A pretty brutal fight, that’s what this cover by Jorge Corona and Sarah Stern shows. The colouring is heated, the rendering of the figures scrappy. It’s perfect.
Inside, the art is generally smoother, Sean Izaakse’s style is at times as glossy as Captain Atom’s skin. But when the visuals are in fight mode, it’s intense. The page layouts are wild, the figures explosive, it feels like all bets are off.
And that’s just what writer Joshua Williamson wants us to feel in this first Vs spin-off book from the DC KO spine series. Williamson has been writing the Superman series for three years, but he doesn’t favour the Man of Steel here – this is very much Captain Atom’s story. There’s no pretence it isn’t, with Nathaniel Adam on narration duty from the first page primer for readers unfamiliar with him.
The nine-panel grid almost inevitably brings Watchmen to mind, which is appropriate as the character who took Captain Atom’s intended role in the famed maxi-series, Dr Manhattan, ascends to godhood. Here Nathaniel says the ‘one role I’ve always denied the title of’ is a god, but Williamson really leans into Captain Atom’s potential when, after the proverbial heated debate, he and Superman finally fight.
The intensified action allows Izaakse to have fun with massive KO-shaped panels.
Don’t worry, it’s best of three, the ‘Heart of Apokolips’ instantly regenerates fallen players. And even after the final ‘death’ we’ve seen heroes turned into statues, able to return. All of which has me thinking the heroes and villains in the tournament out to gain the power to beat an amped-up Darkseid have become playable characters in the Apokolips equivalent of Sonic the Hedgehog. We shall see.
For now, there’s this extra-sized issue to enjoy, which features some great interaction between Captain Atom and Superman, such as this, after Nathaniel explains that he has to be the ultimate winner as Superman isn’t a killer, whereas he’s a soldier and will do what he has to, to protect others – murder Darkseid.
Where Superman advises caution, taking a breath to think, Captain Atom is ever pushing forward and this eventually leads to a wonderful piece of business that really takes advantage of the comics form. It’s pretty daring, but Williamson and Izaakse pull it off.
They’re helped greatly by the tag team colourists Trish Mulvihill and Hi-Fi, who add life to every page with perfectly balanced tones. The ever excellent letterer Dave Sharpe gives us a rare typo; to paraphrase Charlie Brown… he’s human! The wee error is in one of the panels reproduced on this very post, can you spot it?
Superman vs Captain Atom #1 is far better than it ought to be. It’s big, it’s brash, there’s bashing aplenty… but it’s very, very smart. Don’t miss it.
Too Dangerous For a Girl 2 
I enjoyed this too. I don’t know Captain Atom very well, so it was nice to see him feature in this fight with Superman. The first two rounds were well done, but I got a bit lost with the conclusion of the final bout. Anyway, looking forward to Lobo vs Wonder Woman next.
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I’m not surprised you got lost, going by the Knightfight book the rules don’t matter a jot!
Me too on Wondy and Lobo, just so long as Tom King isn’t involved.
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A couple of years ago I collected the Bates run of Captain Atom, after being a fan of the character in JLE, so I’m always happy for him to have appearances. I read the New52 version which was very heavily towards the Dr Manhattan revision of him and it didn’t really work. I also read the King Jenny Sparks mini which got him very wrong, so am a bit worried that that was going to be the foundation for a version of him that wants to be a god (which doesn’t seem like Bates’ Nate at all), but this sounds good. Might pick this up.
Stu
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Hasn’t King admitted he comes up with the story first and then slots whatever character in he’s allowed to use? That’s how he gets almost every single character he writes wrong. The editors of the Mister Miracle and Vision minis seem to be the only ones that got him to write the characters right.
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Tom King?
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Yes indeedy.
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He has, and comics are much the worse for it.
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Did you read The Fall and Rise of Captain Atom by Cary Bates, Greg Weisman and Will Conrad in 2017, I liked it a lot.
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Sorry. Is King part of the title? I thought it was mentioning the writer since it was mentioned as well as mischaracterization, which is the writer’s forte.
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Another poster was commenting on Captain Atom’s portrayal in the Jenny Sparks mini-series, by Tom King. Joshua Williamson is the author on this title. That might explain things?
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I really enjoyed this issue, as there was no way Captain Atom was going to win this important a fight, but he wasn’t lessened in order to showcase Superman’s virtue either. Williamson either doesn’t know or has forgotten that Superman can absorb energy all on his own, with adding Atom’s abilities to his array, or that Superman Prime doesn’t need a sun any longer, having resided in one for 15K years. Still, a fun issue, and as always, a great review.
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Thanks for the kind words. I don’t think I knew Superman could absorb anything other than yellow sun energy, but then we have seen him affected by different colour suns, and light is radiation and, oh, the heck with it, I think it makes sense. Thank you!
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