Atari Force Month: Issue #20 Review

And so Atari Force ends not with a bang but with a longwinded debate, the same one that's been raging underneath the rest of the events of this series all along. It is an argument about two different but connected questions: 1. Is the Dark Destroyer real? and, 2. If so, does that justify stealing Scanner One to fight him? Atari Force manages to convince everyone that yes, the Dark Destroyer was real, but whether or not that makes their crimes forgivable is never decided. Before any verdict can be reached, the team breaks out of their bonds and uses a combination of their powers to leave New Earth entirely. Which is where the series closes, with the titular heroes disappearing into the Multiverse, off to recolonize Old Earth and have who knows what kinds of other adventures. It's not a bad final note, but it's not as sweet or satisfying as I'd hoped. Mostly it makes me wish the book had continued, which I suppose is a good thing, really. You know, leave 'em wanting more and all that. But this finale is a bit of a dud throughout, making its open-ended conclusion more disappointing than it needed to be.

Mike Baron's last script is a slog from the first page, which includes three full narrative captions worth of exposition, as well as a lengthy speech from Justice Tovah listing the many charges of the trial at hand. The wordiness continues, but never gets all that interesting. Martin and Rident offer evidence as to the Dark Destroyer's existence, pointing to the ripple effect from the recently destroyed universe and the mental implant that was removed from Blackjak's brain. This is news to the court, but not for the reader, and it feels like a lot of padding, stalling for time in the opening pages in order to fill out a full issue with not that much material. The court then takes a needless recess, which also feels like filler, and all it accomplishes is giving Professor Venture and Dr. Orion a chance to expound on the information they already provided Martin last issue. Senator Jamieson has taken over New Earth and made it into a despicable, weapons-dealing business instead of the beacon of peace it was meant to be. Again, this is old hat, so almost the full first third of this issue fails to tell us anything we don't already know.

There is some momentary intrigue when one of the Tazlings busts Pakrat out of his cell and leads him to a hidden location where the rest of Taz's babies are building...something. Morphea refers to it as a "secret mission," as she prepares Kargg for something equally mysterious. So while the human characters are tangled up in the trial, Morphea and the rest of the aliens are working in the background to assist them. It is a moment of excitement and potential, but sadly, much of it is spoiled shortly after.

Returning to the trial, nothing has changed. Though the court finally admits the Dark Destroyer may be real, they don't see that fact as a viable defense for what Atari Force has done. Morphea interrupts, and after she and Hunter have some tense words and she finally mind-blasts him, she reveals her plan. According to Morphea, the Dark Destroyer lives off of the beliefs of his many mind-controlled followers, so she believes that using her mental powers and the combined memories of all those who've encountered the Destroyer, she can temporarily bring him back to life. This is the single piece of new information to come out in the trial, and though it's actually interesting, in the end even this is all just filler material, too. Morphea's gambit succeeds, and the Destroyer suddenly appears in the middle of the courtroom, spouting his usual hate-filled rhetoric and scaring everyone to death. But as soon as he goes away again, even though for the first time ever it seems as if the trial might go their way, Atari Force breaks out. It makes everything that has happened in the trial thus far largely meaningless, with even the Dark Destroyer's appearance being little more than a distraction from the real plan all along. A Tazling drops some sort of high-tech lockpick down to Tempest, who frees himself and then uses his phasing abilities to free the rest of his team. Morphea, meanwhile, mentally influences everyone in the room to prevent them from trying to recapture the fleeing Atari Force. The three pages on which this all takes place are the only ones with any action or narrative importance. What precedes them is slow-moving fluff, a drawn out trial that gets nowhere and ends up being wholly irrelevant.

And that's pretty much it. Atari Force casually strolls into the "Multiverse shuttle" Martin designed long ago and the Tazlings have now rebuilt from the parts in his lab. Security officers see them, but have no interest in stopping them, and so our heroes phase away unchallenged, and with great calm. I'm happy for them, but bored by their departure, and quite frankly I'd rather be interested and pissed. Baron seems to be going through the motions to an extent here. He had a destination in mind, and he had an obligatory trial to write before he could get there, and so he wrote it, but without much innovation or liveliness or energy whatsoever.

The art is similarly lacking, but in this case I think it has to do with what Ed Barreto was asked to draw, rather than the way he drew it. For what is primarily a bunch of angry courtroom chatter, this actually looks pretty good. Barreto varies his focus and angles often, and makes the high tension and aggravation of the many, many characters involved abundantly clear. And at the end, when drawing all of Atari Force together in a small space (except Kargg, poor dude, who evidently gets left behind) Barreto does a damn good job. Everyone is as detailed and distinct in personality as always, so even if they leave in a lackluster fashion, they still look good doing it. The problem is that the story has so little going for it, and the panels are necessarily talking heads for so much of the issue, that no matter how talented Barreto is, the art fails to impress.

Tempest phase-punching Hunter in the face when Atari Force begins their escape is an awesome panel, as is the half-page splash of the Destroyer's reemergence. These are the moments of highest drama and action, so Barreto gives them extra attention, and it pays off. It is, however, too little too late, as both of these panels come after eleven pages of drudgery.

I'm not going to get into the backup feature in much detail. It's another cutesy, mindless Hukka story, this time about him getting into a fight with a malfunctioning and outrageously dangerous robotic toy. I'm just too sick of saying how little purpose these short stories serve, and this one is especially guilty. Is it impossible to tell a Hukka-centric story with meat on its bones? It shouldn't be, just because the character is someone's pet, speaking in goofy broken English and seeing the world in simple terms. Essentially, Hukka has a child's perspective, a point of view which can and has been used to great effect in countless pieces of fiction. Why this series has decided to consistently use Hukka to tell pseudo-comedic non-stories is beyond me, but that's what we get here. So the actual ending of the series is even more disappointing and dull than the conclusion of the main narrative.

This isn't a terrible issue, necessarily, but it's a very weak ending to what has mostly been a strong series. It does too little, aims too low, and involves far too much retreading of established facts and details for the benefit of the characters instead of the readers. I wanted something bolder and more action-packed, something that reflected the nineteen issues of sci-fi epic that preceded it.

Atari Force Month: Issue #19 Review

Sometimes, a given issue of a series is going to necessarily have predictable events. Because comicbooks tell ongoing, serialized tales, when the time comes to wrap them up, the endings can be easy to see from a distance. If the author(s) sets up the resolution(s) logically enough, then things will progress in natural and expected ways. This doesn't have to be a negative, but often it is, because even though it's important to have the story maintain some internal consistency, we still want to be surprised as readers. I give Mike Baron serious credit, then, for the blend of the predictable and the surprising in Atari Force #19. Though the titular team's return home ends up exactly as I knew it would, the journey there looks different than I thought, and has a few brand new elements thrown in that fit perfectly despite coming out of left field.

When Atari Force decide to head straight for New Earth and evade A.T.A.R.I. station, it's obviously not going to work, so Baron doesn't draw it out or play it for tension. Security chief Hunter is informed on page three that Scanner One has been spotted, so there's no question that our heroes will be brought in. Where Baron finds an opportunity to shock the reader is the specific spot on New Earth that Martin chooses as a landing zone. Thought he believes it to be an abandoned site, it is in fact the heart of a secret weapons development program called "Warmech." So instead of landing and immediately facing the wrath of Hunter and his crew as anticipated, Atari Force must first deal with an automated, combat-ready robot. It's a small difference, but an important one, for a few reasons. Firstly, even Hunter wants to prevent the Warmech from attacking, because the project is valuable to him, and he doesn't want Atari Force to destroy it (which, of course, they do). It also gives Atari Force, and Martin in particular, a sudden disillusionment with their homeworld. The New Earth they left all those months ago wasn't building weaponry, and the change does not sit well with Martin. My expectation was that, while they'd be annoyed at being labeled criminals, Atari Force would generally be glad to have gotten home after so long away. Instead, their return is tainted from the start by the Warmech program, and the generally harder, more violent/fascistic nature of current New Earth society that it represents.

The Warmech fight also provides Kargg a chance at some small measure of redemption, which I wasn't sure he'd ever get. He could easily have remained in the background, a simple and stoic former enemy whose story was essentially already complete. Free of his former master's mental control, Kargg didn't necessarily need to prove himself to his new team in the short space remaining for this book. Changing his tune from foe to ally was enough of a character arc, and there were and still are so many other threads to tie up, I wondered if he'd ever have anything active to do again. But he nearly sacrifices his own life in order to defeat the Warmech, winning Dart and Blackjak's admiration in the process. It's a nice moment for the character and the series, the final surprise of this script before things get back on the original narrative track.

Because Hunter still does show up, and still does arrest Atari Force, just as he always had to do. However, even in that, there are some twists. Taz and Kargg cannot be arrested, logically enough, because they weren't part of the group that originally stole Scanner One. But Morphea also gets a pass, since her actions are evidently protected by "doctor/patient immunity." This is all New Earth law, which obviously I didn't know the details of ahead of time, since they are entirely made up by Baron. I appreciate that he took the time to think it through, though, and pleasantly surprised that Hunter wasn't just herding everyone into cells no questions asked. It adds a bit of depth and intelligence to his character, first of all, and more importantly it's another way in which Baron avoids being wholly predictable. It all adds up, but the final sum isn't what I thought it would be.

The issue ends with the inevitable trial's beginning, charges of treason and conspiracy and the like being brought against the members of Atari Force who could be arrested. And while the trial itself was inevitable, I admit that the verdict remains somewhat mysterious. If Martin can prove he was right all along about the Dark Destroyer, that he and his crew prevented the obliteration of the entire universe, will that even be enough? It seems possible that the deck is already so stacked against the good guys that nothing they can do will convince their accusers of their innocence. Also, with the discovery of Warmech and the many recent additions to their number from various other worlds, I'm not positive Atari Force cares to remain on New Earth anymore. Having finally reached their destination, they find it changed for the worse, so they may not be all that invested in winning their trial anyway. Where the team will be at the close of the next, final issue is anyone's guess, another point in Baron's favor here.

