Review: Atlas Unified #1

I’m about a week late on this review since I promised one onthe last podcast, but here it is after a long while. The first thing thatstands out to me about this book is the cover stock. Back in the early 2000’sMarvel’s Ultimate line stood out to most comic buyers due to its heavy cardstock style of covers. This meant that they didn’t instantly get creased ifsomeone picked the book up wrong and frankly it made the book easy to readwithout fear of destroying the pages. Slowly, but surely they moved away fromthe card paper higher quality of covers to something cheaper. Yet they stillcharged the same price and soon enough they charged more. With Atlas Unified, not only are they using athicker card stock type cover but they also have the rubicon layer print on topof it. I could be wrong calling it rubicon, but I’m pretty sure that’s what itis and I loved it.

The story is unfortunately not as good as the cover. Westart at the wedding of Tommy’s daughter. He’s wondering how the years slippedaway and really seems super excited to have his daughter married off. Soexcited that when a big metal cube with Doc Ock hands starts flying around inthe sky he takes their limo and drives off leaving his wife and daughterbehind. His wife seems to understand that he sucks, but his daughter startscrying as of course her wedding day is ruined. Neither seems to notice thegiant cube, but Tommy does and he’s driving towards it… in a limo. He thinksback on the day that the cube changed his life by zapping his first girlfriendand only true love… thirty years prior. Tommy really knows how to keep thetorch burning, that’s for sure.

We zip around to another few characters and land on a womanwalking across the street. Based on her phone conversation we can say that she’ssnob so it’s not surprising that when a man bumps into her she goes off on him.She insults him instantly and he starts talking in gibberish. He’s a pale dudewith glowing blue eyes, but still looks like an average dude. Some more of hisfriends show up and they're pale with glowing blue eyes as well, from thedistance they probably look like muggers. The first guy then catches a shield inthe side of the head from Wulf. It doesn’t kill the guy, but Ireally had to wonder what the fuck this “hero” was doing throw shields atpeople’s domes and going for a kill shot. It made me laugh instantly because Wulf doesn’t fuck around.He’s a Thor type character who talks like a Viking, but not enough to reallysell it. It makes for a very fun read since you can’t take anything this shieldchucking dude says seriously.

There’s unfortunately a lot more story for this issue, butthe gist is that the company “Atlas” has combined all of their properties in toone universe. They’ve created a mystery and common link to place them all inthe same world and for the most part it works. They’re not trying to make themwork together from the first page like some other team books (The Defenders), but rather they’ve taken a queue from DC’s FirstWave series last year. It’s not great, but it’s entertaining and for what it isit’s mostly successful in regards to the story.

The art is actually very good. Artist Jimbo Salgado has avery distinct style that reminds me almost of Trevor Hairsine in a good way.Jimbo has a great name; also he has a great ability of setting up the frame tobe very dynamic. Several times he breaks panels with the characters or actionand it takes you out of the normal reading style most comic readers are accustomed to.There are details that he still struggles with such as hands. The second and third pages are a “splash”page and a few of the back ground people taking pictures of the cube areholding their phones awkwardly. I actually had to compare how I hold my phoneto make sure the thumbs weren’t wrong on the hand because it stands out somuch. Although having a group of on lookers on their phones gave it a very accuratefeel.

I’m really fifty/fifty with this book. Part of me enjoyswhat it does and understands what it wants to accomplish, but the other part ofme knows that this is a bad comic book. It’s not quite a B-Movie comic due tothe production value and the art, but the story definitely is. I would stillsay for you to pick it up and read it for yourself and when you do, askyourself why their cover stock is better than Marvel’s and it doesn’t have anyads but still sells for the same price. Zing!

Score: 3/5

Writer: Tom Peyer

Artist: Jimbo Salgado

Publisher: Atlas Originals / Ardden Entertainment

Price: $2.99

Release Date: 1/4/2012

Comments

[Connor]

the cover on the first one looks funny, with the gun completely obscuring a leg

[Dustin Cabeal]

Oh yeah totally! That's also the cover that I bought!