Pratt?

DC on TV Ad!

2007-12-21T02:10:00.001-05:00

On September 9, 1967 tv viewers were treated to the premiere of The Superman - Aquaman Hour of Adventure! It was a 60 minute program broken into 6 minute adventures featuring the heroes of DC. As you may have guessed by either the name of the show or this ad here, Superman and Aquaman were the big draws.

But we're here for the guest stars, aren't we?
The Atom and Hawkman (as their heads can be seen betwixt sweet art and words) were rotating regulars on the show as were The Flash and Teen Titans, and my favorite part of the whole thing is the beautiful cels it has provided. I've posted one so far, which can be seen here.

You've probably got some questions you'd like to ask. Check out the FAQ first:

FAQ
Q:Why is the Atom the only one who's head isn't basically facing front?
A: Good question. Part of the contract involving The Atom and Hawkman was that when they appeared on a page/screen together, one of them had to be on-the-border-of-lovingly staring at the other. I believe this to be an attempt to cash in on the success of the Batman/Robin relationship.

Q: Who is the most badass mother on that ad?
A: Well, that's simple. It's quite obvious the one not to trifle with is Storm, Aquaman's sea horse! Storm the time bomb can be spotted often sporting that look. Just back off a bit. For another example, visit Rob Kelly's aquaman shrine.
Tick, tick, tick...

Incidentally, Storm and Imp (Aqualad's ride) are by far my two favorites things on the ad!

No more questions.

I'll ignore the photos on the bottom of the ad for now. Click to get an all up in yo grill version.

Atom transfer

2007-12-20T02:48:00.001-05:00

I got myself a DC Superheroes iron-on transfer book from Leisure Arts after being blown away (really) by the information that The Atom was featured in it. This, as you may have guessed, is one of them.
It's pretty cool actually.

Well, it's a pretty big book. Shockingly, the majority of it is divided up between the animated series Batman, and mucho hair Superman. Then it trickles on down to Robin and Wonder Woman having a chunk, Kyle Rainer and the Flash with a few cameos, and then Shazam gets a few bones thrown his way.

Then you get those other guys. Aquaman (who has a color one!), Hawkman, and The Atom. Obviously The Atom having one in there was enough for purchase, so Hawkman was a sweet added bonus. I did and do think it's pretty cool that Ray was added into this book, especially since he wasn't exactly in demand when this thing was put out in 96. I'm still waiting on an Atom Hallmark ornament.

There's 3 total, and I'll put the other 2 up at unannounced times so those of you standing by holding your breath will be forced to check back, in hopes that you'll catch a glimpse of an epic Atom iron-on transfer. Maybe when they've all gone up I'll do a step by step video about the proper way of applying transfers to cheap, plain black and grey sweaters. Then I'll invite everyone over and you can take turns kicking me in my ribs.
I'll be sharing the Hawkman ones as well as soon as I figure out exactly how I wish to approach the whole manHawk situation on the titan.

You're excited. Denial is silly.

Hembeck Atom

2007-12-19T02:03:00.000-05:00

Rob Kelly of the aquaman shrine and other superior blogging provided me with some Hembeck strips of The Atom, and it's up to me now to spread the joy. By God I accept!

So there's a slice of fried gold. This one is from JLA #166 (may 1979), and Ray is on top of his game here.

Fred, if you're reading this, your Atom strips are so much fun... that you get a complete pass for making fun of the tiny titan. Yanno, things like him being accidentally stepped on by villains and such.

More to come!

Countdown Special: The Atom #1

2007-12-18T11:42:00.001-05:00

Written by Gerry Conway
Art by Alan Lee Weiss, Arvell M. Jones and others

Nice cover by Ryan Sook here, if not slightly misleading to anyone not familiar with the story.
Taken from Super-Team Family (1977) issues #11 & 12, Jean Loring is bonkers! She's well on her way, anyhow...
We start off with The Atom and Flash battling a group of baddies known as the Wind Pirates (legendary) in Ivy Town. Supergirl shows up providing some unnecessary help, and the 3 win the day.
They clean themselves up and march off to Ivy University to attend the Women's Career Symposioum where Supergirl, Jean, and Iris Allen will parade around as the cream of the crop.
Aside from Barry pissing Ray off with some cocky remarks, the event seems to be a success.