On the art side of the equation, there's nothing especially dazzling in Atari Force #19, but there are no noticeable mistakes or bad calls, either. Everyone in the expansive cast is full, mobile, expressive, and clear. The action hums, the emotional drama is played at just the right levels, and all in all it's a good-looking issue. Kargg's selfless attack on Warmech is likely the best work. His determination shines through, as does his immense strength, as he climbs the machine and rips it open despite having only one arm. While Baron is toying slightly with expectations in his script, Ed Barreto goes almost the opposite route. He doesn't pull out many fancy or daring artistic moves, but opts for more straightforward storytelling methods. There are a few bold layouts when called for, but mostly these pages concern themselves with getting the information out and giving each member of the cast the right amount of spotlight.

I was hoping the momentum of issue #18 would carry over into and beyond this one, and for the most part I'd say it does. And in those places where the story swerves a bit, it does so with purpose and thoughtfulness, enhancing the ongoing saga without overturning it. Though Baron and Barreto's tenure has been hit and miss on the whole, I am excited to see how they bring it all to a close.

The backup feature is wordless (well...there's nothing in English, just indecipherable, symbol-based alien language) and was written, penciled, and colored by Ed Hannigan with Bill Wray on inks and Bob Lappan, as always, handling the letters. It is the story of Taz, basically right before we meet her in the main series, losing her combat/life partner to war. Without question, it's the strongest of these seven-page closers, the only one yet that has really been about something other than telling a cute and disposable story. It has something to say, even though no one actually says anything I can understand.

Taz and her partner are already the last two members of their species standing in the story's opening panel. And by the end of the first page, it is just Taz, as an enemy ship strafes the pair and kills Taz's love. The pilot of that ship departs in order to loot the bodies, and Taz ambushes him, blowing his vessel up and causing a massive gap in the ground down which they both fall. They recover quickly, and Taz is seconds away from killing her foe when they are both attacked by an enormous underground serpent or slug of some kind. Suddenly, enemies becomes allies as they work together to evade and then slay the giant beast. Then, there is a bit of extra teamwork needed in order for them to climb back to the surface, pushing against each other's backs as they walk up opposite sides of the chasm. It almost feels like this story's lesson is one of peace over war, but as soon as they've made it topside, their alliance crumbles. Despite emphatic protests from the other alien, Taz guns him down mercilessly, and then picks up her partner's corpse and wanders into the sunset, mere minutes away from meeting Babe and joining the rest of the team in the main storyline. On the final panel, Hannigan offers the only bit of English present in the form of a tiny, third-person, barely visible moral: "Hang on to your gun." But the true meaning and strength of this backup feature is deeper than that.

It is, essentially, an examination of different kinds of violence. There is fighting for survival, and then there is war, and both get stage time here. Both lead to death, but only one also creates harmony, however temporary, and it is a significant distinction. When Taz and her enemy team up to battle the more immediate threats of the giant slug and the hole they're trapped in, the war they were participating in seconds before disappears entirely. When in survival mode, things like race and politics and vengeance evaporate, replaced by more urgent, immediate needs. In many ways, this story displays the mindless ugliness of war, the lack of reason behind it. War is violence that can only beget further violence, whereas the violence inherent in defending oneself against a predator can and does end there. Either the predator dies or the prey does, and then the story is over. But in war, everyone is both predator and prey, an endless cycle of hunting the hunters until only one side has anyone left.

War can turn friends into foes; survival does the opposite. The violence of war necessarily involves hatred and, sometimes, also joy, irrational and overwhelming emotions that cloud the senses. Survival, on the other hand, is a practical kind of violence. Both involve kill-or-be-killed circumstances, but with war, the killing is the point. The violence is the ends, rather than the means. In nature, violence either creates food or prevents its creation, but the goal is survival either way. It's not about putting down the other guy, but staying up yourself. Again, subtle but important differences that Hannigan deftly examines.

With only one issue to go before this series calls it a day (or a year-and-a-half or whatever) things are coming together quite nicely. Baron has left his cast in unenviable and unpredictable positions for the final chapter, and Hannigan finally proved that the backup features could have merit and soul. I'm anxious to dive into issue #20 now, in a way I'm not sure I've felt since Gerry Conway and José Luis García-López departed the title. Sort of too bad that my excitement would be so refreshed so close to the end, but better than having it peter out completely. Here's hoping the last chapter lives up to the potential so firmly established in this penultimate issue.

Atari Force Month: Issue #18 Review

Ok, let me get my bitching about the backup story out of the way at the top, because the rest of this issue was pretty good. But "A Boy & His Hukka" is the worst of the seven-pagers yet, for a number of reasons. Here's the synopsis: a young Tempest takes Hukka to the mall to buy a new action figure. Hukka gets left behind as the toy store closes, and is then chased by a guard dog because, you know, that is the dog's only job. Tempest comes back to save his pet, and when he sees the dog attacking, phases into the store. This so tremendously scares the dog that it seizes up and, as far as I can tell based on context clues, dies. That seems to be what the human security guard who arrives to reprimand Tempest indicates, and the dog certainly never stirs. Also the story ends with the guard saying he will call Tempest's parents because of "what you did to my dog."

So, yeah...Tempest is an irresponsible pet owner, and it causes the death of someone else's totally innocent pet. Why would I want to read about that? No lesson is taught, no good is done, and a dog dies for no reason. I don't know if Dave Manak was aiming for humor with this script, but if so he did a lackluster job of it, because there's nothing I would point to as an overt joke or gag. And it certainly isn't a story about Tempest growing up or having an informative or transformative experience, because he learns nothing and changes not at all. It feels like this story exists merely to fill space, that all Manak bothered to think of was a narrative that could, hypothetically, have occurred in his main character's past. It doesn't seem to matter if the story holds any interesting or worthwhile material, the point is just to hit a page count. And honestly, even if I am wrong, and the dog only passes out from fear rather than expiring, it's still a cruel thing to do to an animal that was merely trying to carry out the job it was trained to do. Tempest doesn't exactly get away with it, but he doesn't suffer any real consequences that we ever see, either. He gets caught, but not punished, while the dog suffers its fate right before our eyes. Do I have a soft spot for dogs? Hell yes I do, but I don't ever want to see anything die, human or dog or cat or alien or tree or ANYTHING in my fiction unless it has a specific narrative purpose. Again, this applies even if the dog survived. To traumatize a character, even an animal one, without any reason behind it, is infuriating writing. It makes this backup feature reach new depths of pointlessness.

Marshall Rogers' art, at least, looks very good. His design for young Tempest is spot on. The child's hair is shorter and more rigid than his older self, because he's not yet the rebellious spirit with the enormous chip on his shoulder he will someday be. And the scenes of the dog chasing Hukka through the toy store have a strong sense of motion to them, and a lot of nice details in terms of different kinds of toys being used in different ways throughout the sequence. It would be nice if the art more firmly provided an answer as to the dog's ultimate state, living or dead, but the actual moment of the animal falling to the ground looks fantastic. It may not be the best-looking backup story, but it's up there, yet paired with such a mindless script, it feels like a waste of Rogers' talent rather than an improvement to the feature.

But that is just the issue's final seven pages, and they tell a story that matters not at all for the ongoing saga of the main series. That story snaps back into focus after writer Mike Baron got a little jumpy last time, and though there are still some inexplicable stumbles, considerably more forward progress is made here.

At first, Baron cheats a little by having Tempest regain some low-level phasing abilities without ever explaining how that's possible. He uses them to dismantle the machine that keeps him from phasing away completely, and gets out of A.T.A.R.I. just in time, as Hunter bursts through the door already firing his weapon. This escape takes place on the title page, and it's a dazzling splash image, dizzying in the way it lays out the action. Tempest dives headfirst into his phase field (a term I may have made up...?) on one side of the page while Hunter charges in from the other. The two of them form a kind of circle of action, connected by Tempest's powers and Hunter's laser fire. From there, Tempest finds himself adrift in a disrupted Multiverse. Ed Barreto draws a couple of fascinating new universes as Tempest travels desperately from place to place, trying to find something familiar. This happens on page four, and the narrative momentum doesn't slow considerably after that point, moving steadily toward the inevitable return of Atari Force to New Earth.

While Tempest is lost, Dart tries again to connect to him mentally, and her timing couldn't be better. He is able to focus on her location through their psychic bond and, after falling through a few more great-looking other realities, he makes it back to Scanner One. There is a brief moment of rejoicing, and then it's all business again, because with Tempest's powers to guide them and concrete proof that their universe still exists, Atari Force finally have hope that they can go home. Unfortunately, their navigation system is shot, meaning someone will have to steer the ship manually.

What luck, then, that Blackjak's new eye, given to him by the Tazlings last issue, seems to grant him some sort of super-sight. Earlier, he explains it to Dart as seeing people "surrounded by auras," which she then translates to Martin as Blackjak seeing "too much." This enhanced vision, combined with Dart's earlier premonition that Blackjak would someday dock Scanner One at A.T.A.R.I. with two working eyes, seems to be enough to convince everyone that Blackjak is the right pilot for their current situation. It all seems to be adding up, and for the first time since he took over, Baron is successfully knocking down narrative dominos in what feels like a natural fashion. It wasn't clear what his stories were working toward before, but all of a sudden, as Blackjak takes the wheel, it feels like there really has been a plan all along.

