The Official Atom Thread!!

[warren_sparta27]

i was really excited about this book, but after seeing the preview for it i'm a little let down. the art looks, blah.

i'll still pick up the first issue and see if it impresses me though.

 

[Darthphere]

So im bumping this to voice my frustration.

I bought Brave New World and read The Atom preview. SO first, hes a complte rip-off of Ray Palmer, but they make it ok becuase he hand selected him...right.

Now, hes asian and hes uper smart, thats not a stereotype at all, but guess what also, he does gymanstics and knows martial arts. Lame

 

[GoldenAgeHero]

yeah seems they're really going out of thier way to make him better then ray palmer.

 

[Darthphere]

And a lame stereotype.

 

[GoldenAgeHero]

the worst part is theyre making this book an ongoing while the others get mini's. how the **** does a character just created for the sake of being pc get his own mini, but for character's thats existed alot longer, not even be considered for a run.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

So im bumping this to voice my frustration.

I bought Brave New World and read The Atom preview. SO first, hes a complte rip-off of Ray Palmer, but they make it ok becuase he hand selected him...right.

Now, hes asian and hes uper smart, thats not a stereotype at all, but guess what also, he does gymanstics and knows martial arts. Lame

Yeah, I really tried to give the new Atom a fair shake. I didn't mind the scientist/gymnast/martial artist triple-threat. After all, Michael Holt and Bruce Wayne are allowed to be super-geniuses, Olympic-level decathletes, and martial artists, and there's nothing stereotypical about them--hell, it's kind of the norm for people to be master fighters and geniuses in comics, ethnicity be damned. But there's just no damn point to the character. He lives in Ray's town, he has Ray's job, he's taking up Ray's identity as the Atom, he's got Ray's geekgasmic enthusiasm over the scientific and adventurous applications of his powers... seriously, he's not Ray's buddy, he is Ray. I actually thought the story was a decent little blurb of superhero action, and I even liked how Simone used the quotes and the adventurous spirit of scientific pioneers as the unifying theme, but the whole time I was reading it I couldn't stop thinking, "Why is this dukee here? He's exactly like Ray. Why couldn't they have just made his hair brown and called him RAY, goddamnit?" Such an unnecessary, gratuitous change for no reason, right when Ray's character could've become more interesting than he's ever been.

 

[Anubis]

I liked the preview.

 

[Shawkur]

I totally understand and share everyone's apprehension, but I think there is a chance this could end up like Young Avengers where there could be good story-based reasons for similarities to what would otherwise seem like cheap imitation. Another thing, for some reason that is beyond me, DC has been intent on keeping Ray out of the picture for the forseeable future for long before this series was probably even conceived so its not like they dropped Ray for this guy. For all we know, this series could be key in Ray's return.

 

[GoldenAgeHero]

^^ no it's definitely a cheap imitation and i doubt they'll bring ray back or else they would'nt have gotten rid of him in the first place. theyre doing this for the sake of being pc, which is why he's asian.

 

[Shawkur]

 

[GoldenAgeHero]

guess you showed me.

 

[Shawkur]

 

[Darthphere]

You know, the preview was fine, and John Byrne's art wast that bad, but I cnat support this on principle.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

The principle that you hate Asian people?

 

[Darthphere]

The principle that you hate Asian people?

Yes.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

I always suspected...

You know, I'm like 1/32nd Chinese. Do you hate me 1/32nd as much as the new Atom?

 

[Darthphere]

I always suspected...

You know, I'm like 1/32nd Chinese. Do you hate me 1/32nd as much as the new Atom?

Only on Tuesday.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Even this Tuesday? It's the celebration of our nation's freedom and all that crap, after all.

 

[Darthphere]

Even this Tuesday? It's the celebration of our nation's freedom and all that crap, after all.

Especially this Tuesday



*Note Darthphere really doesnt hate asians.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Especially this Tuesday



*Note Darthphere really doesnt hate asians.

That's true, "hate" isn't strong enough a word.

 

[BrianWilly]

Thoughts from the Bought/Thought thread:

Atom #1
I liked it. Strong premise, solid art, cheesy-ash humor, and an interesting supporting cast. I'll be sticking around for the forseeable future.

Something that was funny to me was the fact that, in the flashback scene to Hong Kong, Ryan and the other kids addressed each other by their English names even though a bunch of kids in Hong Kong probably wouldn't even have English names, much less call each other by them.

There's a lot of bruhaha over this guy replacing Ray, and I'm sure that if I were a bigger fan of Ray I'd be more irritated, but as it is I just can't see what the big deal is. Ray Palmer has a perfectly legit reason for not being around, and it's not as if he's being forgotten or disrespected. Ryan namedrops him about fifteen times in this one issue, literally worships him, and I'm thinking we'll see clues to his whereabouts eventually in this series. Sooner than one might expect, considering what Brave New World suggested. Despite what everyone seems to think, Ryan's not just an Asian Ray clone; from what I've seen of him throughout the years Ray is the epitome of an accomplished, confident professor and scientist who's got the universe figured out. Ryan is a goofy-looking foreigner who seems to have just stepped out of college or something and has no idea what to expect from this world. The difference between them may as well be as pronounced as the differences between Clark Kent and Peter Parker.

Honestly, Hal Jordan tried to destroy the universe, got replaced by an upstart kid, and is now once again Green Lantern in the JLA and guest-starring in half the titles in the entire DCU; I'm thinking that a little time off is not gonna do Ray Palmer in. If you're absolutely sick and tired of DC's overpopulation of legacy characters I can see where this wouldn't hit it off with you, but I don't seem to have crossed that shredhold yet.

(8.9 out of 10)

 

[Tropico]

I'm not enthused about the Byrne art, but the story was good. The character doesn't seem as "omnipotent" as the other posters make him out to be (I don't know if they're basing it only on the Brave New World preview) from the flashback we got when he was martial arts training. I don't have any significant attachment to Ray nor do I have any dislike for ethnic variety so I have no problems with this character. Funny thing is, if his shrinking/mass shifting powers turn out to be better than Ray's it'll still be thanks to Ray since Ryan found a belt that Ray had made.up:

 

[Darthphere]

I'm not enthused about the Byrne art, but the story was good. The character doesn't seem as "omnipotent" as the other posters make him out to be (I don't know if they're basing it only on the Brave New World preview) from the flashback we got when he was martial arts training. I don't have any significant attachment to Ray nor do I have any dislike for ethnic variety so I have no problems with this character. Funny thing is, if his shrinking/mass shifting powers turn out to be better than Ray's it'll still be thanks to Ray since Ryan found a belt that Ray had made.up:

You dont see anything stereotypical in an Asian man, being in possesion of an almost genius level intellect that does gymanstics and knows martial arts?


I weep for this world.

 

[Tropico]

You dont see anything stereotypical in an Asian man, being in possesion of an almost genius level intellect that does gymanstics and knows martial arts?


I weep for this world.

Oh, I can see how you guys want to look at it that way only. I get what you're saying. I just don't make a big deal about it since it's in a mostly stereotypical medium. I weep for this world constanly, too; believe me!

 

[BrianWilly]

Well, how many white men are there in the DCU and the Marvel universe who possess genius-level intellect and are top-level gymnasts and/or martial artists? Off the top of my head I can name around four or five. It might be stereotypical real world Asian traits, but in the world of comic books, the stereotype kinda goes the other way around. Most Asian martial artists we see in comics are straight-up bruisers who can kill a guy by breathing on him while the white men are the PhD-owners and genetic nuclear physicists. Maybe I should be offended by Ryan Choi's stereotypes but considering the actual context of everything here, I'm really not.