Children Of The Atom (2021-) #1 by Vita Ayala
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Wait…what?
This was not the comic book I was expecting it to be. I mean, it was Children of the Atom #1, which I was expecting, but it just wasn’t about what I thought it would be about. For some reason I’d got it in my head that this was going to be set in the future and be about the children of the X-Men…or maybe the clones of them, or the first generation of Sinister’s Chimera. Instead it’s about a group of young mutants who have refused the call to move to Krakoa and are, instead, fighting crime as a super team.
Or…are they mutants? And…have they refused the call to move to Krakoa? Or can thy just not get there because they’re not mutants. Right now, we have the answers to none of those questions and really don’t know what’s going on. But that’s just fine, I’m sure we’ll find out in time.
The writing is a little wonky in places, but this was supposed to come out ages ago and since then Ayala’s New Mutants has come out and is superb, so we know her writing gets better. The art, which is mostly lovely, has a few wonky moments too, especially in that one panel of jean Grey (you’ll know it when you see it). But I think that’s actually an issue with the colouring than anything Chang’s doing wrong. The colouring’s mostly good, but there are a few too many colour holds for my taste and too much filling in of detail that’s not in the pencils and inks…which mostly works, but in that panel with Jean Grey jus makes her look…wrong.
The new character designs are great, though, with Cylcops Lass being a particular stand out. Cyclops Lass and Gimmick are definitely the stand out characters here. It has something of a Young Avenges feel, with each character’s identity being analogous to an existing X-Man…which makes me wonder if they, too, will eventually get new, unique identities of their own. Time will tell.
By no means perfect, and with some clear rough edges, this is nevertheless a good start to the series. And, well, I’m always a sucker for a team of teen heroes.
Random Ramblings Of A Ragamuffin 