Then something weird happens, where Baron almost backpedals. Or, no, that's exactly what he does. He backpedals by having Blackjak's new eye be an impairment. When he flies Scanner One into the universe hit by the Dark Destroyer's bomb---evidently one adjacent to the intended target---it is a brilliant swirl of vibrant colors. Some of Tom Ziuko's best work yet. But for Blackjak, it's blinding, and he screams in pain at the Tazlings, demanding they return his old cyborg eye. Which they do, reversing the work they'd done before, and it seems to help. Reverting to his former, supposedly lesser self, Blackjak is now prepared to fly his friends home. Why fix his eye only to break it again? Why make it seem like the new eye was proof that Blackjak was destined to bring Scanner One back to New Earth, just so it can instead almost prevent him from accomplishing that very thing? What the fuck was Baron thinking with this last minute flip-flop? I couldn't possible hazard a guess, but I also don't care as much as I'm making it seem. The point is, Atari Force is finally coming full circle, and not a moment too soon.

So there's a weird bit at the beginning with Tempest's powers, and an even weirder one at the end with Blackjak's eye, but in between is a strong and steady narrative about Atari Force coming together and finding new hope. Baretto also keeps up the good work after the opening pages. There's some unusually strong layout work on the page when Dart guides Tempest back to the ship. And Blackjak's old swagger is in full force for the first time in ages when his old eye is back in place. Tom Ziuko also has a particularly strong issue, for more than just the full-rainbow palette of the destroyed universe. There are several instances where he does a foreground character in a wash of a single hue, while the backgrounds are more fully colored. It adds depth to some of the smaller panels, and helps display emotional friction between cast members, physically separating them with the amount of color used. I'm not sure I've noticed him doing this before, but it's very effective this issue.

Nothing but trouble awaits Atari Force on New Earth, beginning with Rident inevitably trying to arrest them all as soon as they're docked. But they're still excited to get there, and based on this issue, so am I. If the momentum built up here can continue to carry the narrative with the same energy for the final two issues, this series could have a properly compelling conclusion.

Atari Force Month: Issue #17 Review

Mike Baron tends to write this series with such an odd, disjointed pace. This issue, more than any others, suffers from a lack of identity. What is it about? Where is it going? I understand what happens, I can see where it will likely lead, but on its own Atari Force #17 is too fragmented, and it feels as though it stops short. None of the myriad plot threads that Baron includes here get enough space to do anything of note. They are either introduced too superficially, resolved in rapid and predictable ways, or briefly visited but not developed whatsoever. Baron jumps from beat to beat with no rhyme or reason, and by the time the issue reaches its final panel, I'm not sure which bits I'm meant to care about the most.

The story opens with Blackjak being fixed by the Tazlings, while the rest of Atari Force is locked outside of the infirmary. Dart refuses to trust the Tazlings with her former love, since all they've accomplished so far is to kill a bunch of ants, so in her mind they're a violent threat. Nevermind the fact that just last issue, Morphea explained to everyone that the Tazlings are fixers by nature, Dart wants to literally break the door down. She never gets a chance, though, and the Tazlings somehow give Blackjak a new, fully functional, organic eye. They also remove the Dark Destroyer's implant from his brain, making Blackjak once again trustworthy as a good guy. Well, unless you're Martin Champion.

Under Baron's pen, Martin is more stubborn and dickish than he ever was before, and seems to grow more one-dimensional each issue. He's been turned into an overly-serious naysayer, who has little to no interest in hearing what anyone else has to say, even though Martin himself has nothing helpful or productive to contribute to any conversation. His lack of depth is nothing compared to Rident, though, who I'm starting to wish Baron had never bothered bringing back into the book. Rident's sole purpose is to remind everyone else that he has plans to arrest them. That's it. It's all he's done yet, and it's utterly obnoxious and pointless, because by now the rest of the cast just flat-out ignores his every line. What is he doing here, what is the creative motivation behind including him in the series? Thus far, there does not seem to be one.

This issue also sees Dart mentally connect to Tempest again, but their conversation doesn't provide any new information or plot advancement whatsoever. He says, just as he did last time, that he is still being held on A.T.A.R.I. station, and Dart once again repeats this to Martin, who once again doesn't really have anything he can do with that knowledge. Essentially, it's three pages of material that rehash an even shorter scene from the preceding issue, a significant chunk of wasted space in an issue that already screws the pooch when it comes to structure and pacing.

Early on, Martin says the Tazlings are depleting Scanner One's food stores at an alarming rate, but no solution is offered by anyone, and the subject is soon dropped. Will it come up again? Probably, but why bring it up here if nothing's going to be done with it? Baron already has so many balls in the air, I'm unclear as to why his strategy would be to throw up more without catching any. But that's what he does with the Tazlings' dietary habits, and then again at the end of the issue when Morphea frees Kargg from the Dark Destroyer's mental hold.

Now, the Morphea-vs.-Destroyer in Kargg's brain scene is actually the issue's strongest section, so I don't mean to complain about it too enthusiastically. But what makes it work isn't Baron's writing but Ed Barreto's art, which comes to life during that battle in a way it never quite has before. Morphea's fear, surprise, and ultimate rage at discovering that the Dark Destroyer has been mentally manipulating Kargg for all these years are all very strong. And the full scale of the Destroyer's inner monstrousness is more clearly on display than ever. We've seen Destroyer as tentacle monster before, but it's never been as horrific as this. It's a brief mental combat, but given all the detail and tension it deserves, making it the issue's biggest strength by a long shot.

Sadly, it rolls right into the too-abrupt ending, where Kargg comes onto the bridge, is met with skepticism, and then apologizes for his recent behavior. And that is it. He apologizes, end of issue. Well, technically the end of the issue is Martin responding to the apology with, "Rrright..." which is about as lackluster a cliffhanger as I've come across. So despite Barreto amping up the energy in the fight scene, the scattered script undoes all that excellent work on its final page.

And before the fight even begins, Barreto loses oodles of credit with me by having Dart change into a slinky, barely-the-right-size nightgown for absolutely no reason at all. It's for her mental connection with Tempest, and I imagine the argument would be that she needed to be relaxed or something in order to reach out to him, but come on. There's changing into something comfortable, and then there's putting on an outfit that strains to cover her breasts and buttocks, and doesn't even always entirely succeed. I'm starting to really hate Barreto for bringing an unneeded and uncharacteristic sexiness to this incredible character. And it doesn't help that Baron writes her as being far blander than she used to be. Also, she kisses Blackjak this issue after the Tazlings fix him, which makes her seem pretty weak to me, in a way that doesn't fit. The Dart of old would not be so quick to return to a romance with the man who tried to kill her, even if she had evidence that he'd been "repaired." It's reckless and sappy in a way Dart isn't, or at any rate hasn't been up to now.

More and more with this creative team, Atari Force feels like a different series, and that's a shame. It was such a good book before, and now it is mediocre at best, lacking the narrative focus and drive it had under Gerry Conway and José Luis García-López. And it has never helped that the main story is limited to sixteen pages so that a seven-page backup can be included. This issue is no exception.

Concluding the Pakrat story that started in issue #15, "Rats Like Us" sees Ferra and Pakrat join forces to set up Rident for the diamond heist that set everything in motion. Andy Helfer does a bit to correct what seemed like a mistake from the first part of the story, by having Rident say here that his and Pakrat's family is an exception to the rule of Markians being thieves. However, Helfer then makes an even bigger factual error by saying that Rident is part of A.T.A.R.I. security. No, he is not. He was hired by them for the sole purpose of retrieving the stolen Scanner One, but this backup story necessarily takes place before that happened. And even if it comes after the events of the main story, why would Rident still be in A.T.A.R.I.'s employ? Nonsense, and totally unforgivable considering Helfer is also the book's editor, and this is, basically, an editorial mistake.

Mike Chen does provide some solid artwork for the backup, at least. When Rident blasts Pakrat across the room, there is a hilarious look of surprise and pain on Pakrat's face. And later, when Rident realizes he's been set up, he looks equally funny in his expression of total defeat and bewilderment. Best of all, though, is the row of five panels showing five different cops, each from a different species with a distinct look and personality. Character design has been one of Atari Force's most consistent strengths, and it's nice to see Chen carry on that tradition, even for just one small strip of a single page.

The plot of the backup makes no sense, though, as it relies on Pakrat convincing Ferra that he knows her father better than she. His argument may be logical, but if Ferra believes her dad will be mad at her for her crimes, she must have a reason. And if, in fact, Pakrat is correct, and Ferra's dad would be proud of her thievery, then she's a strong candidate for the most idiotic and vapid character of all time. In which case, don't waste my time telling stories about her.

My disappointment grows ever larger as this book winds down. There are some good ideas and exciting moments here, but they are few and far between. Baron's scripting is slipshod, Barreto's art rises and falls depending on who he's drawing, and the backups continue to feel pointless and silly. It's not a terrible comic, but the quality has taken a noticeable dip, and there just aren't that many chances left for it to return to its former glory.

Atari Force Month: Issue #16 Review

The stomach pains Taz first experienced back when Gerry Conway was still writing finally resolve here, and what a delightful resolution it is. Taz, it turns out, was pregnant, and she gives birth to a whole gaggle of tiny Tazlings that look equally hilarious and adorable, and show up just in time to save the day. The giant armed ants from last issue sneak aboard Scanner One at the beginning of this one, and when they attack the bridge, none of the weapons Atari Force has available do anything to them. But the Tazlings arrive en masse with an arsenal of weapons they built themselves out of the ship's parts, and eliminate the enormous bugs easily. It's a great and bizarre action scene, the high point of an issue that is considerably stronger and more focused than the last.

