DCU Comic Book Reviews

THE ALL NEW ATOM #23

Inside-Out, Chapter 3:  Strange New World

July 2008

Written by Rick Remender

Pencils by Pat Olliffe

Inks by John Stanisci

Cover by Ladrönn

Synopsis

In attempt to determine if the Atom’s dwarfstar belt is the cause of the strange happenings in Ivy Town, Ryan Choi (aka The Atom) decided to investigate his own blood.  From within his blood, a large creature emerges and engulfs a number of people, including Panda and now Ryan.  Inside the creature, Ryan learns that everyone that had been sucked into the creature was living in a strange new world.  Ryan tells them that he will find a way to return then home, although he is not quite sure how he will do it.  When the suns go down that night, the small group is attacked by dangerous creatures.  One man loses his wife when the creatures kill her.  Ryan leads the creatures away to protect everyone else.  Suddenly, he gets help from the dead woman’s husband, who then turns to shoot Ryan in the head.   

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

Perhaps it is the sword and sorcery geek/nerd inside of me, but I have noticed that the Atom stories that I have liked the most (or at least fondly recall) have been the ones where Ryan has found a whole new world with its own strange life.  So, you can imagine that I really liked this issue.  Oliffe’s art was gorgeous, with the red tint evoking the blood creature that had swallowed, while presenting the creatures in kind of a greenish tint that (to me) suggest some kind of radiation poisoning associated with the dwarfstar.  Or maybe I am just reading too much into it.  Anyway, I am just sorry it ended too soon.  It is the one gripe I have with comics.  Those that are able to craft a good alternate/different world usually don’t examine that world to its fullest potential.  Sadly, there is just not enough room to really explore the milieu.  I am sure Remender could probably write a number of issues featuring Ryan and Panda exploring the blood universe, but after several months we’d be bored, wanting to see the plot kick into action.  In contrast, a novel can spend some time establishing characters and place without sacrificing the plot.  However, in comics I will take what I can get and this comic that I got was very good. 

When Matt first appeared, I thought it was a good call back to an earlier issue, but didn’t think he would hang around much more that one scene.  Then, when he reappeared, I began to get nervous.  It just felt like the character was designed as an annoyance and I thought the story would suffer if Matt was always denouncing the Atom at every turn.  You can imagine, then, that I was pleased to see him return at the end.  I thought the cliffhanger worked extremely, building on events throughout the story.  It just didn’t appear out of nowhere for the sake of a good shock, but made sense within the context of the story. 

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