I have to admit, I’ve been looking forward to this issue for a while. I like Steel and I’ve been waiting for him to get a spotlight of some kind after “52″. Too bad for Steel that spotlight turned out to be an ass-kicking and he was on the receiving end.
In a great comic book tradition, the cover is somewhat misleading. Yes, Atlas kicks Steels armor-plated ass but good. But a lot more happens in this issue than just the Steel/Atlas dust-up. Much as last issue showcased Mon-el teaming up with heroes across the world, this issue gives us brief check-ins with all of the book’s supporting cast members.
As I said in my recent Supergirl review, I’m kind of a sucker for these kinds of issues. I love the calm before the storm. And I love seeing the peripheal characters getting their moments to shine.
The issue starts off with the Steel/Atlas slobber-knocker. I honestly can’t remember the last punch-out I enjoyed as much as this one. The always-excellent Renato Guedes delivers the goods. Best one-on-one fight of the year! Thankfully, Steel doesn’t go down easy. In fact, he gets the upper hand early on. Unfortunately for Steel, this just makes Atlas angry. Inevitably, Atlas smash puny Steel.
It’s hard to top a fight this good. And Robinson doesn’t really try. The rest of the book checks in on supporting characters like Zatara, Parasite, Jim Harper, Dr. Light, Tellus and Sodam Yat. Nothing here is essential reading. But Robinson is clearly setting up future plotlines. And I enjoyed the character interactions. So, it was all good.
All in all, this issue is laying the groundwork for future stories. Lots of ‘em, I think. So it’s a little frustrating to have so much set-up with little to no pay off. But the fight scene was so well done and the character moments were engaging enough to win me over. I look forward to seeing where most of these plot threads are going.
Nice one, the artist this time was Pere Perez though.
I missed that. My apologies to Mr. Perez! Great fight scene