After commanding the Titans in their war against the Olympians, Atlas was forced to hold up the heavens on his shoulders. His life was a tragic story of a lone God fighting boredom on Mount Olympus. However, monitoring the earth from above, Atlas watched Earth change and the emergence of super powered beings donning capes and tights. Growing restless and craving adventure, Atlas decides to take the world in his hands and become one of the Earth’s newest heroes. However, learning the superhero game is not going to be easy for him as Atlas fights against one of the oldest superpowers in history!

Okay, so Atlas #0 was just a set-up issue. Now here comes the real beginning of Atlas’ adventures. A new creative team takes over, writer Dan Rafter and artist Erik Thompson, and they ignore the status quo that was set-up at the end of the previous issue. Atlas is still flying around L.A. trying to be a superhero. In the opening pages we see him stop a car-jacking, but he causes so much damage that both the car-jacker and the victim press charges against him. He still wants to be a superhero, but worries that he might not be cut-ut for it. He calls up Bluewater’s other main superhero, 10th Muse, and asks her for advice. While fighting a villain of her own she advises him to adopt a secret identity, find a place to leave and a job. Taking the name Garrett Lane, Atlas finds a little apartment and then goes to an employment agency, where he is sent to be a security guard at the mansion of a wealthy man. Atlas soon discovers that there’s more to his boss than meets the eye, as he frees a superheroine named Judo Girl who has been frozen in suspended animation by the man for 30 years. When Atlas tries to figure out what’s going on, he’s suddenly stopped by another costumed superhero. TO BE CONTINUED

A decent enough story, a much better set-up for future adventures than the previous issue was. Rafter kept the wild-eyed attitude that Marv Wolfman had Atlas displaying, and Thompson’s art was nice, and actually looks exactly like Mark Brooks’ art. So much so that I can’t help but wonder if the credits in this issue are in error. Either way, despite not following-up the previous story, it still felt like a direct continuation.

Chacebook rating THREE STARS

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