Oh, that is until the girls are reduced to 3 piles of individual ashes right there in front of the entire auditorium!
With some sweet investigating (such as The Atom shrinking down and exploring Jean's pile!) our two heroes find themselves face to face with...

T.O. MORROW, THE MAN WITH THE COMPUTER MIND!'

And he's all suped up.

Things go from bad to worse to better to Jean flipping a crazy switch and beaming herself to another dimension.
That brings us to part 2 of this issue where Ray teams up with Hawkman and Hal Lantern in an enjoyable romp.
With the group forced to split up, Atom and Hawkman battle the baddies of Auria, eventually finding themselves imprisoned with some old hag.
Lantern travels the hyperspace highway back and forth, searching for Jean, and stumbling upon some unearthly medieval war in which he lands himself in an arena-based sword fight against a tyrant named Brewtus.

Good times.

I picked this up (as I will #2) because uh... it says The Atom. I do enjoy this storyline and for people who have not read these issues before, and could never get their hands on them, this is a pretty damn good thing. At $4.99 it's certainly a lot cheaper than shucking out the money for decent copies of those Super-Team Family issues.

The Red Tornado Shrine: Minimates!

2007-12-17T02:17:00.001-05:00

Hey everyone, and welcome to the Red Tornado shrine!

What ever do you mean, "what the hell am I talking about?"

All right fine. This isn't the Red Tornado shrine, but as the world's finest champion (welcome challengers) of those heroes behind the heroes whom the guy on the street knows, it's time to break these things out.
Once a week (or something like that) I'll bust out with some non-Atom related merchandise, just to keep things out of control. Because that's how we roll here. So prepare yourselves for random Red Tornado, Mister Miracle, and whoever else I have gobs of stuff for sightings!

Unless everyone hates it, in which case you may file a grievance with the provided electronic mail address.

There's a fair share of John Smith figures out there, but I've chosen to start with the minimate. Why have I chosen the minimate?

I've had the same discussion several times since their inception, and it always leads back to the same question: How did they not make a "minimate" for the world's smallest superhero? It's just dumb. Hey, I love the RT mini, but does he and Ma Hunkel really make more sense then a Ray Palmer and Al Pratt pack? Sure, Ma Hunkel figures are fun. It's funny to make a Ma Hunkel figure.

In case you've just tuned in, DC direct put out minimates for everyone and their Ma Hunkel, cept for The Atoms.
This is my grievance, and it's been filed.

Aside from the whining, these little guys are pretty cool, although nowhere near as awesome as the Pocket Heroes which I'll dive into one of these days.

John Smith! Put it in the books!

DC Super Heroes Super Healthy Cookbook

2007-12-16T01:42:00.000-05:00

First I think it's important to inform the readers that I scanned all pictures on a small ship with a drunken captain during rough seas, so my apologies for the wobbly pictures. But what can I do? I must scan where I must scan.

The usual suspects may be on the cover, but this baby is all about the Atom.

I love this book. I love that Ray was included in the thing, and they had some fun with him. The book is actually a nice way to show kids how to make food preparation fun, but as is the case with any cookbook, it becomes outdated to society.
After all, there's no organic recipes in here...

Oh, and if anyone wants any of the recipes, you be sure to go ahead and gimme a holler, I'll send em right over.

The Atom's first appearance in the book is super important! He teaches kids to look at the ingredients and that the first one is the most important. Way to go Ray!

Next up we have The Atom's Super Hero Sandwich. You can't tell by the picture or my superior scanning skills, but the sandwich is huge, and took up 3 pages. This is funny, because The Atom is small. So just look at the funny thing he says!

When you're all through and you double check to see that you don't require medical attention due to the severe splitting of sides, we'll move on...

This one here is called The Atom's Knockout Punch. It's great for gatherings, or if you're just sitting there at home alone reading about the Trials of Shazam, very lonely. This makes an instant party!

Ray's last appearance is supremely important. He teaches you how to get the right fruit juice and damnit... it's still the way to go!

Nice job by Ray here!

