Jan-Ken-Pon – Agents of Atlas #1 review

Please look away if you are repelled by or disapprove of being in the midst of overwhelming gushery. I love the Agents of Atlas. In 2006 when Jeff Parker and Leonard Kirk put out the miniseries, it was the best book that they Marvel was publishing and easily a top five title overall. The return of the Atlas characters from the ’50′s (though then not a unit) was just a fun idea, and as I have noted previously when speaking of Brubaker’s handling of the Invaders in his books, I just love it when Marvel embraces that pre-first family era heritage. I’d highly recommend any comic book fan, any fan of fiction, to check out the original miniseries. Comics do not get much better.

Many times when a new power of the moment arises, we are simply given a single moment for the reason and simply told that it is so. To some extent, this is true of Osborn’s rise, but Marvel seems to be taking great efforts to making us believe that Norman Osborn is everywhere. He’s diligent, and while he’s prone to make mistakes and get played like any other playing with the stakes he is, it isn’t due to the man being asleep at the helm. In this issue we again see that the man is thorough, but he is not the only player in the game and he most certainly isn’t the de facto best player. I talked about this in my review of Secret Warriors#1 but I just love how not only is the Marvel U. filling up with a variety of factions, but they also have different goals, objectives, and purpose. Some are related, some even overlap, but each entity isn’t hinged on one aspect. Marvel is no longer about single and simple lines, instead it is now more about multiple spheres of influence. It’s only natural that Atlas would have its own place on the map and interjects this odd combination of generally heroic members who happened to have taken over a vast criminal organization with resources that make it a player large enough that it cannot be ignored or ignore others. Thus we have another point of interaction that comes with the occurrences of Dark Reign. It would be easy for this title to feel like a rogue piece, but Parker slides Woo and his team right into the mix, literally walking the agents into the office of the heart of Dark Reign. More importantly, Parker brings the team back with their own stories to follow and look forward to that aren’t completely tied to Dark Reign. Lao has deemed the times troubling enough to anoint a potential heir to Woo, and it’s none other than Temugin, the son of the classic Iron Man villain the Mandarin! We also have the issue of how a team with such unique make-up in its roster handles the transition of being a Criminal conglomerate. In my recent reading, I can’t help but to feel how seamless the fantastic integrates into the mundane in Marvel. The aforementioned cast of Atlas goes without saying, but Fury has Phobos, Osborn has Ares, we have Hercules running around – and all in a very street level, political, spy, thriller story (though with international implication). While taking changes of acceptable tone and sensibility into account, it’s a lot like this reacceptance of this union I used to see a lot in the 80’s – when you’d have Gilgamesh teaming up with Tony Stark in Avengers and thought nothing of it, except what‘s going down this week! It’s a welcome trend and consolidation that takes advantages of the entire Marvel mythos.

There is only one slightly odd moment that tarnishes the fluidity of the issue and it happens during what is a usual suspect in such occurrences. We get a slight info dump moment hiding behind Osborn showing us that he’s well aware of who Atlas is, and even with Pagulayan putting on a beautiful collage it was hard not to notice. It’s completely understandable given it’s a first issue, and you want to cover your bases with readers who may be being exposed to this team for the first time.

With the Agents of Atlas comes a lot of mystical, mythological, alien, and technological elements and Pagulayan just nails everything. In a single panel there literally is a gorilla, a dragon, a robot, an Atlantean, a mythological nymph, an ATF agent, and a dapper Asian, and it’s one of those images that you are never going to get anywhere but from comics. You are not a half-dozen pages into this issue when Pagulayan shows you the majesty and power of Namora and hooks you in. That moment was damn near like a lost moment from Marvels to me. We see the power of Venus and even get a non-annoying Sentry appearance (once again . . . completely rendered useless) that for a moment truly invokes Superman.

There is also an extra story in the issue that adds an honest humor to the reading experience. As you exit main story with the feeling that it has everything and the kitchen sink thrown in it, we get to this second story and realize that we are quite mistaken, as of course a Marvel title cannot occur without an appearance of Logan in it. I’m not familiar with the artist Benton Jew, but what a nice contrast to the main story that immediately makes you believe the date (1958) you just walked into and I love the character roll call on the splash page they first appear in. What’s nice is that it’s not a Wolverine appearance, it’s a Logan appearance, and you get see the character that embodies comics over the last 30 years (yeah, it’s been that long!) interacting with the Agents in what we’d call their setting.

I guess that’s what I like most about Agents of Atlas. It makes me feel like it’s celebrating the medium without being written for that purpose. Utilizing all genres and spots through the time line, there’s something here for all generations.

We all just like good stories.

- Jay Tomio

_{Jan-ken-pon is the time traveling, force-walking, multiverse crossing column of Jay Tomio, owner of 1/3 of everything you see currently on screen and the editor of Heliotrope. He appeared on a cover of a Timely book catching a haymaker from Captain America – he doesn’t look like a demon. Some call him the Bodhisattva.}