Mike Baron picks up right where he left off, with Babe covered in a growing swarm of ants while he tries to fix the ship's thrusters. At first it is unclear if Babe will survive, but then he has, essentially, a brief temper tantrum, which causes the ants to fall off of him immediately. So he is able to repair Scanner One, and Atari Force departs the bug-covered planet, but not before a handful of the warrior ants secretly climb aboard. While the invaders make their way through the ship's interior, Baron takes the opportunity to introduce a few new plotlines. Dart and Blackjak have a pseudo-reconciliation, opening the door for their relationship to heal for the first time since he betrayed her. And immediately afterward, Dart gets a telepathic call from Tempest, indicating that perhaps New Earth wasn't destroyed as previously believed. Neither of these are unexpected developments, but Baron does a god job with them. He doesn't drag them out, but they have the proper space to breath, much more intelligently paced than his scenes have tended to be up to now.

After Dart tells the rest of the team that she spoke with Tempest, the ant attack and Taz giving birth happen simultaneously, so that the ants-vs.-Tazlings fight makes up most of the issue's latter half. Once the bugs have been slain, Morphea explains that the Tazlings are born with language skills, technical know-how, and other abilities that they will lose and have to re-learn with age. They also, apparently, always find something to fix as a group. This is an interesting concept, that an entire litter of alien babies would emerge with a common goal and the skills to achieve it, only to give those things up as they mature. And this particular group selects Blackjak as their thing to fix, which is how the issue closes. The Tazling basically overrun Blackjak, reminiscent of the ants all over Babe at the issue's opening. It might be scary, except Morphea has already explained by this point that the Tazlings are fixers, and a couple issues back, Dart had a premonition of Blackjak with two functional eyes. So it seems like a safe bet that his eye will be repaired by the babies next time. Possibly also the tumor in his brain in which lives an evil alien personality.

Ed Hannigan comes on as penciler for this issue, with common series inker Ricardo Villagrán and new colorist Carl Gafford rounding out the artistic team. They all provide solid work, with the Tazlings in particular. They have a manic joy about them, even when they're engaged in violence. They seem glad to be alive, glad to have something to do. And they work as newborns even with their intelligence and talents, because Hannigan infuses them with such a youthful spirit. His ants look great, too, very militaristic and intimidating. They are a powerful contrast to the tiny, giddy Tazlings, making their fight dynamic and lively.

I also quite liked the three or so panels of Taz giving birth. The pain and determination on her face struck a perfect balance. I think the best contribution of Hannigan's is his Morphea, though. She's a bit longer in the face and wider in the eyes when he draws her, which fits her always-concerned and often-distressed personality. And she is a bit more emotive than usual, somehow, more nuanced in her expression even though she has such an inhuman face. Finally, I appreciate that Hannigan ignored Ed Barreto's decision to give Dart pointless cleavage last issue. Her suit is back in one piece here, which is as it should be. I suppose, technically, it is a continuity mistake, but it's one I support wholeheartedly.

Gafford doesn't miss a beat with the colors, and compared to Tom Ziuko's weaker last few issues, this is actually a step up. Not the the colors ever astound me, but Gafford has a wide-ranging palette and attention to detail that add a thick richness to the art. Subtle things like Taz's white tears showing up even against her white flesh, or the ants' different weapons firing differently colored beams. Even the cover, where Taz's uniform is dark blues while the Tazlings behind her are done in a paler shade, shows Gafford's skill and care.

There are a few tiny missteps here. Martin says that Tempest reaching out to Dart is "further evidence that New Earth exists!" but I can't recall any previous evidence of that ever being found. One of Dart's speech bubbles is connected to Blackjak, Morphea apparently already knows Taz is pregnant even though it is news to the reader, etc. These are minor flubs, but it does speak to Baron's generally looser writing style. His scripts are a little less focused on detail or character, and more interested in new plots and sci-fi concepts. That is, I suppose, a valid tactic, but in the end I think it makes his issues less balanced than Conway's typically were.

The Pakrat backup is better than its predecessor, but only marginally so. The plan seems to be to tell an ongoing Pakrat story in seven-page chunks now, which is an alright decision, but I do wish they'd used another character. With Pakrat, the only real option is a caper story, and that's what we're getting here, only it's not a very good one. Pakrat is tossed out a window of the embassy he tried to rob last issue, and gets saved by Ferra in a hovercar/spaceship/unnamed airborne vehicle. She takes him to one of her father's homes, lulls him into a false sense of security and then, as the cliffhanger, turns him over to his brother Rident. A lame ending in light of Rident recently joining the main narrative as a seemingly permanent cast member, but taken on its own it works alright. Andy Helfer seems to be having fun writing Pakrat, and Pakrat is having fun on his adventure. So is Ferra, probably doubly so. This translates into a story that's fun and easy to read, which is, I suppose, what a backup ought to be. But it's not especially compelling.

Really the highlight of this story is the action sequence, with Pakrat battling the embassy guard and then Ferra saving him and avoiding arrest. Mike Chen draws the most ferocious-looking cornered Pakrat I think the series has ever seen, and doesn't skimp on the guard's expressions either. And the in-flight high-speed chase is exciting and bombastic, ending with Ferra pulling some daredevil stunts to get away. By the time that's done, there are only two pages left, and the final one is a full-page splash of Pakrat, Ferra, and Rident, all drawn with great detail and emotion. So I guess when I say "the action" is this story's highlight, what I really mean is the art trumps the script.

All told, this is Baron's strongest issue yet, and one of the best backup stories since the title started having them. I do wish Baron could get a better handle on the cast, and bring back some of the powerful emotional storytelling that used to be present in this book. But he's got some good ideas, and he seems to be finding his footing more and more, so here's hoping things only get better in the final few chapters.

Atari Force Month: Issue #15 Review

OH NO! My move to Massachusetts has, predictably enough, prevented me from all the reading and writing I has hoping to do these past few days, which is why the below review did not go up yesterday. We have arrived at our destination now, and I am unemployed at the moment, so I gots some time to do some catching up. Therefore, the plan is to do this review and the next one today, getting me back on track for Atari Force Month.

This is a sloppy issue. It opens sloppily and never course corrects. Despite issue #14 ending with the team walking back to Scanner One, this time they start off standing around Kargg's fallen form, surrounded by thousands of giant insects. Rident apparently already sees these insects and knows that they are hostile, but how he could possibly have that info is beyond me. He says they ate his ship, but...how did he survive? Why weren't they already on his tail when he showed up last time? It all raises more questions than it does provide answers, and that's only the first two panels. From there, Mike Baron writes really awkward dialogue between Martin and Dart as the two of them debate strategy and ultimately decide the best bet is to run away. So  everyone returns to Scanner One, with the insects close behind. This all only takes two pages, the first of which is a splash, so there is definitely a hurried feeling to the script in the beginning. And it never quite lets up.

Martin tries to convince Rident that their home universe is destroyed while, at the same time, Dart works on removing the limb of the one insect who managed to get a foot in the door of the ship. She first tries a blade that is "ten times harder than magnatun," which is a meaningless sentence. Especially since the blade is ineffective against the giant bug. So Dart says she'll try a power saw instead, and all of the other characters leave her behind to do so while they race to the bridge. There's just no time, apparently, to see if the saw works, because Baron wants Martin and Rident's debate to continue. The two men argue with one another over whether or not there is still a New Earth to return to, but even that only gets one page of attention before Dart shows back up with the severed bug claw in her hand. Her sense of victory is short-lived, though, as the insects have already covered the ship's thrusters with a strange blue goo that prevents it from taking off.

Quick cut to the room Blackjak is apparently being held in and, wait a minute, Kargg is there, too. Not just in the room, but held down by some kind of high-tech restraint. When the hell did this happen? We see Martin carry Kargg onto Scanner One when they're running from the bugs, but nobody ever takes him into this room or secures him. He is just conveniently there for no reason, another example of the issue's sloppiness. Morphea shows up to try and probe Blackjak's mind, which he agrees to, and it turns out there is still some invasive alien personality hiding in there. The indication is that it is now Kargg and not the Dark Destroyer, but that's not confirmed, and for now this thread is left to dangle. That's fine, though, and actually this scene marks the one instance where things don't seem rushed in this script.

There is a brief scene of Taz escaping sick bay and finding a quiet, dark place to hide with his ongoing stomach pains. And then there is the rapid discovery that Babe's physiology allows him to harm the attacking bugs, leading to Martin forcing Morphea to send Babe outside to try and fix the thrusters. Morphea objects strongly to having a child put in such a dangerous situation (some of the bugs who showed up most recently have rocket launchers), but Martin and Dart insist this is their only hope. Babe agrees, goes outside, and is immediately swarmed, and that is where the issue ends.

It's not mind-numbingly AWFUL, but it's bad. Baron's script bounces from point to point, never settling on anything long enough. Even the sequence at the end of realizing Babe can save them and sending him outside to try is too jumpy, and punctuated with color commentary from Rident and Pakrat that isn't funny, informative, helpful, or necessary. Nothing gets resolved because this issue is all set-up. It introduces the threat of the bugs and offers Babe as a possible solution, but then he is immediately overrun when he goes outside, so it's possible that solution is no good, after all. Not that every issue needs to include resolutions...that's not really my problem with this issue's narrative. My problem is that the lack of resolutions comes with a lack of much development, either. The heroes begin and end the issue trapped on this planet, attacked by bugs. The only progress made is learning Babe can fight the bugs, and that might not even be true.

Also, Baron doesn't write these characters as strongly as they usually are. Rident and Pakrat are alright, but Martin is much more one-note and bullheaded than before (and he was always a pretty bullheaded guy). Dart is the worst, though, as she becomes a sort of bland, exposition-only character here. She's lost some of her humor and charm somehow, which is depressing since she was always the best member of the cast. It's not as if this issue is impossible to understand, but Baron doesn't seem to be taking his time at all. He's just throwing out the plot pints as rapidly as possible, which results in a less filling story than I want.