So overall, a swell time. The last page in the book is everyone putting the finishing touches on an apparently birthday party for the JLA.
It's strange that The Atom would get his money's worth in this thing, but Aquaman only shows up for the party. I hope Arthur didn't refuse to make anything...
With all the Atom inclusion going on, my favorite part of the book is probably "Hawkman's Egg Bird's" Obviously published before Hawkman became an eco-terrorist, here he (along with Hawkgirl) teaches you how to make an egg sandwich and fix it into the shape of his mask.

I heard a rumor that there was a recipe for "Aquaman's Dolphin n' seaweed salad," but they omitted for time purposes.

JLA Classified #48

2007-12-15T00:47:00.001-05:00

Part 2 of the this tiny JLA Classified epic starts off where the previous issue leaves off (thanks!). Our heroes are dumped into an arena... weaponless!
Their foes?
Evil weaponers of Qward! And the weapons they're using are the ones that have been stripped from the JLA!
Oh baby! So what you get is each hero pitted against their own weapon.
Okay, got it?
The match is all too brief but quite fun. It's good stuff watching each member's knowledge, experience, and mastery go into effect as they use it to thwart those wielding what don't belong to them.

I love this here, and it's the first page!
Ray Ray, having had his suit removed from him whilst smallish, is obviously unable to get big. But he does good, Ray Ray does!

A touching moment came for me when at one point our GL attempts to restrain a super rowdy and out of control WW, only to be Princess punched in the face. At that point, Hawkman swoops in and bashes WW in the face, knocking some temporary sense in to her.

I love moments like that.

And by "moments like that," I mean ones where Hawkman is bashing people in the face.

Meet Chronos: Atom ad

2007-12-14T02:56:00.001-05:00

Here, for the first time (I think) the average public could catch a glimpse of what would become the most villainously terrifying piece or moment in the entire history of comics as we know it.

Chronos's pants.

That's right kids, you don't see beautiful ads like this anymore. I love the whole setup of Chronos on there (even if one would guess that he must be blind) and the Atom held at gun point on a watch is just great stuff. It speaks for itself.
Ira Schnapp in the house.

It's only a matter of time before someone unleashes an Atom/Chronos two pack action figure bonanza on the world.

Of course I'm still waiting on a Power of the Atom playset with saddle wearing battle frog...

JLA Classified #47

2007-12-13T12:44:00.000-05:00

W: Barr|P: Green|I: Owens - Cover by Julian Lopez & Bit

Look no further, Ray Palmer is here... for the time being. Palmer and company attempt to retrieve some weapons that were stolen from the JLA Trophy Room (!) and have to go to Qward to get them!
This is the first part of 2 from that wacky JLA Classified. This issue is admittedly a lot of fun and Green's work is impressive (although The Atom does look kind of like a wood elf). It's nice to see the old gang hanging around toughing things out, and some of the banter between the team is great.

There's some of the craziness. Click on that mother to see a larger version of wood elf and friends.

Atomo trading card (a.k.a. The lil Captain)

2007-12-12T00:26:00.001-05:00

Argentinian Wally Wood Atom card?
I know very little about this thing. Actually I know nothing about it. Okay, I know that it's The Atom, and it's a trading card. Or a coaster for tiny people (the Atom's family?).
From Argentina?
My detective skills tell me that the "86" on said piece means that there are 85 other cards (I actually have Hawkman as well), and my gut tells me that the other 83 aren't of the Atom, so it's more than likely indicative of how far down on the food chain he was at the time. Although there's a good chance there's about 30 Superman, 20 Batman, and so on...
I'm of course just happy they made one! Whoever they are!

While I of course love the little s.o.b. and the mystery that surrounds this card, the exchange that took place whilst trying to purchase it is what will last with me forever.

The events and dialogue portrayed here are real are far as memory serves me.

I approached a dealer table and saw "Atomo." I knew at once it had to be mine. (the dealer in this story had an accent, so feel free to include one of your choosing while reading. I like to give him one similar to Jon Voight's from Anaconda.)

