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    The Power of the Atom

    I must admit, I am still trying to figure out what these Thursday posts will be. But I think it might be wise to mention some current comics that have struck both my and those of my customers’ interest.

    This week, my sights are set on DC Comics and I would like to highlight two series that do have something in common.

    The first is Justice League: The Atom Project. I was a huge fan of Captain Atom in the 80’s by Cary Bates with a big chunk of that drawn by Pat Broderick and truth be told we have not seen much of the big guy as of late. So coming out of the events of Absolute Power, with a bunch of powers being transferred to different characters and others being quite different, I had my eye on this one. It basically brings all three atoms together: Ray Palmer, Ryan Choi and of course Nathaniel Adam. It has beautiful art by Mike Perkins with writing conceived by John Ridley and Ryan Parrott. My DC gang really likes it so far and the only fault I can attribute to it is that it has been announced as a limited series. I do hope it continues to have some legs.

    The second is Action Comics. If you are not in the know, Mark Waid and Clayton Henry did a wonderful twelve parter when the series went weekly for twelve weeks. It was riveting and if you are a fan of Superman do not sleep on those back issues. Plus, it had a Supergirl backup, continuing what Tom King and Bilquis Evely laid down but this time from Mariko Tamaki and Skylar Patridge. That thing moved.

    So needless to say, with Action going back to monthly status, John Ridley and Inaki Miranda have some shoes to fill. And there you have the commonality between my two picks: John Ridley. I am very happy to see him again. He had a great run at DC, writing a lot of the Batman books and also the Other History of the DC Universe, a very thought provoking book that I can heartily recommend to pick up. He was absent for a bit, and dipped his toe here and there on some short stories, but now it seems he’s revving up his presence on the DC line once again. Thus, if you are hesitant on any of the two above titles, don’t be, because you and your money are in good hands with John Ridley.

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    04 – The Great Debate

    Franka was a bit hesitant to include herself as one of the ‘characters’ in Solicitations. But I knew she had to appear at some point. This cannot just be a Curt and Marv show after all. And I think her introduction to the stage is very good.

    When you own a comic book store you do have a lot of debates that rage within it. Who is stronger? Weaker? Who can beat up Wolverine? That sort of thing. But I think one of the most popular debates has to be who started the comic book movie fever. Was it Blade, starring Wesley Snipes? Or was it X-Men that introduced Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine to the world?

    It is hard to say. But being a teenager at the time when Blade came out, and someone who actually saw it in the cinema, I might have an opinion on this.

    Frankly, there were a whole lot of vampire movies during this period, both good and bad (*cough* Van Helsing *cough*; *hack* Dracula 2000 *hack*). Vampire movies were cool, and face it, comic book movies were not, thank you Batman and Robin. So if you had a vampire property on your hands you would push that production right up to the top because they were getting green lit left and right. If Blade was pitched as a comic book movie, would it have made it through that studio oversight scrutiny and be allowed to live? Probably not.

    So for this, I do have to agree with Franka. And not just because she is our in-house artist and drawing this comic, which incidentally gives her a lot of power especially as it pertains to my depiction. But simply because she is right.

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