The best of intentions…
Creative Staff:
Story: Cary Bates, Greg Weisman
Art: Will Conrad
Colors: Ivan Nunes
Letterer: Saida Temofonte
What They Say:
“Blowback” part one! Captain Atom hasn’t been seen or heard from in years-and even if you think you know what happened to him…you’re wrong! But you’re not alone. To this day, no one on Earth-not even the other superheroes-has an inkling of the missing Captain Atom’s true fate. At last, the truth is about to be revealed in a saga that transcends not only the meaning of life and death, but the limits of time and space.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
With origins in the Charlton Comics line, I have very fond memories of my first full experience with Captain Atom with the third incarnation back in the 1980’s series, which was a book that ran for 57 issues before ending in 1991 as the character got twisted with Monarch for the Armageddon 2001 event that just messed things up. The 80’s series is one where I always felt like I was the only one picking it up at my shop and that had a fun little “outsider” feeling to it as there were some great stories told through it, especially under the talents of Cary Bates and others, including artist Pat Broderick. So, with the return of the character in this series I and Bates writing it with Greg Weisman co-plotting, was definitely intrigued to at least check out the first installment.
And boy does it tickle all the right fancies for me. The opening issue is a little problematic structure-wise as it starts off at the end only to dial things back by about twenty-three minutes to tell the tale. Having not read the fourth series that came out post-Flashpoint, what we get here is a quick heads-up as to how Captain Atom is viewed – circa the end of 2012 when this story takes place before the character disappeared. Atom, aka Nathaniel Adam, is the epitome of a good superhero soldier in that he’ll do the right thing at the expense of his own life because that’s how he’s built. The problem is that the heroes in this timeline aren’t exactly thrilled with someone like him because of his powers but also because they’ve viewed him as kind of unstable or unhinged in some ways, hence his not being in the Justice League in this incarnation. So seeing him work to help save a cruise ship in danger and working past his own problems to do so reinforces his mindset.
The problem for him is that he’s a bit unstable in a quantum sense and there’s a rush to get him back to Continuum where they have a facility that can help contain his energy outbursts that he’s having a hard time controlling. There’s trouble with the League along the way – which Bates writes well by not having it devolve to a fight sequence and instead dialogue – but it’s still problematic because Atom is becoming more unstable and causing a lot more damage. This takes us back to the beginning where he’s breaking apart and seemingly disintegrating into pure energy. It’s here, however, that I’m most intrigued as we see that he’s been thrown back in time to 1994, at least if you go by the Kansas City Star newspaper article about Shoemaker Levy 9. Taking him back to the time period that I enjoyed him in the most? Intriguing doesn’t begin to describe it.
In Summary:
Admittedly, the story is what got me here – even if Bates is a bit overly wordy in explanations with the science of it all as it kind of slows things down a bit – but Will Conrad utterly nails the artwork here while Nunes brings it beautifully to life with the color work that pops wonderfully digitally. There’s so much detail and some really solid layouts that it’s just a pleasure to read and I kind of want an unlettered/unobscured version as well to soak up. Having long been a fan of this character I’m just thrilled to see Bates working on him again and looking to reinvigorate the character to a proper place in the present day continuity. There’s a whole lot to like here for older fans of Captain Atom and with the potential of how involved he may be in the grander Rebirth scheme of things it’s most definitely one to keep an eye on.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: DC Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: January 4th, 2017
MSRP: $2.99