Ed Barretto inks himself this issue, and his art is as strong as it was in the last two issues, with one huge, infuriating exception. For the first time since this series' debut, Dart is sexualized by the artwork. It's dumb, needless, and comes at the worst possible time, when her voice loses a lot of what made it so enjoyable, too. Dart cutting off the bug's arm happens off-panel, so the details are unknown, but when she shows up on the bridge, her shirt has been torn perfectly to give her generous cleavage. In that first panel, at least, the tear is visible, but after that Barreto doesn't both drawing it; the fabric that used to be there is just gone. Basically it's an excuse to redesign her costume so he can draw half-visible breasts whenever she's on panel. If that wasn't gross enough, there is a panel at the bottom of page twelve where the foreground of the image is just Dart's ass. That has never happened in this book before, and it is disgusting and serves zero narrative purpose. It's an entirely visual decision, and one that ruins any other good work Barreto does here.

Tom Ziuko's coloring is off this issue, too. There are several examples of characters being done in a wash of a single color for no explicable reason. Sometimes they're all done in the same color, usually red, and that makes it hard to tell who is even who. Just one more way in which Atari Force #15 is less put together than anything that's preceded it. A jumbled, rushed, visually aggravating mess.

The backup feature is Pakrat-focused this time, and has much of the sloppiness of the story it follows. For starters, this is the first time a backup story hasn't been complete. It ends on a cliffhanger, with Pakrat about to be arrested for a theft he didn't even commit. Written by editor (and sometimes writer) Andy Helfer, it's just as pointless a tale as any of these short stories have been, with the added disadvantage of not yet ending. Pakrat breaks into an embassy building to steal some diamonds, but another Markian thief name Ferra has beaten him to it. The indication is that the two have either a professional or personal history (if not both) but we don't learn the details here. Ferra manipulates Pakrat into causing a distraction so she can escape while he is blamed for the robbery, and that is where the story closes.

My biggest complaint is actually that Helfer has Pakrat say most members of his species are thieves and that stealing is therefore his birthright. Maybe most Markians do like to take what isn't theirs, I couldn't possibly know, but it is an established truth that Pakrat's family, specifically, are cops instead. His whole deal is that he is pushing back against his birthright, so...yeah Helfer just gets that plain wrong. Again, sloppy. Sloppy, sloppy joe.

Penciled by Mike Chen and inked by Joe Delbeato, the artwork in the backup is pretty good. As is tradition in this series, the scenes in the embassy that feature numerous alien races interacting have a jaw-droppingly impressive level of character design. Lots of really interesting details and different looks for the myriad nameless characters in the room. Sadly, like Barreto did with Dart, Chen over-sexualizes Ferra here. Not so much in her attire as the come-hither stance and look she has on constantly. It isn't helped by Helfer having her use false romance and coy charm to get away with her crimes. She is the stereotypical sex-as-a-tool criminal character, which is unimaginative at best, and misogynistic at worst.

Disappointing issue through and though, this one. Two stories that get nowhere and treat their female characters badly. If this is the direction of the new creative team, I think I may understand why there are only five issues to go.

Atari Force Month: Issue #14 Review

Obviously, I went into this issue with some unavoidable bias. As I wrote repeatedly in my last couple of posts, Atari Force #13 seems like a logical stopping point to me, so #14 was bound to have a hard time winning me over. And you know what? It's actually a decent issue, but it's not nearly big or exciting enough for what it followed. Compared to any random other chapter of this series out of context, I think it holds up just fine on its own as a single issue. But held next to the issue that preceded it, this feels like too little progress in too long a time.

Mike Baron opens his first script the only way he really can, by addressing the fact that Atari Force's whole universe was wiped out. Martin Champion, in his usual way, is deeply distraught by what's happened, and moans about it until Scanner One picks up a blip of some kind of radiation. This suddenly provides a bit of hope that Atari Force will be able to find a new home somewhere in the Multiverse, or at the very least orient themselves within it. This is a fairly strong way to begin the issue, diving right into the problems created by the end of the last one. These first few pages remind readers of the new status quo and then begin to add to it sightly in order to make room for new stories. That's the exact right way to kick things off, but from there, the story doesn't get much farther.

Pakrat soon splits off from the rest of the group in order to raid the ship's hold. On his way there, he finds a beaten and tied up Taz, and is then immediately attack by Kargg, who apparently managed to get aboard Scanner One somehow without anyone noticing. Would have been nice to get an explanation as to how that's possible, but Baron offers none, and Pakrat takes off for yet another sequence of him running away from somebody. He ends up in one of the escape shuttles, hoping he can lock Kargg out of it, but the giant green monster is too strong to be kept out. So Pakrat launches the shuttle, and it takes him to a random nearby planet.

Meanwhile, Dart brings Blackjak onto the bridge, which pisses Martin off to no end. She explains that she's had another one of her visions, this time of Blackjak steering Scanner One into A.T.A.R.I. Station. This essentially means that Baron is promising to somehow bring back the recently-destroyed universe, because in spite of what she says in this issue, Dart's premonitions always come true. I would have liked to actually see her seeing what she saw, and I don't at all understand why having such a vision would require her to immediately release Blackjak, but it's a good move on Baron's part anyway, I think. If he has plans to undo the demolition of an entire reality, it's wise for him to say so up front.

At any rate, the team soon discovers the wounded Taz, and Morphea uses her mental abilities to learn that Kargg is on the ship. Then they all see that Pakrat has taken the escape shuttle, and follow him. He arrives at his arbitrary destination and, the second he steps outside, is attacked by Kargg again, already something I am tired of seeing by this point. There is a small splash of excitement when Rident shows up to save his brother's life. I was so sure he'd be gone for good now, and I'm grateful to Baron for trying to tie up that loose thread. But Rident only gets two pages here before the main issue's main narrative ends, and it's just not enough space. The story feels cut short, closing with Marin telling Rident about the anti-matter bomb and Rident refusing to believe him. It's practically the middle of their conversation, and the dialogue is long-winded so that Baron can fit all of the information on the page. It's not a bad place to press pause, I guess, but it's not the punchiest of conclusions, either. Just as Rident comes back onto the scene, the scene ends, leaving me feeling shortchanged.

And the issue as a whole makes me feel that way, too, because other than the very beginning it doesn't do enough to get the ball rolling on this new status quo. Baron doesn't make big or bold enough steps here in any direction for me to know what his vision for the title is. This issue was an opportunity to convince me there was any actual reason to keep the book running. It's not a poor issue, but it fails to accomplish that in the slightest, containing what is essentially just another random Atari Force adventure.

Ed Barreto's art is also less compelling than it was in issue #13. It doesn't feel as energetic; the layouts are more traditional and the action more contained. But he's still a very strong artist, and reminds me very much of the pencilers who preceded him on this book. All the intense detail, in the characters and settings both, is present here. Martin's despair, Pakrat's fear, and Rident's cockiness all shine brightly. And the biggest moments, like Kargg's initial attack or Rident finally taking him down with a radium bullet, do have all the thrills of last issue. Again, not terrible work, but not art that particularly entices me to continue reading the book.

There is a backup story yet again, and they are starting to grate my nerves at this point. This one takes place on Babe's homeworld of Egg, and tells a weirdly cutesy story about one of the young Eggites (maybe Babe himself in the past...?) falling off of his mother, who is a mountain, and wanting to get back to her. He stumbles upon two spaceships in the middle of a conflict, one of which has a stereotypical space ranger character on it, and the other of which is full of that guy's enemies. The evil aliens pour out of their vessel, spot the enormous young Eggite, and swarm him. But they are unable to do anything more than tickle the child, who starts to laugh and roll around on top of them, causing them to flee. The space ranger guy is grateful, so he agrees to carry the baby back to its mother with his ship.

That's it. A wholly pointless seven pages of non-story, where nobody changes and litte even happens. It's written by Dave Manak and drawn by Klaus Johnson, neither of whom do all that impressive a job. Manak tells his story very directly, and Johnson does the same with the visuals. There are no tricks, no twists, no moments of unexpected humor or breathtaking imagery or anything to make this feature memorable. It is flavorless cotton candy, and this issue would have been much better suited by giving Baron this space to get more done in his primary story.

Nothing here is godawful, and nothing astounds. It's a mid-level, enjoyable but not impressive issue of Atari Force. That's all well and good if I'm speaking in general terms, because better to have an issue like this than a truly terrible one. But because the conclusion of #13 was so powerful and significant and changed everything forever, I think what #14 needed to do was show the readers what that change really means for the future of the series. Instead, Baron writes an issue that feels the same as always. A disappointing, deflating decision.

Atari Force Month: Issue #13 Review

This is the last issue to have Gerry Conway's name attached, and once again he only plots it, while Joey Cavalieri handles the actual script. And the script is really good, but it's the plotting that matters most, as the very end of the issue sees the Dark Destroyer's anti-matter bomb denoting as he'd planned. Atari Force's entire universe is eliminated from existence, a bold final move by Conway and Cavalieri that I admire and adore.

The entirety of the issue is Atari Force's final confrontation with the Destroyer. It begins with an explanation of how the Destroyer has Martin's physical appearance, which I founnd largely unsatisfying. Basically, when the old Atari Force battled him originally, the Destroyer sent a part of himself out into space as a contingency plan. When his old body was destroyed, this fragment continued, eventually finding Martin and his wife Lyida on New Earth right before she gave birth to their son. So the Destroyer stole Lydia's life-force (not sure of the details of how that works), killing her, and then apparently also stole a bit of Martin's self before departing to be reborn in his new, Martin-based form. What bugs me about this is, a) shouldn't the Destroyer look like Lydia if she's the person he actually killed? b) it's a rushed and incomplete explanation, and c) it's too predictable. The Destroyer looks like Martin because he copied part of Martin. Dull.

