Captain Atom Vol 1 Evolution

Captain Atom Vol. 1 Evolution written by J.T. Krul and Illustrated by Freddie Williams II
My Rating 2 of 5 stars

Captain Atom is described as a nearly all-powerful super hero who struggles with the ideas of how to use his power. The idea is interesting, although not very novel, and the execution misses the mark.

Captain Atom is a pilot, who through an accident becomes an atomically powered superhero. It's not a particularly novel origin, but in comics this sort of cliche is pretty common and I'm willing to overlook it.

Thematically, the first volume deals with Captain Atom's isolation from humanity and his struggle with how to deal with his powers. I like the idea of exploring these themes. Comics don't have to be action oriented all the time. But these themes aren't particularly novel and they aren't explored here very well.

Captain Atom is isolated from humanity. The superhero isolated from humanity has been done a lot already. We get that he is a superhero and he's lonely, but there isn't much of the humanity he is isolated from in these issues. He only has one friend and she's a pretty flat, unfleshed out character herself. There's nothing here to feel isolated from in the first place. It feels like a hollow cliche.

Captain Atom has incredible powers but doesn't know what to do with them. How far should he go? Again, this has already been done and it isn't very well done here. Captain Atom's meditation about the ethical reach of his powers are disjointed from any sort of story line, so they feel more like a disruption than the integrated angst of the superhero.

The artwork isn't anything remarkable. It has sort of a watercolor effect to it but somehow it doesn't feel finished, especially with the backgrounds and other characters. The world outside of Captain Atom is as unfinished in its illustration as in its written incarnation.

The Good: I give the creative team points for wanting to have a comic series that focuses so strongly on ideas rather than just action.

The Bad: The execution here is just unoriginal and badly done. It's not coherent as a story line and the ideas aren't fleshed out enough to be anything more than hollow.

The Bottom Line: Captain Atom is a noble attempt at a series with lots of ideas, but the execution is some of the worst writing and illustrating of DC's New 52.