Broken Frontier

Ryan Choi’s assistance in locating Ray Palmer ends abruptly, but another adventure begins for him back in Ivy Town.

The new Atom is proving to be an eclectic mix of humor, adventure and all around weirdness. Every single issue is chock full of interesting story beats and off beat plotlines culminating into a series bent on carving out a unique mythos. Now unlike Ray Palmer’s adventures, Ryan’s are precipitated by the revelation of Ivy Town being warped by the bending of physical law. His due course of action in light of this revelation is to continue carrying the mantle left by Ray’s absence.

Only now he must deal with Dean Mayland’s meddling, as he is abruptly brought back from his journey searching for Ray Palmer. Ryan is quite surprised by this, but he is quickly told of a major crisis taking place in which his assistance is required. Of course Ryan goes off to do battle with two giant behemoths, unaware that he is being manipulated by Dean Mayland and another mysterious figure yet to be revealed.

The big question though is who the mysterious figure is, and what does he have to do with the new Atom? For now it remains a part of the continuous plot threads evolving each month, and writer Gail Simone continues to weave an intriguing tapestry because of it. In this issue alone she pays homage to the classic Godzilla mythos, and she also manages to push existing plot threads along to set-up a multitude of storylines for a long time to come. This is one series that strives to cross the boundaries of acceptability, and in some ways the stories projected from this are ludicrous and outlandish, but done so by a writer with a gratuitous amount of wit.

The other big factor in crafting this series is artist Mike Norton’s solid ability to render this series in an interesting manner. I enjoyed previous artist Eddie Barrows’ take on the character and Mike has stepped into his vacant shoes and done a more than adequate job of endowing this series with a plethora of offbeat moments. Many pages have scenes that literally leap up to grab the reader’s attention and his storytelling abilities match up well with Gail’s strong scripts.

I can’t say enough about this series, and much of that praise should go to Gail Simone for bringing a unique approach to telling superhero stories. I often thought that offbeat humor had no place in these types of stories, but after reading this series for more than a year now I take that back. Gail’s done a tremendous job with revamping this character and there’s indeed a method to her madness. Just wait and see what happens in the next several months, and I am sure you will be quite surprised with the results.