Giant-size Atom #1

It's very name is a contradiction! This is one of the giant collections that finish up all of the cancelled back-up stories. This one was originally in 8 page installments in Adventure comics if I remember correctly. Some rogue science group called the colony has stolen The Atom's tech and now need his white dwarf matter to mass produce and control it. His uncle was once in the organisation but he escaped to help him. The are currently holding his comatose dad hostage at gun point while demanding he hand over the white dwarf matter.
Hawkman is there to stop his father from being killed. Only he is attacked from the inside by loads of tiny colony henchmen. That's pretty cool, well I know that it MUST have been done before but still, Journey to the centre of the Hawk, is a pretty good idea. There are six henchmen in him and he keeps popping back and forth and dumping them out of his body for the authorities. The thing about the shrinking without the white dwarf matter though, is that they get explosively unstable and one gets to his heart to have maximum effect. Which makes for a bizarre panel.



He is caught in time but they have already got away with his dad and still have his uncle. They threaten to kill both and he decides to hand over the White dwarf matter. He goes to retrieve it. It's kept miniaturised in his brothers grave stone, guarded by a polite little robot. This kind of thing isn't essential to the story but little things like that really make me love comics. He takes the robot along too.
After handing over the meteor rock he is handed the "ant farm" with his father and uncle in. His uncle is wired up to a bomb but they shrink microscopically to avoid the explosion and his uncle teleports them out. Then his father come around and learns that his nerdy disappointment of a son is a superhero. A nice way to rap up as they also track down the meteor rock thanks to some handy lab alterations they did before the hand over.



This was a really well written enjoyable book. This is superhero sci-fi at it's best. The art was pretty sweet at times also. There are several pencillers and inkers but it all ties together neatly. I really loved this and it's a good job there was an open ending too as I would really keep my fingers crossed for an ongoing. Probably not going to happen but with Lemire writing it would really be something else.