Me: Ooh! How much for this Atom card?
Dealer with accent: Hmm?
Me: The Atom card here, what do you want for it?
DWA: Ah, Captain Atom card is (insert dollar amount, I don't remember. Don't be stingy).
Me: Alright. What's this from anyway?
DWA: Part of a set. I've got Supergirl, Green Arrow, Captain Atom...
Me: (mumbling) Well, it's just Atom.
DWA: Hmm?
Me: It's just Atom. The character is The Atom.
DWA: Yes, Captain Atom. DC Comics.
Me: That's true, Captain Atom is from DC Comics. As is The Atom, a completely different character, and portrayed here on this card.
DWA: Same hero though.
Me: I know so very little in this world, but I do know who is on this card, and it's The Atom.
DWA: (blank stare)
Me: Ray Palmer.
DWA: (blank stare)
Me: Captain Atom is some silver dude with a red emblem on his chest. Trust me.
DWA: (shrugs with blank stare)
Me: I know it's not in English, but where does it say "Captain" on this card?
DWA: Hey, whatever you say man. You want it?
Me: I do but you should know that it is widely known that Atom merchandise is generally much cheaper than Captain Atom due to demand. So how much?
DWA: (laughs) Same price.
Me: Ah well. Got any other Captain Atom stuff?

So I never did find out the deal with this thing as I didn't want to further test his vast knowledge of DC Comics.
Nevertheless, Atomo lives with me now where he's recognized for his true self.

It's the feel good story of the year.

DC Super Heroes from Hasbro

2007-12-11T02:38:00.001-05:00

These, as far as I know, were originally intended to be part of that heinous Total Justice action figure line Kenner was hucking out. But here, Hasbro is the guilty party. You got yourself a Blue Beetle figure there on the left, and a something resembling The Flash on the right. That's about... wait, what's that? Right there in the middle.

Why it's The Atom! (I swear it is)That's right, in the year of 1999 if you fancied picking yourself up a Blue Beetle/Flash double pack, Hasbro threw you an Atom bone! A Ray Palmer figure of your very own to lose around the house and see who can step on it first.
And sorry, even with my advanced skills in photography (?), that photo is the best I can do.
Does it matter?
Nah, not so much.
It's just a fairly simple, wee figure with The Atom stuck in a pose of him apparently waving to the first tier characters that got their own, non-bonus action figures. And Blue Beetle.
As you can see (or not) he's wearing his Teen Titans vest, which is clutch, because I doubt there's going to be a rush to make vest-wearing Ray Palmer Teen Titan retro action figures any time soon. Unless they de-age him again and he once again decides to head said Titans. Of course, somebody would have to find him first.

All complaining aside (although I wasn't complaining, yanno) it's a cool addition to the Titan collection. The box these guys come in is cooler then the Total Justice figure setup, and again, any Atom action figure is more than welcome.

Power of the Atom ad poster

2007-12-10T03:18:00.000-05:00

There is no proof this thing exists on the internet (until now!) so this photo is the best you're going to get. You have my apologies.
This poster was sent to retail stores (preferably ones with comics) so it's always a treat when these guys hang on to stuff like this and I can track em down. Super happy fun when it's in great condition as it was never put up.
Of course the problem with that is... it was never put up. Power of the Atom didn't exactly have an epic run there, yanno. I blame all comic book stores that didn't put up this poster. Bastards.
As you can see, DC had done it again, and it was currently the Atom's turn.
With all the revamping and resurrecting success DC was having, it was Ray Palmer's turn (I already said that sort of), with Roger Stern and Dwayne Turner putting it all together. His costume got a lil tweaking, most significantly losing the dome portion of his mask. It would wisely return to his head later on as Dr. Palmer found that fighting crime and keeping the perfect waviness in his hair was nearly impossible at that time due to inferior hair care products.
I made that up. But feel free to use it if you're writing a new hero and are looking for a severe weakness. Just give me credit.

The Search for Ray Palmer: The T-shirt!

2007-12-09T04:34:00.001-05:00

Well, look at that. A t-shirt that I don't need to carry around my own magnifying glass for people to see Ray with. Great strides.
This is a fairly recent item, obviously, but I embrace all apparel featuring Atom the same way: open arms.
As you can see, Ray is quite miffed that he's been found on this shirt. Yet, it doesn't stop me from saying "peek-a-boo, there you are" right before I put it on.
Actually, I don't do that.
Or do I?
My family and those in direct contact with me had better hope not, huh?

