Monday, March 26, 2012

2011 “The All Live Atom #1” by Michael “mic?” Magtanong

Click To Enlarge


The artist imagines a New 52 with a little more Ryan Choi in it, including a costume redesign and the return of Gail Simone. Visit his blog for the design sketch!

got mic?

Thursday, March 22, 2012

1984 Red Tornado Postcard by George Pérez



An android created by T.O. Morrow. In a scheme to destroy the JLA and JSA, the Tornado joined the League following Morrow's defeat to fight crime and to learn about human emotions. He can create tornado-velocity whirlwinds.

Despite my routine tongue-in-cheek references to hating Red Tornado, that isn't the truth of the matter. In all honesty, I could never muster an emotion as powerful as hatred over such a sorry excuse for a character.

Since Red Tornado wasn't a Super Friend, my introduction to the guy was probably the cover of Justice League of America #217, on which he came in second only to Elongated Man as worst designed/least visually interesting. Even in my youth, I thought his design was juvenile, especially that ridiculous arrow on his forehead. I'd see him here and there afterward, associating him with the JLA's bait & switch practice of getting my attention with a glorious George Perez cover, only to crack it open to find the likes of Don Heck, George Tuska or Dick Dillin on interior art. In 1985, Red Tornado joined the Super Powers Collection. I bought something like 80% of that second wave of action figures, including friggin' Desaad, but not RT. His action feature was to do the twist, which reminded me how one-note his actual comic book powers were. See, he makes tornados of various sizes, and flies by having his lower body disappear into a tornado. I never liked the Flash because all he does is move fast, and his 95% red costume is too simple for my taste. Red Tornado only has one of Flash's various speed effects as his entire power, has the same shade of yellow as his highlight color, and the parts of his suit that aren't red are awkward and laughable.

Did you know Red Tornado had a back-up strip in 1980s issues of World's Finest Comics? I sure as hell didn't. It apparently ran for seven issues before getting bumped by Plastic Man. Usually, it's Plas getting thrown out of a book. That says something. Anyway, Red Tornado got a four issue mini-series in '85. It had a very striking house ad where the robot was disassembled, but when I tossed through an actual issue, it had thoroughly unappealing old school art by Carmine Infantino and Frank McLaughlin. For the most part, I got through the 1980s without giving the character another thought.

Possibly my first direct exposure to RT in an in-continuity story was Primal Force #0, where he was the only recognizable face on a new and deeply underwhelming team. As a robot, he'd devolved into a less human form, and by extension was remarkably more boring than ever. In 1998, a more classical RT became the mentor of Young Justice, which was the first time I noticed that he was doing pretty much the exact same thing Martian Manhunter had been doing in Justice League Task Force. I was struck by how visually similar the two characters were, especially since J'Onn J'Onzz had started popping the collar of his cape like RT, while the Tornado had begun folding his collar down like J'Onzz. Both had blue capes, appeared to be bald humanoid males with prominent brows, wore trunks and cavalier boots, and had aloof personalities. The parallels didn't stop there. Both were named John, with generic surnames (Jones and Smith,) and both took on human guises. Doing a bit of research, I came to realize Red Tornado joined the Justice League within a few years of Martian Manhunter's departure, played a similar role as outsider observer of human culture, hung around until the mid-80s, and didn't leave until being ousted by the return of the Alien Atlas. When J'Onn J'Onzz stopped being a member of any JLA team after 22 years of continuous service, thanks to a Satellite Era fanboy writer, he was replaced by the Red Tornado. For this reason, I often refer to him mockingly as "The Usurper."

RT was another one of those weird dual analogue characters popular in the 1970s. That is to say, both he and Marvel's The Vision revival came out around the same time, and involved androids created by established evil scientists to infiltrate and destroy a super-team from within, but both turn good and develop a penchant for crying. Both characters took up sexual relations with human women, both adopted children, both have a tendency to get ripped to pieces or turn temporarily evil, and they even look alike.

Going further back, this Red Tornado was preceded by Ma Hunkel, one of DC's first costumed heroines, albeit played for laughs. The original Red Tornado was a tough husky woman of the Golden Age who made up for her lack of abilities and resources with moxie. The android Red Tornado was yet another fit white male in appearance to come out very late in the Silver Age with incredible inborn powers he used to be a whiny, ineffectual "hero" granted near immediate access to the JLA. While few would count him as the first Bronze Age super-hero, John Smith certainly anticipated the worst tendencies of "feet of clay" heroes the fan-writers of the "Me" decade adored.

