Sunday, May 4, 2014

Captain Atom in Super-Team Family: The Lost Issues

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Work demands and my waning interest in covering DC Comics characters has put a damper on this blog, plus there's now a new avenue focused exclusively on our good Captain called Splitting Atoms functioning with much greater quality and quantity than I can currently muster. At the same time fanfic collage artist Ross has stepped up his usage of Captain Atom at Super-Team Family... The Lost Issues, so I figured I could and should do one group entry for the hero. It was fairly easy to pick which of the three to use as a spotlight image here, because I'm frustrated by two of them. I've never liked the Human Torch, so that was a non-starter for me, while the Doctor Solar pairing featured counterintuitive references. Featured Captain artist Dan Jurgens had a run on Solar when it was published by Acclaim, and Bob Layton has drawn both Solar and Captain Atom professionally, but the images used combined the very dissimilar Jurgens and Barry Windsor-Smith (plus Valiant's Solar was named Phil Seleski.) The Thing piece worked much better at creating the illusion of merged worlds, plus it's just plain cool.


...More Lost Team-Up Issues...
Posted by Diabolu Frank at 5:37 AM 5 comments
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Thursday, March 13, 2014

2013 The Atom “We Can Be Heroes: Modesty” silhouette by Steve Garcia

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I quite like the idea behind these inspirational silhouettes, but can often nitpick elements of execution. For instance, how do you not assign Namor the Sub-Mariner the defining adjective of "Imperious?" In the case of Ray Palmer, Garcia has the weight of canon on his side in calling Ray Palmer "Modest," based on his depiction of insecurity during his stay with the Satellite Era Justice League. During Blackest Night, Ray was inducted into The Indigo Tribe, which is defined by Compassion, as referenced by two of Garcia's variant interpretations of the Tiny Titan. The thing is though, the Atom was one of the first Leaguers to kill and kill often (see Sword of the Atom and Power of the Atom,) not to mention torturing suspects for information (Cry for Justice.) If you look at the original Ray Palmer Atom stories, the Mighty Mite was not motivated to action by altruism, but by Palmer's desire to prove himself and win an accomplished, fashionable, attractive trophy wife in Jean Loring (only to neglect her once she was "his.") I like Ray Palmer because he's the exact opposite of his Marvel counterpart, Hank Pym. Ray's an indifferent egotist driven by personal satisfaction who has rejected pleas for memberships to Justice Leagues he saw as beneath him and could happily dismiss the civilized world in favor of indulging fantasy camps. He's a little jerk, but very capable and compelling. Not unlike Namor, come to think of it.

“We Can Be Heroes”
Posted by Diabolu Frank at 12:00 AM 3 comments
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Tuesday, February 18, 2014

2014 "Fan-Casting DC's HAWKMAN & THE ATOM" by Ryan Daly



Ryan "Count Drunkula" Daly of the Black Canary blog Flowers & Fishnets has played casting director for a Warner Brothers The Atom & Hawkman film! In fact, he's done such a great job, I'd rather let him do all the talking. As you can see from the link list below, Daly has done a lot of fan casting, but I feel this one is his best to date. Check out his heroes and villains casting sheets! Also, dig around in the links below for related offerings, such as Emile Hirsch as Al Pratt, Diora Baird as Giganta, Rossif Sutherland as Red Tornado and Gerard Butler as Deathstroke!

Count Drunkula Casting Department
Posted by Diabolu Frank at 8:24 AM 0 comments
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Sunday, January 26, 2014

2012 Strong Suits: Superhero Playing Cards The Atom art by Craig Bostick

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In an amusing twist on the usual gender biases, the heroines in artist Craig Bostick's series of poker card pieces are allowed to be respectfully shapely and feminine, but the fellows are all rather under-formed and oblong (as a stylistic choice.) Our Ray Palmer looks more like a pillbug than a Mighty Mite. It surely couldn't have been marriage to career woman Jean Loring, as I sincerely doubt she improved his odds of a home cooked meal. I kid, as this is an adorable retro take on the Tony Titan.

Craig Bostick
Posted by Diabolu Frank at 3:32 AM 0 comments
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Friday, January 10, 2014

2014 Captain Atom Movie Fan Casting: Katharine Isabelle as Nightshade



At my Martian Manhunter blog, I'm celebrating the fifty(-first) anniversary of the debut of the Alien Atlas' otherdimensional pet Zook, so I thought this round of casting should be devoted to sidekicks. However, the Atom never had much of a relationship with other bearers of the name... no precocious nephews... not even a legitimate canonical pet. That's probably why the partnership with Hawkman was played up so much, since Katar had what, Golden Eagle? Anyway, even though I haven't cast Captain Atom yet (Earth-8 notwithstanding,) at least he had Nightshade kicking butt with him late in the Charlton run. I had my sidekick in Eve Eden (whose name you should not google at work, thanks to the '60s nudie pin-up girl!)

Nightshade is a true Nobody’s Favorite. She appeared in the last half dozen Silver Age Captain Atom stories as his massively underpowered aid. Despite being drawn by the likes of Steve Ditko and Jim Aparo, she never had much of a following even among Charlton aficionados. DC Comics revived her as one of the longest serving yet least memorable members of the Suicide Squad, and she was basically just the less crazy/interesting girl in the Shadowpact. Even on the off chance that a modern fangirl wasn't being served by the plethora of other non/modestly powered female urban vigilantes, Nightshade even had a more popular direct analogue in Silk Spectre from the (overly) revered Watchmen.



All that having been said, I've always seen potential in Nightshade across her many incarnations, if only a creator could take her unique qualities and add some good old fashioned pizazz to the mix. I've been a fan of Katharine Isabelle since Ginger Snaps, and was recently reminded of her blunted, caustic, simmering personality by American Mary. This was a case where I was looking for a role for the actress, stumbled upon Nightshade, and realized what a potentially scintillating synergy could be wrought from combining the two. I do think Isabelle is probably more of a purple & black with New Wave specs type of Nightshade, though.

Diabolic Movie Fan Casting
Posted by Diabolu Frank at 2:55 AM 2 comments
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