Sometimes you just have to dig deep into someone else’s brain.
What They Say:
Losing control of his powers, unable to stop the sensory overload in his mind, Captain Atom wants nothing more than to find a quiet place to regroup. But how can he shut out the signals floating in the air–especially when they’re crying out for help?
The Review:
Having a long history of liking the Captain Atom character but admitting that he’s not the easiest one to write for or to do stories for, I’ve been hopeful that we’d see some real definition for him with this outing to get him into the game a bit more without being quite the jerk that he’s often been. His military background makes it hard for him to play well with others since he’s used to structure and command and even after his change into a superhero and all the time spent with others, he still has a certain aloofness about him that makes him hard to connect with. At his core though, he’s a good guy that’s just coping with things and doing the best he can. Unfortunately, it seems like the opening story here isn’t going to help cement him as one of the more powerful members of the DC Universe that he is.
The problems he’s been facing in keeping his form and working his powers are visible here again, but they’re also changing a bit which is interesting. There’s some good character material at the start as he talks about what he had to do in order to learn how to use his powers since he was never a good math or biology student and these are kind of critical to being able to maintain his human form. And when he does things like dive into a volcano, well, it challenges him to be sure. What he discovers upon getting out though and reforming himself is that his perceptions have changed and he’s now able to view the “information” waves of information that are out there. This puts him out as a human Twitter machine which is rather amusing in its own way and offers up a lot of potential. But like anything else, he just has to learn how to master it.
What is defining Atom at this point though is that he seems to want to do more good for others in a more personal way. And having this information access now, he’s able to be in more of a Superman position where he can see and hear so much need and is moved by it. But some needs are louder than others and he ends up going to quietly and invisibly check out a kid with a brain tumor. I’ve always disliked when heroes involve themselves this way because of what it entails, much preferring the statements made in years past and in animated shows by Superman that some things are just beyond their ability to do and that it frustrates them as well. Having Atom reduce himself in size to go on a Fantastic Voyage within the kids brain to deal with the tumor is both interesting and scary since he’s like a bull in a China shop in there. It turns into the situation of, if you can do it for one kid, why won’t you do it for all of them? And that’s a dangerous question to open if you don’t provide an answer.
Release Notes:
This comiXology edition of Captain Atom comes with the main cover as released with the print edition and no other extras.
In Summary:
I’m still pretty conflicted about this book because of the path being taken and the seeming squandering of an opportunity to re-write the character and make him more integral in things. Captain Atom needs to be moved past what he is, but this just reaffirms it in a lot of ways while slightly softening him up a bit as well. It’s a character that I still feel needs a redesign from the ground up to be more relevant, but we’re not getting that here. I am interested in seeing where Krul may go, and Freddie William’s artwork makes it a guaranteed read (though not same-day digital), but I can’t help but to go through it and see all the opportunities lost here.
Grade: B-
Readers Rating: [ratings]