If you're tired of searching for Ray Palmer and wish to acquire said shirt, here's a good place for it Graphitti Designs. And if you send us (us?) a photo of yourself (or other people?) wearing apparel with Ray Palmer included, we've (who?) got no reservations about putting that type of filth up on this site. Just think, years from now some alien archaeological team will uncover this site and find you, forever embedded in history, donning Ray Palmer gear. And that's good.
And at least someone will be reading this.

DC Direct's JSA Atom action figure

2007-12-08T11:22:00.001-05:00

Al Pratt was promised and Al Pratt was delivered!.

These are actually some very cool figures from DC Direct as they did all Atom's serious justice in the action figure world. It's a shame there isn't more Al Pratt stuff out there (or any Atom stuff for that matter), and I 100% think his Golden Age costume would have made a fine boxed plastic apron Halloween outfit.
You get both versions of him here, and it gives you a chance to see in hand held detail why his first costume is a creation for all time.
His second version of the costume is more towards the "superhero" get-up than the skinfest he was originally running around in.

Pick these up for your yourself, your child, or a fellow hobbyist, and spread the joy of fist solving justice.

Making the world a better place: With Benton enjoying the first costume's mask, and my brilliant idea of combining Al Pratt's costumes into one beast, I got all crazy. Because I know some people just can't picture that first mask on that second costume. Just can't do it. "There's no way it could work!" some would yell.
So I expertly (quality speaks for itself) cut Al Pratt 1's head off and professionally (almost looks human) pasted it on to Al Pratt 2, to show the world that it can AND will work. It already has...Nuklon? Damage? Anyone...

Debut of The Atom ad!

2007-12-07T02:42:00.000-05:00

It's the exciting debut of DC's newest costumed hero, The Atom!
I do love me some old time ads and this one, for some reason, is my fave.

Perhaps because it's super informative AND educational! And I like the whole Big News about a Small Super-hero thing they've got going on at the top.

For a mere 10 cents you could see the tiny titan in costumed action for the first time! If that, the glorious cover featuring Ray stuffing poor schmuck Kulan Dar into a bottle, and reading about a hero with the explosive power of an atom bomb in his fists isn't enough, I don't know what is.
Click on that mother for the bigger version.

Making the world a better place:
Due to Rob Kelly's excitement over this here ad, it's only right that I mention the man who put this, and so many other beauties together: Ira Schnapp!
Go here, Dial B For Blog For a fantastic piece on Ira Schnapp complete with glorious pictures and wonderful words.

And to think I had the balls to post this ad without mentioning him...

Comic book foldees 1966: Atom

2007-12-06T00:31:00.000-05:00

Man I love these things. See, you fold them to make funny pictures. There's tell that they were often the life of the party in the mid to late 60's, and many attribute these beauties to all the happiness that was going on back then. I can see why! It's also up there amongst my favorite eyeless Atom merchandise.
As you can see, the cards also feature the faces of DC's finest, and they all seem to be moderately amused by this out of control foldee! Except for Aquaman. Looks like he sees trouble. And Carter, the only member not facing front, can of course not keep his eyes off Ray for a second.

And here's the back of the card...

Seriously, how many trading cards featuring Mahatma Gandhi are out there?

Probably not many I say.

Norm Breyfogle sketch

2007-12-04T23:27:00.001-05:00

Simple yet stoically awesome. It would seem that my favorite sketches are the simpler ones, and this, my most recent one, is no exception.

I waltzed up to Norm at the last NY comic con and asked if he'd do a basic Atom sketch for me. He looked up and his eyes and "The Atom?" told me he thought maybe I was thinking of a different character.
I replied with "oh yeah, a lil Ray Palmer. I'm that guy." (whatever the hell "that" guy means.

He proceeded to put a dot on a piece of paper, pushed it forward, and gleefully exclaimed "There you are! One Atom!"
I enjoyed that for so many reasons, and he was surprisingly the first one to do it.

He didn't let me keep the dot though.