 I love that he entered a pregnant space swamp hippo in order to be born anew. Aside from that tiny tidbit, though, the Destroyer's backstory is weak and disappointing. However, it sets him up as being just as obsessed with Martin as Martin is with him, and that relationship is key to the ending of this issue. Martin attacks the Destroyer head-on, a straight-up fist fight between two old foes. And Martin, fueled by decades-old rage, manages to best the Destroyer in that combat (which is ridiculous, but more on that in a minute). However, punching the bad guy out does not disable his bomb, so even though Martin finally gets to defeat the being he's been chasing for twenty years, he loses the war. The bomb goes off, and reality is undone. So Martin and the Destroyer both win, and both lose, mirror images of one another right up to the bitter end. Martin succeeds in taking out his enemy but fails to save the world. The Destroyer pulls off his grand, universe-ending scheme, but dies in the process, a bloodied and beaten man laying next to his bomb as it explodes. The two were so hell-bent on getting at each other, they let it ruin both of their lives.

I do have a general problem with Martin using only his fists against the Destroyer, and with how quickly and easily Atari Force wins the battle in general. Considering when Tempest was fighting him, none of his hits even made an impact on the Destroyer, I'm unclear as to how Martin can so completely kick his ass. And issue #12 saw the whole team getting handily beaten by the Destroyer's forces, so since the events of this issue take place only minutes later, I'm confused as to why, all of a sudden, the same enemies fall to Atari Force in mere seconds. Morphea takes out a huge group of minions with a single mind-blast, which she's never done before. Nobody is overrun, and Pakrat and Babe barely have anything to even do. It all feels unearned, but I can forgive it to a degree, since the good guys fail in their most important goal in the end.

Also, in the midst of this overly-easy fight, Dart and Blackjak have another confrontation, and she finally admits to herself that he is, now and maybe forever, her enemy. That he let the Destroyer into his mind willingly, and will indeed kill her if given the chance. So she shoots him first, and even though the scene is a bit brief, new penciler Ed Barreto makes it visually quite moving. Three panels show the progression of Blackjak being hit and falling to the ground, while Dart looks on helplessly from afar. These panels are joined by a background image of a close-up of Dart's face, tears escaping from her eyes as she watches her former love go down. She knows she had no choice, and Morphea reminds her of it, but that does not ease the pain. Because Cavalieri's script didn't have space to get into the complex emotions of that moment, Barreto takes care of it in a single, striking image.

Barreto is a good fit for this book on the whole. He does some really dynamic layouts, and the issue has an almost overwhelming energy to it. There are a lot of overlapping panels, visuals that break out of the borders, and jam-packed action on these pages. And the cast are every bit as distinct and detailed as always. They look just like themselves, because Barreto's style doesn't stray too dramatically from García-López's. Barreto's figures are sterner and a bit more solid or firm, but some of that has to do with the all-action plot of this issue. Everyone has to be a bit more serious than usual, because they're involved in very serious business.

So all of the action looks great, even if victory comes too quickly for our heroes. And, again, it's barely a victory, because seconds after they finish the fight, the anti-matter bomb destroys everything in the universe. That's an excellent way to finish the long-running thread of the struggle against the Dark Destroyer, and a huge part of me wishes the series had just ended with it. How surprising and impressive would that have been? The villain wins, reality explodes, the end. I've always wanted to write a story that had an abrupt, unexpected end-of-everything conclusion, but Conway and crew got it done before I was even born. It is somewhat frustrating that Tempest's trial is unresolved, Rident's location is still a mystery, and other such threads are left dangling. But, at the same time, blowing up the universe resolves all of those questions, just with the same answer: "and then they blew up." I understand that, on a technical level, this is not great storytelling. Personally, though, I'm all for it. Let Tempest die with his story still unfinished. It speaks to the inanity of the court system that his trial would be ongoing in the moment everything burned. Plus it's a surprise, which I always like from my fiction.

It seems like the title has made an official switch from 23-page stories to 16-pagers with a 7-page backup. This issue, the backup is written by Paul Kupperberg and drawn by Dave Manak with Keith Giffen on inks. It is another Hukka story and, like the last one, it is silly and fun but inconsequential. Hukka meets and makes friends with a fuzzy, yellow, bunny-like creature named Chee. They play for a while, and then Chee jumps down a hole, so Hukka follows. Once down there, another of Chee's race tries to eat Hukka, and Chee seems to support that plan, until he/she/it is reminded of the fun it had with Hukka above ground. So Chee saves Hukka, but, sadly, cannot play anymore, since the rest of its family would still eat Hukka if they had the chance. It's a poignant ending to a sweet but simple tale about the cruelty of nature.

Manak draws Hukka well, infusing him with the adorability and curiosity I've come to expect. Chee, too, is extremely cute, almost overly so, yet in such a way that when Hukka gets down the hole and is chased by another of the same creature, it looks convincingly menacing. It's definitely an enjoyable backup strip, but what purpose does it serve? Why shorten the main narrative every month in order to include this? Which came first, the desire for fewer pages of the primary story, or the thought of doing backups? Either way, not the best call.

And I question the decision to continue the series after this issue, too. From a marketing perspective, assuming the book sold at all, I understand it. But creatively, it feels like the story is told. Atari Force have revealed the master plan of their arch-rival, a mystery some of them had been trying to solve since before the start of issue #1. And the Destroyer has carried out that plan, ending countless lives on countless worlds. It's so mind-bogglingly catastrophic a conclusion, to have to follow it seems an impossible task. If I imagine this issue without the few seeds it plants at the end in order to allow the title to move forward (Atari Force escape to Scanner One, Dark Destroyer sends a piece of his mind into Kargg's, etc.), it's all the more satisfying. The way Cavalieri writes it, the bomb unquestionably works. The universe if definitely destroyed, the people definitely die, etc. That's a powerful note to land on, and one I think fits the series perfectly. As I've said, Atari Force's strongest material always comes when the titular heroes are losing. By that logic, then, having them fail completely to disable the anti-matter bomb could and should be the greatest story ever. It isn't, because it has new creators and it's too short and it's not the actual ending of the series and so forth. But it's still an awesome way for Conway to say goodbye, and I suspect his original plan was to have the anti-matter bomb kill everyone, Atari Force included. I like to think so, anyway, and part of me will always wish that had been what happened, no matter how good the Mike Baron-penned issues end up.

Atari Force Month: Issue #12 Review

Quick preamble: My lady and I are currently in the process of moving from Texas to Massachusetts which means, among other things, that our scanner is no longer accessible. So there will be no scanned images for these Atari Force reviews for the foreseeable future, and indeed there may be no more for the rest of Atari Force Month. Probably a bad call for me to start with scans if I knew I was moving, but obviously I didn't think that through.

Atari Force #12 is interesting more for the external facts of it than the content inside. This is true for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that it marks the end of José Luis García-López's run as penciler. He is one of the series' creators and biggest assets, and it's a shame this is his last issue, because a) the section he draws is only sixteen pages long, and b) this is some of his least impressive work on the book. It's still very reliable art. This is not García-López getting sloppy, just getting noticeably looser in his linework. On the largest panels, the splashes and spreads, he is his usual self: heavy detail, smart use of every inch of page space, smart angles, fluid action, strong emotion, etc. But some of the smaller panels seem unfinished, characters with featureless faces and vague backgrounds and the like. And even some of the main fight scene feels less exciting than usual. There isn't as much energy or creativity to it, just a bunch of people fighting a smaller bunch of other people.

García-López is a talented enough storyteller to get a little lax without the issue becoming muddled or dull. This is still fine work, and there are a few truly great moments. A two-page spread of the Dark Destroyer and his amassed forces as they confidently await their foes' arrival is particularly impressive, and the opening splash of Tempest on trial works as a captive introduction. Tempest is still battered and defeated, his head down and his body barely held up with help. In the background, the A.T.A.R.I. members who serve as his judges loom tall, and the room expands high and wide around them, giving the sense that Tempest is more trapped here than he was in his cell. It is the spaces in between these massive, heavy beats that come out a bit weaker here than ever before, and that's too bad. García-López was such a key part of the comic's strength, I hate to see him go out without a bang.

The final page, at least, is García-López on his A game, so he leaves the book with a memorable image. It is another full-page splash, and in essence, this one page is the whole point of issue #12. It features the Dark Destroyer with his enormous horned helmet off for the first time, revealing to Atari Force that, underneath, he is Martin Champion. Considering Martin is the Destroyer's oldest and most passionate foe, and standing right in front of him when this revelation is made, it's a safe assumption that there's going to be some explaining to do next time. For now, though, this works as a narrative bomb, a legitimately unexpected twist that, looking back, has been skillfully hinted at in previous issues. Is this some future Martin? An alternate reality version? An evil twin? Something even more complicated than those? The questions abound, and can be seen clearly on the expressive faces of Atari Force as they try to cope with the image of Martin Champion in the Dark Destroyer's clothes. It's an effective final page, and a fitting farewell from García-López, even if the rest of the issue wasn't fully up to snuff.

