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“On the other side of no tomorrow”

It was easy to ignore the Agents of Atlas #1.  Well, at least it was easy to ignore the title a couple of years ago when Marvel, for some inexplicable reason, launched a new miniseries by a then relatively unknown Jeff Parker featuring a team whose What If? debut was three decades ago and who had rarely been seen since.  Gorilla Man, Jimmy Woo and Venus were hardly household names among comic fans while Marvel Boy and Namorita were probably D-listers at best; trivia answers to some obscure Fantastic Four or Marvel Two-In-One question.  After critical praise and developing cult-like following for Agents of Atlas, Parker finally gets the chance to followup on his team and show what happens after they became leaders of their own secret organization.

I’m one of those who missed the original miniseries but jumped on the bandwagon when Marvel put out their not-quite-deluxe-but-still-packed hardcover collection of Agents of Atlas that also featured reprints of the What If? issue as well as the first golden age appearance of each of the Agents.  Parker and artist Leonard Kirk managed to craft a Marvel story that didn’t require any knowledge or even interest in the baggage and continuity of the main House of M/Civil War laden line at the time.  After all of that and World War Hulk and Secret Invasion, Agents of Atlas is back but it already has two strikes against it; no Leonard Kirk and it has the ugly “Dark Reign” banner at the top of the cover.  But it still does have Jeff Parker and that turns out to be more than enough for me.

Parker seems to be in a weird position at Marvel—he’s almost universally praised for his Marvel Adventures work, Agents of Atlas and X-Men First Class while those books fly under the radar of most readers.  He’s not working on a “real X-Men” book or a “real Avengers” book but he has written some great X-Men and Avengers stories.  Agents of Atlas has skirted around the fringes of the Marvel Universe and that’s worked so far.  Whether it’s a quick and mysterious team up with Spider-Man or a short story showing what the Agents were doing during World War Hulk (or was it Secret Invasion?), the Agents of Atlas existed in the cracks of the Marvel Universe.  The new Agents of Atlas #1 drops the Agents directly into the midst of all of the “Dark Reign” shenanigans as Jimmy Woo, Venus and the rest of the team drop in to pay Norman Osborne a visit and to discuss Osborne’s new world order.

The great thing that Parker does in this story is make the Agents and Osborne equals.  While Osborne is showing up everywhere right now, everyone is fighting with Osborne.  He’s fighting Iron Man, Spider-Man, the New Avengers.  Heck, there’s probably a comic somewhere where Norman is stealing Katie Powers’ stuffed bear.  In almost every other book, we’re getting hammered with how good the heroes are and how evil Osborne is.  Parker’s Agents of Atlas may be the few characters who are trying to exist with Osborne even as they’re fighting against him behind his back.  In a world where the status quo has been turned upside down and the New and Mighty Avengers are on the run, the Agents of Atlas are the true rebels of the Marvel Universe; they’d be fighting whoever was in charge whether it be Tony Stark, Norman Osborne or Barack Obama.

Even though it’s been a couple of years since the minseries, Parker does the wise thing and doesn’t waste any time trying to re-establish the team or the series.  He jumps right into his story, trusting his audience to follow along or catch right up.  Even the first summary page by series associate editor Nathan Cosby doesn’t waste anytime as it boils down every Marvel event in the last 5 years to a quick punchline.  That doesn’t mean that Parker doesn’t catch us up on the concept of the team.  Through some quick exposition from Osborne, Parker lets us know what is going on even as he shows how much Osborne has knowledge of everything that’s happening in his world.  Parker’s story picks up from a 2-3 year old miniseries without feeling like that much time has past.

Personally, I was worried about the artwork and the loss of Leonard Kirk while he’s off drawing Captain Britian.  Joining Parker this time around is Planet Hulk’s Carlo Pagulayan on pencils, Jason Paz on inks and Jana Schirmer on colors.  Pagulayan, Paz and Schirmer’s work all combines to produce a “Leinil Yu meets Jae Lee colored by Jose Villarubia” effect.  They ground the artwork, making a much more realistic and solid issue than Kirk’s airy artwork produced in the miniseries.  It’s a harder and sharper look than the Agents have had before but, within the context of the story and world they now exist in, it really works.

This issue also features a backup story showing the Agents back in 1958, meeting Wolverine in the jungles of Cuba.  It’s a fun little story that adds some color to the otherwise unexplored past of the Agents.  Written by Parker and drawn by Benton Jew, the backup helps show how the Agents have always operated in the background of everything else that’s always going on.

Agents of Atlas #1 is a book a lot of us have been waiting a long time for.  Parker and Pagulayan show us what the secret powers of the Marvel Universe are up to as the powers in the world have shifted from Stark to Osborne.  Agents of Atlas #1 is about who do you serve and how do you serve them.  Now the Agents just need to figure out the answers for themselves.

Agents of Atlas #1
“First Contact”
Written by: Jeff Parker
Penciled by: Carlo Pagulayan
Inked by: Jason Paz
Colored by: Jana Schirmer
Lettered by: Blambot’s Nate Piekos

“Wolverine, Agent of Atlas”
Written by: Jeff Parker
Drawn by: Bendon Jew
Colored by: Elizabeth Dismang Bretweiser
Lettered by: Blambot’s Nate Piekos

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