But he cranked this out right in front of me while he and my friend Ed talked Batman, and before I knew it he handed over to me a serious looking ass kicker of a Ray Palmer.

I spent the rest of the con telling all those who asked, that it was Norm's interpretation of me in the Atom suit.
Incidentally, most bought it and now I'm kind of liking the idea of getting people to do sketches of me in the Atom suit.

Hopefully I'll get over myself before the next con or else be met with blank stares and embarrassment.

Justice League Unlimited Atom 10"

2007-12-04T03:12:00.000-05:00

More stuff from that animated show. Ah well.

So it took something along the lines of 40+ years for someone to release an Atom action figure. I understand he could never hang very long with the A listers, but I get a lot of "his size didn't translate well to toys."

Well, thanks to the new sizemogrifying ray machine which is now standard in all toy factories, we can get Atom's of all sizes. Medium to teensy ones such as I posted a week or so ago...

and giant ones, such as the one I have pictured here.

I'm not complaining, I'm really not. Well, he still has no eyes, and I was never crazy about that, but they didn't make 10"chers of many from the show, so it's great that Ray is one of them (he in fact was super sized twice, but I'll save part 2 for another time) but I'm just wondering where it came from.

He of course, as is standard with Atom action figures now, comes with his own mini-Atom, which rocks socks directly off feet.

The blue boxed ones don't appear to come cheap these days, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't all be purchasing them online to give to needy children. Like your own.

Some day someone will put a plush Atom out there...

Perhaps if I was based in reality I would have realized that today is the 4th, and not the 5th. Therefore, you must wait another day for your All New Atom issue. You have my apologies.

All New Atom #17

2007-12-04T02:30:00.000-05:00

Ladronn has put together better covers than this one, such as the issue coming up. In fact, I don't even really know what the hell is going on with this cover.

Anyway, Gail Simone returns in this issue, and she slaps together a tale of romance. Ryan gives his lady friend another shot, even after she turned into Giganta and wreaked havoc whilst being controlled by a cancer God on their first date.
What a guy.

Agent Diana Prince shows up to investigate the goings on with Ryan's gigantic love, and stuff gets pretty ugly.
For those of you not as familiar with the second tier characters of the DC world, Diana Prince is also known as Wonder Woman, a hero that occasionally pops up here and there.

She also gets clocked in the head by Choi, which was a growing up moment for our new hero.

I'll admit that there's not much going on in this issue, and that it feels like it's setting us up for something bigger and more involved (please!). So there you go: it's a nice lead into All New Atom #18, which goes on sale tomorrow/today, December 5th. And as you can see by the cover, it's going to be hot! Whooo!

On the plus side, visuals from Norton and Scott in this one are great, and I they're seriously something to look forward to with each issue.

The All New Atom #16

2007-12-03T14:29:00.000-05:00

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.

The All New Atom #15

2007-12-02T02:27:00.000-05:00

Simple yet thoroughly effective cover here by Ladronn showing us Choi in the palm of a giant hand.
But who's hand is it?
Why it's the evil Dean Mayland's! Kyle Lantern shows up to whisk Ryan, Donna Troy and co. away to continue the Ray Palmer search when a giant hand reaches down from the sky and plucks The Atom from all that original Atom business, so he can get back to defending Ivy Town.

And Ivy Town needs help. This is some serious geek fest going on here. The town finds itself being trampled under the feet of two giant, reptile-like monsters straight out of a Toho classic. Not too worry though. Not only does Ivy Town have a serviceable replacement hero in Ryan Choi, but he's also an avid fan of... giant reptile-like monster movies!

Meanwhile, Dwarfstar is back and has returned to his normal size since being shrunk to nearly nothing by The Atom. Oh, and he's somewhat peeved.

The team of Simone and Norton are really starting to put together a serious winner here. Choi has a very goofy charm about him, and while his greatest gift is intelligence, he uses that (and the whole shrinking, mass thing) to translate into some serious brawling. Ivy Town itself is becoming it's own character. A severely strange and unnerving character, but one I can't get enough of.

JLA #27

2007-12-01T01:20:00.000-05:00

Great expectations...

