DCU Comic Book Reviews

THE ALL-NEW ATOM #9

Jia, Part One:  Her Name Meant Beauty

May 2007

Written by Gail Simone

Pencils by Eddy Barrows

Inks by Trevor Scott

Cover by Ladrönn

Synopsis

In Honk Kong, Jia visits a mediator seeking help with regards to her husband.  When the mediator sense the husband nearby, she tells Jia to leave.  Jia wonders if there is someone who cares and hopes there is one...Ryan Choi.  Ryan flies to Hong Kong, recalling his past when Jai’s future husband Alvin used to beat him up in school.  When Ryan gets to Hong Kong, he receives a message from Alvin to meet him.  When Ryan gets there, he learns that Jia had killed Alvin, who was now a zombie.  And with his zombie pals, he is going to kill Ryan.  

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

“Have safety or death! Have good trip or submission!”

One of the great things about this book is that Simone is able to combine a quirky character study of a young hero learning his place in the world with offbeat situations and goofy plot situations.  Sadly, this issue goes off the rails a little bit.  This issue succeeds in being more creepy than goofy and in the context of hero that can shrink or grow in size, it just doesn’t work.  It began right at the beginning with the mediator greeting freaked out for some unknown reason.  It sets the tone (and effectively, I might add), but I am not sure it is the right tone to take.  The parts with Alvin terrorizing Ryan also came across as creepy; this is an undercurrent there with Alvin, which I assume was intentional given the way the issue ends.  Moreover, the narrative in this issue is straightforward, thus heightening the terror and eeriness that Alvin exudes.  Usually, Simone manages to weave a lot of different things through the plot and then ties it all together, but this time there is not much to the story.  At least, so far.  I have hopes that something is brewing and Simone has something up her sleeve. 

According to the interweb thingy, Jia is a Chinese name that means beautiful.  Alvin is just the name of the selfish chipmunk.  Heh.

Is it just me?  Am I the only one who wonders why Ryan would empty his anemic bank account for a flight when he could just make himself small enough he could ride on the plane without any even knowing.  He may not know how to transverse the phone like Ray Palmer could, but he could hide himself in the luggage. 

Quotables

Kung Qi (aka Confucius) -- Chinese thinker and philosopher, whose teachings have influenced a number of different cultures.

Lao-Tzu -- Chinese thinker and philosopher

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