This issue is also the beginning of the end of Gerry Conway's time on the title. He plots this issue and the next, but they are scripted by others, with #12 being handled by editor Andy Helfer, who also wrote #8. As with the last time Helfer took the helm, there is no drastic change in writing style here. The cast is strong enough that their voices stay firm, and Helfer obviously has a familiarity with them. It only takes one page for him to handle the fallout of Blackjak's betrayal last issue, and he does a damn fine job of it. Dart visits Blackjak in his holding cell to search for answers, but the best he can offer is that he's always been a coward, but was able to pretend at bravery when she was around. Dart made him better, bolder, stronger-willed than he was, and the Dark Destroyer forced Blackjak to face the truth about his inner weaknesses by saving him. I can't think of a better way to break somebody than to force them to admit that their life is a lie, and that's what the Destroyer has effectively done here. So Blackjak is fully subservient, and though he says it through tears, he is no doubt sincere when he tells Dart that he'd try to kill her again if his master instructed it. Dart, for her part, tries to maintain stoicism, and recovers by going after the Destroyer with everything she's got.

It's not nearly enough, though, and Atari Force get quickly trounced by their enemy and his innumerable henchmen. They fall so quickly that Martin steps in and surrenders for them, not wanting to watch any more of his people die because of the Destroyer. And in the wake of that surrender comes the final reveal of the Destroyer as Martin, and everyone else's jaws hit the floor.

That is the bulk of the primary narrative, with the exception of Tempest's trial scene at the top of the issue. Which is the worst scene by far. It's basically all old hat, but screamed instead of just being heatedly discussed. Nothing is accomplished, since before any actual legal proceedings can be carried out, Tempest has yet another pointless tantrum and is knocked unconscious by Hunter. I'm not sure why the scene is even included, except maybe to fill some space and remind the reader what Tempest is up to. Once he gets carried back to his cell, Professor Venture tries to convince the court that the Dark Destroyer is still a threat, but as always, nobody listens. It's growing fairly tiresome by now.

And that's essentially all that goes down. Tempest gets nowhere, Blackjak admits what a bastard he is at heart, and then Atari Force gets beaten up by the Destroyer's goons until, WHAMMO!, he takes his helmet off and has Martin's face. His voice, too, in my head. That's a decent amount of material for a sixteen-page story, I suppose, but because this is the first time Atari Force has had such a truncated issue, it feels fluffy and overly brief. Most of the story is just a long build-up to the last page, anyway, and that feels like too little for a whole issue to accomplish. Like with the art, it's not that the writing is terrible or even necessarily bad, but it is certainly disappointing.

My disappointment is mitigated by the seven-page, Hukka-centric backup feature written and penciled by Keith Giffen. It's not astounding, but it's lots of fun, the story of Hukka hunting a tiny lizard-like critter for sport while unknowingly being hunted himself by a much larger beast for food. In the end, Hukka catches his terrified prey, and then notices that he is something else's prey in a hilarious full-page splash that also reveals the monster's full figure to the reader for the first time. And on the opposite page, an even larger monster swoops done from the sky and gobbles up Hukka's hunter in a single bite. Those two pages are hilarious and rich, and the crux of Giffen's entire piece. After them is one last page where Hukka lets his lizardish captive go, demonstrating the lesson of the story's title, "Do Unto Others." A simple little tale that Giffen draws with a tenderness and liveliness that adds a lot.

I do wish Tom Ziuko had colored to two huge beasts differently. They are both all pink, which makes it a tad less clear than it could be what is happening when the second one eats the first. But that lasts for only a second, and Giffen's designs for the creatures overshadow any tiny coloring missteps.

Atari Force #12 is an issue of awkward transitions. José Luis García-López finishes his stint as artist somewhat poorly, Gerry Conway plots but does not write this issue, and there's a backup story for the first time, which for some reason means fewer pages for the main narrative. As the old creative team phases out, the book finds itself stumbling a bit, and it's aggravating. I don't know the history of why the original creators left, if they walked off or were told to leave or what, but no matter the situation, I wish it had been done more smoothly. As Conway's epic story winds down, he doesn't even get to script it; the cast may still sound like themselves, but the book itself feels different here. And not in a good way.

Atari Force Month: Issue #11 Review

I have a working theory that Atari Force the book is at its best whenever Atari Force the team are at their worst. Issue #6 was the best issue until this one (and it may still be, but they're close) and what the two share is that they're both chapters in which the good guys get trampled. And though the overall quality here may be lower than in #6, the trampling is many times more brutal and effective.

Let's start with Tempest, arrested at the end of last issue, and now locked in a dimly-lit cell and kept on a disorienting, disabling drug called scopadrone to keep him from phasing himself to freedom. He appears to slide in and out of awareness, struggling to regain control of his own mind and body so he can warn the world about the Dark Destroyer. The world doesn't want to hear him, though, so he remains a prisoner for now. Only Professor Venture shows Tempest any care or concern, visiting him more as a mother than mentor. She cradles the scared and broken boy in her arms, and fights for his rights and his freedom. It gives Venture as a character a distinct sense of purpose she's been lacking up to now, and underlines the tragedy of what Tempest is going through.

Venture also has a spirited debated with Captain Hunter about following the rules vs. doing what is right, and whether or not those are the same thing. Venture argues that, with so many questions surrounding Tempest and his father's theft of Scanner One, maybe they should find some answers before arresting anybody. Hunter points out that the answers can come out in trial, and until they do, Tempest is a criminal according to the law, and must be treated the same way any criminal would. These are equally valid points that have been made about countless other cases, real and fictional, before and since. But still worth touching upon, and, again, it gives Venture something more active and important to do. It also makes Hunter seem smarter and more reasonable than he was before, which is good for any character always, although I personally prefer to have him be an oaf.

Hunter also brings up Rident in this conversation, wondering where the hell he is, and I have been thinking the same thing for several issues. The time for Rident to make his move was probably somewhere back around #8, after the initial encounter with the Dark Destroyer had wrapped. But it's been longer than that since he's appeared on panel, and Hunter's throwaway line is the only reference to Rident in just as long. He wasn't the strongest member of the cast, and as far as guys with a stick up their ass who are after Atari Force, I'll take Hunter over Rident any day of the week. But no character deserves to be shoved aside and abandoned completely, so fingers crossed that Rident will return.

Before Venture is done this issue, she has one more Tempest-related conversation, this time with Dr. Orion, the man who turned Tempest in. He is racked with guilt about it now, because he's come to realize, in light of some new info, that the Dark Destroyer killed Tempest's mother, not the boy himself as Orion had previously believed. Somewhere in his mind, Orion has blamed Tempest for killing Lydia all these years, which undoubtedly made the decision to hand him to Hunter much easier. Now, though, he feels he made the wrong call, because if the Destroyer really did kill Lydia, that means he's still out there, which means Tempest and his supposedly delusional father Martin are right. What Orion intends to do about it, if anything, is left up in the air, but at least there's one more character on the ride side of things, and an intelligent and resourceful one at that.

Not that it does Tempest any good here. He makes no progress, beginning and ending the issue in his cell and his drug-induced state. It is unquestionably the most broken he's been, including when the Destroyer beat him senseless. But it pales in comparison to what Dart experiences when Blackjak turns on her.

Predictably, Blackjak is working for the Dark Destroyer, but I give Conway credit for getting that out of the way in the first scene. It's not the cliffhanger, it's the opener, not played for surprise because it's not a surprise. What makes that scene buzz is José Luis García-López's art. He kicks off the excellence right on the first page, depicting many members of Atari Force sleeping in their rooms. Some are peaceful, some restless, some alone, and others in groups. It is a quiet, intimate, inviting opening page, establishing a brief calm before the immense storms of the issue's narratives.

Blackjak is the only person awake on Scanner One, and he has a secret meeting with his master where the two sabotage the ship. It's clear Blackjak would rather not participate in this, but the Destroyer has a mental hold over him. Like Blackjak's new allegiance in general, the detail of the Destroyer's mind control is no great shock. But García-López makes it count in a single panel that enters Blackjak's mind and displays in great visual detail the overwhelming pain of the Destroyer's psychic attack. It keeps Blackjak ever so slightly sympathetic even as he officially slides over to the villainous side of things.

The Destroyer and Blackjak's plan is to override Scanner One's navigational computer and force the vessel to go where the Destroyer wants. And they succeed, but doing so forces Blackjak to show his hand. Martin immediately suspects him of sabotaging the navigation, but is hopeful that it can be fixed. So Martin, with Babe by his side for the heavy lifting, gets to work trying to repair his ship. But Blackjak sabotages that as well, almost killing Martin and severely hurting Babe with a powerful electric shock. There is no more hiding for Blackjak after that, no more denying his partin all of this. So Dart confronts him, and the two have one of the best-looking yet hardest-to-read fights in the whole of Atari Force.

Conway and García-López, as well as inker Bob Smith and colorist Tom Ziuko, fire on all cylinders and then some for the length of this battle. It begins with something simple but earth-shattering, and ends in about the most tragic imaginable way (save, perhaps, for one of the two lover/combatants dying). For just a moment after realizing his betrayal, Dart stares at Blackjak, the man she thought she knew, thought she loved, and he stares at her right back. García-López draws out the tension and melancholy of that moment with a series of small close-ups of Dart and Blackjak's faces done in silhouette, with a tiny, shadowy image of them standing before each other in the middle. Then, beneath this small and quiet row, there is a half-page image of Blackjack punching Dart square in the jaw, a blow that hits harder for the weight of its surprise than the actual impact of his fist.

If that page wasn't heart-breaking enough already, García-López outdoes himself on the lower half with three perfectly composed panels. First, a tight, silent panel of Dart's face after being hit, the fear and bottomless sadness pouring from her eyes. She has never been so helpless and scared, but this is the man she loves attacking her, so the change is all too fitting. Then she makes one final attempt to connect to the man she once knew, saying he was never afraid of death and therefore must not be himself. Blackjak's response in the page's final panel is the cruelest, most painful strike he makes against her: "You didn't know me very well." Dart was the only person who knew Blackjak as well as she did, and vice versa, so to have him deny all of that so sternly and callously is more damaging than any physical attack could ever be. García-López knows this, and constructs the panel accordingly. Blackjack towers over Dart, to the point that his head extends beyond the panel border. She is contained by it completely, even though the top of her ponytail could, technically, go past the edge. He has all of the power in that moment, so he is the one who gets to bust through their physical confinement.