I had set myself up a bit with this one. I've been having more and more discussions lately as to why Ray Palmer was never A-listed, and why he won't be included in any kind of JLA movie (I've still got that pilot!). Aside of course from maybe Plas and himself fixing a microwave in the back or something...
Anyway, it's pretty obvious: He doesn't bludgeon baddies with his fists or lift vans and motor homes. And he's not all dark and brooding and such.
It made me think of this JLA issue, with that great cover. All of the JLA's finest (and then some) strewn about, and Amazo standing there with supes's torn cape in hand, pointing at someone and demanding how they are going to stop him.
I knew who they was. And so do you. Why it's The Atom of course! Ray Palmer, back in action after he semi-retired.

The issue starts off with The Flash and the resident GL paying Dr. Palmer a visit and asking him to drop the academia and re-join the JLA. He declines, of course. Wants nothing to do with it. Meanwhile, an upgraded Amazo tears through a not-so-prepared Justice League. This guy has got all the powers of the current JLA incarnation, and he's mightily wielding them! Unable to stop him, the reserves are called in to hit this s.o.b. with everything they've got.
Problem is, Amazo is such a sweet piece of technology, he can upgrade to include the powers of each new JLAer!

With every single member beaten and down for the count, enter The Atom. Here's what I had been waiting for. Palmer is going to show up, brains at the ready... but using brawn! He'll launch himself at Amazo and the two will duke it out for the remainder until Ray pounds his brains in! Literally!

Wrong. The Atom figures out that with Amazo taking on every power the JLA can throw at him, if chairman of the board Superman disbands the whole operation, then our bad guy will be left powerless.

The Atom tells Superman this.

Supermans shouts "The JLA is officially disbanded!"

Amazo is defeated.

That's it.

I just wanted Ray to work off some steam (or maybe it was me), but I got this instead. He ends the issue as the Justice League's part-time science consultant. Ugh.

Come on Ray, dishing out advice and hot tips never got anyone on school supplies!

Atom switchplate

2007-11-30T01:45:00.001-05:00

I'm not big on adding custom things to a collection of mine, but I'm slightly flexible when it comes to Ray. Being that Dr. Palmer wasn't really a part of neat-o things such as backpacks and rulers and the like, if someone takes the time to do a nice job of adding him to something as random as a switchplate, I'm all for it.
This was in with a bunch of other switchplates in a nice setup, all featuring those household name heroes, so I was kinda excited someone decided to include Ray.
I taunted, "ha Hal Jordan! Looks like you didn't make the cut this time!"
Of course it had already been purchased, but it was a small victory all the same.

Point is, I need therapy.

All New Atom #14

2007-11-30T01:37:00.000-05:00

Perhaps you've heard tell of one of the finer moments from this issue.

"Stupid jetpack Hitler."

That's right. Ryan, Donna Troy, Jason Todd, and the monitor head down to the microscopic city living on the edge of the ass of Choi's dog. From here they work themselves into "Have in," where they meet up with Ted Kord and others, only to find that someone cracked open the gates of hell. Enter jetpack Hitler and a swarm of other severely random baddies. To say any more would be to ruin things, and I'm not doing this to review the issues. I'm putting them up here just in case you didn't know you should be reading them.

Seriously, you should be checking them out if for nothing else than to see what the floating head will do next.

Justice League Unlimited action figure

2007-11-29T01:12:00.001-05:00

Time to start working in some action figures here, as there are just so many I don't know when I'll ever have enough time in life to fit them all in.

For whatever reason, Atom figures haven't really been all that popular until recently. And by that I mean there weren't any. Perhaps it was due to the size of the hero, although I don't really recall many toy lines putting figures out there to scale.
While the DC Direct Palmer figure is so beautiful (and will be bloggered in due time), this one here is pretty cool in it's own right. If you're releasing an 'action" figure, it's got to come with an accessory. These toy companies are starting to get some smarts.

He comes with his own Atom! It's just too good. As with the DC direct Palmer, I have loose figures as well, because they like to travel in my pocket with me from time to time, and join myself and friends for coffee.
It would appear that no one likes to travel with me when Ray is traveling with me, but that's too bad.
Groan "ugh, this again," and "does he really have to have his own seat?" all you want guys, I will not back down!