There's a lot more to Red Tornado's origins. Besides being built by T.O. Morrow, he somehow got possessed by an old Adam Strange space villain, I think. That whole Tornado Champion/Tyrant thing always confused me. Later still, he became Earth's Air Elemental, but that fell by the wayside along with Firestorm, Naiad, and somehow even Captain Atom ("Quantum Elemental?") horning in on Swamp Thing's act. A few years back, we learned there were a bunch of other androids, like Red Torpedo and Red Volcano, that most folks would love to see introduced to Red Rum. It was all part of DC trying to pretend Red Tornado had lore worth exploring and a fan base-- as if.

I genuinely feel that the Red Tornado embodies much of what was and continues to be wrong with comics books. He has a terrible set of origins dependent on ties to impenetrable continuity, a lousy personality, lame powers, an ugly costume, he wipes his rust hole on his legacy status, and exists in opposition to racial and gender diversity in comics. Red Tornado is a character who makes a comic book worse simply by being in it, but is perfectly willing to actively push a book over the abyss with his distasteful activities. The Red Tornado as it stands is an irredeemable abomination, begging to finally be destroyed to make way for a better use of the trademark. If nothing else good comes out of the New 52, it would be nice to see an entirely new female Red Tornado abolish the memory of this hunk of junk forevermore.

Friday, March 16, 2012

Atomic acCount for May-June, 2012



So hey, they're releasing a bunch of new Watchmen books to cash in on all those rip-off versions of Captain Atom, Nightshade, Blue Beetle, Peacemaker and Thunderbolt. I won't be discussing them here, not because I have any loyalty to Alan Moore or ax to grind with DC, but because I think the original book is overrated as hell and don't give a rat's ass about the characters.




FRANKENSTEIN, AGENT OF S.H.A.D.E. #9
Written by JEFF LEMIRE
Art by ALBERTO PONTICELLI and WAYNE FAUCHER
Cover by ALBERTO PONTICELLI and WALDEN WONG
On sale MAY 9 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T
• S.H.A.D.E. sends FRANKENSTEIN to find the mysteriously missing ANIMAL MAN.
• Frankenstein battles THE ROTLINGS!
Anybody want to vouch for this thing? It keeps limping along.

FRANKENSTEIN, AGENT OF S.H.A.D.E. #10
MATT KINDT
Art and cover by ALBERTO PONTICELLI and WAYNE FAUCHER
On sale JUNE 13 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T
• Welcome aboard new writer MATT KINDT!
• “SATAN’S RING” begins here!
• FRANKENSTEIN and THE CREATURE COMMANDOS must investigate suspected double-agents in SHADE field offices. Their first stop is the UNTROPOLIS – an exact copy of Metropolis that floats upside down in the 4TH CLOUD above Superman’s home town.
New writer, huh? Never mind.

FRANKENSTEIN, AGENT OF S.H.A.D.E. VOL. 1: WAR OF THE MONSTERS TP
Written by JEFF LEMIRE
Art by ALBERTO PONTICELLI
Cover by J.G. JONES
On sale JUNE 20 • 160 pg, FC, $14.99 US
• Collecting the DC COMICS – THE NEW 52 series!
• It’s all-out war as Frankenstein and his new field team, THE CREATURE COMMANDOS, uncover an age-old conspiracy at the heart of Bone Lake!
• Collects the new FRANKENSTEIN: AGENT OF S.H.A.D.E. #1-7!

Captain Atom
CAPTAIN ATOM #9
Written by J.T. KRUL
Art by FREDDIE WILLIAMS II
Cover by MIKE CHOI
On sale MAY 16 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T
• CAPTAIN ATOM gets a visit from – CAPTAIN ATOM? Quantum leaping and a mysterious energy force spell certain doom for our hero!
• No good deed goes unpunished! What have CAPTAIN ATOM’S actions unleashed in the future?

For a second there, I thought it might be Atomika.

CAPTAIN ATOM #10
J.T. KRUL
Art by FREDDIE WILLIAMS II
Cover by MIKE CHOI
On sale JUNE 20 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T
• How will CAPTAIN ATOM survive his journey through time?
• Who is CHRONA MOTA?

How's the dead pool on this book looking? #12? The sixth issue only sold about 14,000 copies, and DC tends to cancel after numbers slip below 20K.




