Endorsement: The Atom Project

There is a lot happening in the DCU right now. And, surprisingly... I endorse almost all of it, including...

The Atom Project.

The ostensible plot of The Atom Project is that Ray "The Atom" Palmer, as the classic JLA's premiere scientist, has taken on the task of fixing the Wacky Power Scramble caused when (in DC's latest universe-changing crossover) Amanda Waller's army of Amazos blew up, forfeiting (somewhat haphazardly) all the powers they had stolen.

Paired with his fellow "The Atom", Ryan Choi, Palmer is having limited success, but exposits that working with Nathaniel "Captain Atom" Adam is the key to unlimited success.

There are so many reason to dislike Captain Atom that the stupidity of the "Adam/Atom" thing is sometimes overlooked.

Why is Captain Atom the key?  I'm not going to bother to explain the in-story reason (especially since I don't understand it), but the meta-reasons are obvious. First, no one ever knows what to do with Captain Atom,  DC's red-chested stepchild from the Charlton Universe. Certainly he has no fans other than complain about his use/misuse/abuse.  Second, he's an angsty, volatile character, making him a perfect unstable platform for "the Atom Project" to teeter upon.  Third, he is, quite simply, a hero with "Atom" in his name.

Because, clearly, one of the longer-term goals of this miniseries to is creating an Atom Dynasty (that is, a dynastic centerpiece model build around Ray Palmer, an idea I have obviously endorsed for, um, some time.

After all, how could you possibly go wrong centering your world around Ray Palmer?

The real Atom (Ray Palmer), the "ethnic counterpart"/"junior partner" (Ryan Choi), the sidekick (Atom-Smasher), the black sheep (Captain Atom).  It's a solid start.  

Sure, I'd love to see the return of the mysterious Molecule, 

Who, despite being nameless and appearing in perhaps three panels total, seems to have more potential than Vixen, Voodoo, and all of Stormwatch combined.

smart'n'sexy Enrichetta Negrini, 

Objectively, if I OF ALL PEOPLE think a woman is too smart and sexy to go to waste,
then she damned well IS.

and the ultimate animal sidekick, the bionic Major Mynah.

I do not love Major Mynah despite the fact he's absurd.
I love Major Mynah BECAUSE he's absurd.

But all this point I'm just happy that DC sees Ray Palmer as deserving of dynasty and making the effort to build one.

The creators clearly set up Ray and Ryan as a bad science-cop/good science cop duo, or, more accurately, and cold and calculating scientist / sensitive and humanist scientist duo.  I'm not really sure this jibes well with their past portrayals but, let's face it: neither Ray Palmer nor Ryan Choi have (or ever had) sufficiently strong characterizations in the past to complain that this new interpretation of them is off-model.  On the whole, Ray has generally been noted only his outstanding level of confidence (even for a superhero) and his problem-solving nature.  

The amount of confidence required to casually, commandingly SLAP JEAN "THREAT TO ALL WHO LIVE" LORING in the face is far beyond my ken.

And Ryan Choi, well, I think his most consistent and identifiable traits are hero-worship and haplessness.

You're a physicist, Ryan. Don't do engineering, it's beneath you and you suck at it.  Do you try to do your own dry-walling, too?

So, for the time being, it seems a reasonable way of not only distinguishing the two Atoms, of making them not just non-redundant but necessary counterparts.  There aren't a lot of crimefighter duos in comics anymore and two Atoms just might be more viable than one (something the Flashes have never made work).

As long as they are assembling a world of characters around Ray Palmer, it begs the question, where, if anywhere, is Jean Loring?

Again--try to imagine the confidence. This woman eats a bowlful of Karens every morning for breakfast and then shits Yelp reviews.

Jean Loring was alive two or so years ago (in Cold Coast Asylum) but that was two years; how many times has the DCU been soft-rebooted since then? To my satisfaction, it has not really been established whether Jean Loring's long and storied history still stands in current continuity.  Is she still dead, eaten by sharks? Or has she NOT YET HAPPENED?!

AGAIN, try to fathom the degree of confidence required to propose to Jean "you vermin, I'll rip your face off" Loring ONCE, let alone FIFTY-SEVEN TIMES.

Oh, yeah. Let's get on that rollercoaster AGAIN, daddy!