Change is truly the only constant in life.
Creative Staff:
Story: Frank J. Barbiere
Art: Joe Bennett
What They Say:
Flooded with experimental radiation that grants him unbelievable powers, the brilliant-and-obsessive Dr. Phil Seleski seeks to unlock the secrets of the universe, begrudgingly becoming a “hero” along the way. But can a single man be trusted with near-limitless abilities? What will this mean to the ones he loves? And will his choices lead to utter chaos and destruction?
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Similar to the Magnus: Robot Fighter relaunch, my experience with the Gold Key characters didn’t come from their original runs way, way back in the day, but rather from the Valiant books of the 1990’s. That run of Solar, Man of the Atom, was one that really drew me in a lot from the get go with its style and approach and made it an engaging run for quite a lot of it. So with it and Magnus coming back now under the Dynamite banner with all new interpretations, I was definitely curious to see what kind of magic could be brought to the table with these interesting old school characters under a modern approach, particularly with Frank J. Barbiere writing and with some strikingly excellent artwork from Joe Bennett. Thankfully, this first issue gives me hope for a long and healthy run.
An origin story we don’t get here, at least not in the traditional way, as we’re dropped into a world where the character of Solar, man of the atom, already exists and has performed some seemingly standard superhero feats that has him placed as a vigilante by the authorities. He’s not out doing a whole lot of appearances or anything as what we see here when he gets involved in a bank heist by taking down the attackers that it’s been nearly two months since his last appearance before being impossible to find. And for good reason, as we see the breakup of the heist foiled, as Solar is having some difficulty in controlling his abilities. Through the inner dialogue, we get the understanding that there is no true creation or elimination of matter in the universe but rather just transformation from one form to another. And through his mysteriously gained abilities, Solar is able to transform what he sees around him – if he knows the mathematics for it. That’s likely just the quirk of the scientist in the suit with how he views the world, but we get some neat dialogue boxes showing the way he achieves his results, at least until the math starts overflowing and overlapping each other to the point of a mini disaster.
Solar doesn’t have a strong presence in the book from there, but it works well to illustrate the life of the man under the suit without actually meeting him. What we get is an introduction to Atom Valley Industries in upstate New York where it’s run by Colin Seleski. Keeping an eye on the events of the world, we see that his father, Phillip, has been secreted away in one of the labs with his assistant Preston for the last two months working on something but they’ve not been keeping Colin in the loop about it. It’s an interesting dynamic in how the son runs the company while the father is off doing the science, and it makes sense that depending on what their relationship is that there’d be quite some time before really having any kind of conversation with each other. For Preston though, he’s feeling a little duped in a way because he believed Phillip was keeping Colin in the loop about what’s going on with their projects since the company needs results with whatever it is, but that’s fairly standard fare. But the truth is, Colin’s father is the one that had been transformed into the man of the atom and has spent the last couple of months struggling to figure out what’s going on and the meaning of it, and likely how best to deal with it since it’s such a life altering piece.
The Seleski family also gets expanded a bit as we get to meet his estranged daughter Erica, who wants nothing to do with her father for likely a whole host of reasons, but that changes when Preston goes to bring her to the lab since he hopes there’s something she can do to help the situation which is degenerating quickly due to his inability to control his powers. What I really liked though is that over the course of the book, we get introduced to several characters, from the titular character to the rest of his family and his assistant, and you get a good feel for each of them in their personality. This isn’t an easy task in a lot of ways but Barbiere makes them all accessible as a starting point with more to be explored in such quick fashion that it’s hard to really grasp that at first. And it’s all without really giving us much of who the man that is now Solar is, since he’s always in the suit here and struggling with his existence. So much of what rides on exploring the foundation of the story here resides in the supporting cast.
And in the artwork as well, which Joe Bennett does wonders with alongside colorist Lauren Affe. A distinctive approach resides in my memory of the prior work and that obviously colors my hopes for this series, but what they do here definitely lets it stand on its own as we get some intriguing alien aspects for a few panels, a good look at the way that Solar can use his abilities and some of the fallout from it, but also a good run of numerous locals from simple banks and exteriors to the corporate world and that of the lab. But there’s also your suburban aspects as well and all of it comes together for a pretty cohesive and engaging work visually. And there’s also some good distinctive characters milling about here that I want to see more of, especially with the kind of vibe that both Colin and Preston give off and the potential that exists for Erica as well.
In Summary:
Relaunch properties are always a bit dicey for me since if it’s a character that I had invested a lot in previously, I’m not exactly sure I want to go in for a new imagining of it. With the version presented here by Frank J. Barbiere and Joe Bennett for Dynamite, we get a strong opening issue that sets out a lot of potential stories for it and some characters that I already know I want to invest time in. And that’s really without getting all that much from our lead character when you get down to it since so much of what we know about him is through the lens of others and their views of him. The Gold Key properties are interesting ones that can be reworked in so many ways that I love the common threads that exist but am intrigued by the new take going on here. And with it being what’s likely to be a pretty pro-science message in a lot of ways, even with all the danger of it that we get from the start here, that’s something I certainly won’t complain about having more of.
Grade: A-
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Dynamite Entertainment
Release Date: April 16th, 2014
MSRP: $3.99