Hawkman
THE SAVAGE HAWKMAN #9
Written by ROB LIEFELD and MARK POULTON
Art by JOE BENNETT and ART THIBERT
Cover by ROB LIEFELD
On sale MAY 23 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T
• Welcome the new creative team of ROB LIEFELD, MARK POULTON, JOE BENNETT and ART THIBERT!
• Introducing the evil XERXES!
• It’s HAWKMAN the savage warrior – as you’ve never seen him before!
...and never wanted to! It wasn't bad enough Liefeld swiped Frank Miller poses; now he's taking whole characters by name? "Tonight-- we dine-- ON FOWL!!!" Yeah, I know that was Leonidas. Shut up.

THE SAVAGE HAWKMAN #10
Plotted by ROB LIEFELD
Scripted by ROB LIEFELD and MARK POULTON
Art by JOE BENNETT and ART THIBERT
Cover by ROB LIEFELD
On sale JUNE 27 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T
• It’s fight night as HAWKMAN enters a GLADIATORIAL DEATHMATCH against three ultra-villains for the life of his friend Emma!
• Get your popcorn because the first scene in this issue just might be the best battle you see all year!
They managed to get Rob Liefeld's name in the credits three times, but he couldn't manage a single nose between the two characters depicted on the cover.




Micron
BATMAN BEYOND UNLIMITED #4
Written by J.T. KRUL, ADAM BEECHEN, DEREK FRIDOLFS and DUSTIN NGUYEN
Art by HOWARD PORTER, LIVESAY, NORM BREYFOGLE, DUSTIN NGUYEN and DEREK FRIDOLFS
Cover by DUSTIN NGUYEN
On sale MAY 30 • 48 pg, FC, $3.99 US • RATED T
• Batman Beyond!
• Justice League Beyond!
• Superman Beyond!
• Need we say more?
Actually, less might be good. Definitely less.

BATMAN BEYOND UNLIMITED #5
J.T. KRUL, ADAM BEECHEN, DEREK FRIDOLFS and DUSTIN NGUYEN
Art by HOWARD PORTER, LIVESAY, NORM BREYFOGLE, DUSTIN NGUYEN and DEREK FRIDOLFS
Cover by DUSTIN NGUYEN
On sale JUNE 20 • 48 pg, FC, $3.99 US • RATED T
• Superman faces off against a new generation of Luthor!
• The conclusion of the origin of Warhawk in Justice League!
• Batman Beyond sees both the introduction of a major new character and tells an important story for Beyond and classic fans alike!
• Don’t miss these digital-first tales!

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

2012 The Atom Movie Fan Casting: Christina Ricci as Jean Loring



My initial reaction to the thought of casting Jean Loring was to just pick the sexiest ice queen that came to mind within an "Atom" budget. Megan Fox fits that bill for most, but I ruled her out quick. Jean is a sharp lady, where Fox isn't even smart enough to have kept her meal ticket role in the Transformers franchise. Back in the day, someone like Lara Flynn Boyle might have worked, but I don't think she could have pulled off the bat-guano crazy needed for the part without getting silly. The more I thought about it, the more demanding the part became. That suited Loring, who laid down the law in the courtroom and at home with a sharp tongue, was a homicidal maniac on her worst days, yet still could be irresistibly attractive and intellectually accomplished enough to keep Ray Palmer coming back for more abuse. Even if it meant opening the purse a little wider, Jean had to be a home run, and who better than Christina Ricci? Her resume is littered with ball-busters, goths, whack-jobs, intellectuals and sex goddesses, plus Pan Am proved that she could rock a pillbox hat. Finally, she's a little thing, which is probably why she ended up making out with 5'9" Casey Affleck in 200 Cigarettes. I cast him as Ray already, and barring the power of the subconscious, arrived at the repairing completely by chance. How about that?



Diabolic Movie Fan Casting

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Green Lantern: Circle of Fire (2000)



I haven't felt much up for blogging this week, but that's no reason for you to miss your Atom fix. Last month, I was asked by The Indigo Tribe to contribute to their week of coverage of Green Lantern: Circle of Fire. It was a fifth week event masterminded by Brian K. Vaughn that prominently featured the Tiny Titan.


Other blog-star guest reviewers included Kelson Vibber of
Speed Force, the Irredeemable Shag Matthews of Firestorm Fan and Michael Bailey of Fortress of Baileytude, with the other entries by Indigo Tribe's own liquidcross. Check it out!