Justice League: The Atom Project #1 – Captain Atom, A Man On The Run

Justice League: The Atom Project #1 is the latest series to tie-in to the All-in era following and spinning out of the Absolute Power event. The Atom Project has been teased in recent comics such as The Question: All Along The Watchtower, Black Lightning, Challengers Of The Unknown, and the flagship Justice League Unlimited. 

This series from Ryan Parrott and John Ridley, aims to pull back the curtain on what exactly The Atom Project is and how it plays into the larger DCU narrative.

Writing / Storyline:

The issue jumps around in time, starting in the present, jumps three weeks in the past, before returning to the present, in a not so smooth manner that is confusing at times, as the main premise of the story is setup.

The setup, taking place three weeks in the past, finds Ray Palmer and Ryan Choi responding to boy manifesting powers and bringing him back to The Watchtower to drain the metahuman energy and transferring it to Nathaniel Adam, who didn’t get his powers back at the end of Absolute Power when the heroes were able to reverse Waller’s Amazos who possessed the superheroes abilities.

Ray and Ryan have a good Atom (Ryan)/Bad Atom (Ray) thing going which seems out of characters for Ray Palmer, but may be his new personality to further differentiate the two characters. The dialogue between the two is exposition heavy as they information dump on what’s going on and why turning Nathaniel back into Captain Atom is a priority.

This is also a new take on Captain Atom as Nathaniel seems to be satisfied with not being Captain Atom. If this first issue is an indication of where the series is going, then readers can expect a look at the much under exploration of the character since the New52 series that did so with mixed results.

Art / Color:

The art in the issue is very loose and uses heavy inks that give the issue a distracting look and feel. This dark and loose art and color work makes it hard at times to distinguish between the two Atoms even though they have different styles of the Atom costumes. Ray’s costume looks very similar to Dwarfstar, the shrinking serial killer who targeted Ryan Choi during Gail Simone’s run.

The Captain Atom design looks like a return to the classic look, with changes mainly to the way the Captain’s hairstyle, moving away from the wispy New52 look but not quite the military cut usually associated with the classic character look.

Covers:

The main cover features the The Atoms and Captain Atom over the symbol associated with both characters gives the impression of who will be the main focus of the series. The best cover is the Motavational poster by Kevin Wada