JLA Classified #52 - The Truth Hurts

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.

All New Atom #20

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.

JLA Classified #51: First Contact

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.

The Brave and the Bold #9

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

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....

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

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 - Book 3: Mourning's End

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!

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

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

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.

Crisis on Earth B-List!

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!

Green Lantern #24

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!

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!

Hembeck Atom

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!