There are other, smaller touches, too, that make this panel my favorite single image of the series so far, if not of all time. The gun is the true foreground, amping up the danger of the scene and solidifying that Blackjak is serious about being a bad guy now. And Tom Ziuko adds a lot, with the harsh red background contrastingly so blatantly with the blues Dart is done in. She is a shadow of herself, and wants to be anywhere else, so her colors are darker and more obscured. Blackjak, meanwhile, is done in bold blacks and grays, making him stand out as an even more imposing figure on top of the blank red plane behind him. There has not been so gripping or tragic a moment as this one, and things go downhill from there.

Dart and Blackjak knock each other around for a page, during which Dart says that she doesn't believe Blackjak will shoot her. She is confident that she still knows the man he really is inside, and that that will keep her safe. She is, sadly, wrong, and in another startling half-page image, Blackjak takes his shot right at her heart, psychically and metaphorically.

Of course, Dart's always got her battle armor on, and she survives, tricking Blackjak by staying down until he gets close enough for her to grab. She knocks him out, but takes no joy in it, and indeed comes out of the whole mess with a far more joyless attitude than she's ever had before. Even when fighting insurmountable odds, even after she thought Blackjak had died, Dart was always able to maintain her humor and generally upbeat spirit. But pulling herself from the water in which her former love tried to kill her, Dart is the very picture of depression and gloom. Watching Blackjak die was unthinkably horrific for Dart, but fighting him is truly unbearable.

So yeah, this is a fantastic issue, emotionally bashing the cast and reader alike. The only thing that keeps it from being far and away the best issue yet is the very final page, when the Dark Destroyer makes an annoyingly long-winded and unimpressive speech. The real problem with it is that it isn't information that's new to the reader, only to Atari Force. The Destroyer lays out his plan to bring Atari Force to him so they can witness the destruction of their universe, but he's already told Kargg that's what he was doing. So it's not a new threat, and is thus underwhelming as a cliffhanger. Also, the speech literally includes the phrase, "And, speaking of destruction," to get from one point to the next. Weak.

It is but a moment of weakness, though, at the end of one of the book's strongest issues. Neither Tempest nor Dart have ever been in such dire circumstances, and indeed Atari Force as a team is at a new low. They've lost Tempest, lost control of their ship, and have no idea what's in store for them. These are the worst of times if you're in the comic, but the best if you're a reader.

Atari Force Month: Issue #10 Review

At last, Blackjak is reintegrated into the cast, and Gerry Conway does it well, explaining in a satisfyingly believable way how the character is still alive, but leaving the door wide open for there to be more to the story. Basically, by the end of the issue, it is easy to trust that Blackjak is really alive, but far more difficult to trust the actual character anymore. His story is suspect at best, and at worst an out-and-out lie. Either way, it's entertaining, and just one facet of a solid issue that really gets the Atari Force ball rolling with some momentum again.

Blackjak was rescued, it would seem, by the none other than Dark Destroyer, caught in a tractor beam moments before he would have been incinerated. Though he never met the Destroyer himself, he did get one hell of a harsh welcome from the rest of the crew, and then spent months as their prisoner, slowly recovering. The closest thing he had to a friend in that time was the strange, simple creature who brought him his food. But Blackjak would ultimately betray that friend in order to steal the keys to his shackles and escape. After that, he spotted Dart just before she returned to Scanner One, and so he followed her in a scout ship of his own, only catching up now.  This is the story he tells her, anyway, and though it's not impossible, there are some massive logical gaps that even Dart can't help but notice.

Because why would the Dark Destroyer capture someone so closely connected with one of his enemies and then ignore him for so long that his wounds heal and he escapes? Yes, the Destroyer has pulled some confusing moves before, but none of them were harder to believe than this. Martin refuses to buy it, insisting Blackjak is a foe and asking Morphea to mentally spy on him. And Dart, though she believes him for now, also admits that the story Blackjak tells her makes no sense. Yet she is too overjoyed to be with her love again to dig into the obvious implications that he is no longer on her side. For the length of this issue, which spans not even an entire day, that makes sense. She'd been fighting so hard to avoid dealing with her loss, to have it undone would be too much of a relief not to surrender herself to it. Dart is happy again, something she hasn't been in a while, but to the reader, it's evident that happiness won't last.

Meanwhile, Tempest is having a much harder time of things when it comes to his old lover. After being wounded last issue when he fled Li San and Mohandas' house, Tempest tries to get his ex-girlfriend Melissa to help protect him. As you may recall, the last time he saw her, Melissa dumped Tempest because her father hates and fears him so much, due to his powers. Her feelings toward Tempest have only worsened since then, and she almost immediately sicks Guard-Rob on him, the worst-named robot in all of fiction. It's a dick move, made worse when she contacts Captain Hunter directly after Tempest flees in order to turn him in. Melissa is a funny character. She's never acted sympathetically or even maturely, always the stereotypical over-sensitive screaming daddy's girl. But Tempest is meant to care for her deeply, so she pops up again just to add insult and further injury to his injury.

He then turns to Dr. Lucas Orion, his father Martin's former best friend and colleague. Tempest hopes to learn from him the rest of the story Mohandas began to tell in issue #9 about the old Atari Force's encounters with the Dark Destroyer. And he does, only to immediately be betrayed by Orion and turned over to Hunter. Tempest's high treason arrest is the issue's final event, a strong conclusion and a new low point for the character. Having finally learned what he struggled so hard to discover, he's going to be thrown in a cell before he gets to do anything useful with the information.

Conway's scripting is very much back on track this issue. He does excellent work with Blackjak's story, keeping it succinct enough not to crowd the issue but full enough to feel complete. And the character's voice hasn't change at all. This is recognizably Blackjak, making his reconnection with Dart sweeter for now, but the threat that he might not be trustworthy larger and more terrifying. Other than naming a robot Guard-Rob, the Tempest sections are excellent, too, putting the young man through a ringer built of his own curiosity and persistence. And the story Orion tells, which I imagine originally appeared in a longer form in volume 1, is delivered efficiently. The old Atari Force tried to meet with a group called the Custodians of Life, only to have the Dark Destroyer mentally manipulate the Custodians into attacking them. It is a final reminder of the Destroyer's reach and power.

Little else takes place this issue, because Blackjak's return and Tempest's escapades both require multiple scenes. There is a small section focusing on the Dark Destroyer himself as he mines anti-matter from another reality. According to him, it's for a bomb strong enough to kill a whole universe, but the fictional science of that isn't explained here. As with Orion's story, this scene's role is to demonstrate just how enormously evil the Destroyer can be, and it does that well in a short amount of time. It's all about economy of panels this issue, including a the introduction of a new thread that takes less than a page, about Taz falling ill. We see him get stomach ache and turn down help, and that's as far as that story goes for now. Conway keeps things brief and direct, so he can visit Blackjack and Orion's pasts both without slowing down the progression of his main narrative, either.

I wouldn't necessarily say José Luis García-López is at his best this issue, but he is definitely at his most sci-fi as an artist. The full-page splash of the Dark Destroyer's machines gathering anti-matter is epically cosmic. And then there's Guard-Rob who, while looking comically antiquated in this title, is a heavily detailed robot with impressive mobility. The many species of the Custodians of Life are all given unique designs, and there are a several panels featuring varying numbers of spacecraft that are all gorgeous. But the main course of this science fiction visual meal is Blackjak's rescue, specifically when the Dark Destroyer's ship pulls him to safety in its tractor beam. The level of details in his suit, the stars burning beneath him, the Destroyer's ship and it's tractor beam, and really everything else that can be seen in those panels is amazing. Maybe it's Tom Ziuko's heavy use of hot pinks that brings it home for me, I don't know. What I do know is that in a title that constantly travels through the stars and from universe to universe, the scene of Blackjak's near-death and salvation is the most I've felt pulled into outer space myself.

I guess this issue is just a little heavier on the sci-fi material than most across the board. I mean, this is a sci-fi series, make no mistake. But it also sort of dances between that genre and superheroes, plus really its focus is on the small-scale, personal dramas of its cast. This issue, one of those small-scale dramas involves being propelled toward a star and then saved by reality's biggest spaceship, so it's heavier on the science fiction than usual. The Dark Destroyer has only been seen attacking Atari Force up to now, so his anti-matter expedition is also atypically sci-fi. And Orion's story is all about New Earth attempting to join an intergalactic community of planets so, once again, a broader sci-fi concept than the book always contains. I am not complaining; I loved seeing García-López do a bunch more robotic stuff than before, and I've already praised the plots of the issue. This is just something I noticed.

Aside from Lio, the guy who feeds Blackjak in captivity is the best-looking character to date. I grew to genuinely care about him in the few pages on which he was featured, and was upset and a little angered when Blackjak turned on him. Seems like the solution could have been more cooperative and less cruel, but that's not Blackjak's style, which I can dig. Anyway, he's a great-looking little bestie, resembling an anteater but with oodles more personality.

This is a good issue that seeds a lot of new things and leaves many characters in dangerous, compelling circumstances. Dart may be in bed with the enemy, Tempest is caught, and something medical is up with Taz. Also, at the end of their conversation, just before Hunter interrupts, Orion seems to realize something about the Dark Destroyer based on what Tempest says about him. No clues yet as to what it is, but Orion is in an interesting position, having made a move against one of the title's heroes that he now regrets and may even try to make up for. Only time will tell, but I am anxious for it to do so.