DCU Comic Book Reviews

THE ALL-NEW ATOM #1

My Life In Miniature:  Part One.  Indivisible

September 2006

Written by Gail Simone

Pencils by John Byrne

Inks by Trevor Scott

Cover by Ariel Olivetti

Synopsis

One hundred days from now….strange beings after the Justice League captured while saying, “Death or submission.”  Ten days ago…Dr. Edwin Katz is killed by a pack of dogs just outside his house.  Fourteen years ago…Ryan Choi gets picked on by his friends for being weird.  In Ivy Town in the present, Ryan Choi has just arrived in town to accept the position at the university formerly held by Dr. Ray Palmer (aka The Atom).  Ryan is introduced to Dr. Potter, who takes Ryan to a weekly card game featuring some the brightest minds at Ivy University.  Suddenly, Ryan realizes that Dr. Palmer left a clue, which leads Ryan to the belt that allows him to change his shape.  He pushes the button and becomes small.  After barely escaping from a rat, Ryan takes the belt to the other professors and asks for their help.  Later, Ryan returns as a strange dog watches as voices nearby call out:  “Death or submission.”

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

“This is the most important experiment I’ve ever been involved in...I can’t do it with my guy stuff hanging out!”

Gail Simone has got to be the perfect writer for this series.  Either that or the intended concept of this series found the correct writer.  My first reaction at the end of this issue was that it was quirky and off-beat, two qualities that I think Simone can easily bring to the table.  Simone has always struck me as being slightly bent in her work on Birds Of Prey and Villains United.  This series will allow her to really go all out and make the most of it.  Just check out the first page at the very top.  The strange part is that by the end of the issue, you can somewhat tie up the loose ends and see where the story might be heading.  I put a lot of qualifiers into that last statement, because we should not expect Simone to keep with linear thinking or to maintain narrative focus.  Personally, I am looking forward to more of this series and seeing what Simone can do. 

There is one little tidbit that I caught amongst this issue that I really hope Simon explores and that is the idea that Ryan wants to learn Palmer’s secrets for science and exploration and not for catching bad guys.  There are plenty of super heroes in the DCU, I don not think we need another hero with his own set of villains.  However, I would be intrigued by series that would investigate weird and exciting places that also happen to be on Earth, such as the fur of a dog.  This is the part that would prove interesting, not the Atom’s ability to catch a bank robber.