In this issue, an up-and-comer in the real estate world gets a harsh lesson in 'victimless crimes' when his attempt to burn down a run down building for profit results in several squatters being trapped in flames. Meanwhile, a time-displaced Captain Atom is feeling very out of sorts on Christmas Eve. How the two men's lives intersect results in heroic actions. However, there's no real justice for the arsonist. He just kinda goes into shock for his sins and disappears into the snowy streets of Washington DC.
This is just the beginning of what went wrong for this story. Yes, I'm glad it ended without a cliffhanger. But, obviously with the arsonist not being apprehended for his crimes, I feel like his tale really wasn't over yet. The flip side to this story is that the first 10 pages of this story is based on a review of the backstory of the previous 12 issues. We learn that Atom was framed for something and that it's caused his children to hate him. However, for the casual reader, it took some rereading to figure out that the bad guy Eiling actually went so far to marry Captain Atom's wife (after everyone thought he died in the experiment that gave him his powers.) Now Atom's kids call Eiling 'dad.'
Sometimes when a comic does a recap of previous details, they retell the entire story. Often to the point going too far. But the recap in the story relied too much on a priori knowledge. It didn't engage me. Thus, I can honestly say that I'll just catch up on what I missed on Wikipedia and forgo ever trying to collect this series.
Rating: 5 out of 10 stars.
No comments:
Post a Comment