The All New Atom: All you Byrne-haters can suck it

There are two things to like in DC's All New Atom.

1) Artist John Byrne. Yes, that John Byrne. One artistic facet that always seems to be ignored when drawing scenes based on things seen on a small scale is that nature is not pretty. It is not smooth and polished like the set pieces from Land of the Giants. Matter is rough, spiky, dirty and clumpy at that scale. So good on John.

I know John can draw dogs better than that though, so I don't know what is up with that weird looking mutt. I'll lay that on the inker. I read that John isn't staying on the Atom and that is too bad because I like what has been done so far.

2) Writer Gail Simone is leaving out much of the goofy self-exposition. A bit jarring at first, I quickly got to like it. The Atom has occasional outbursts of non-sequitors that make sense to his unseen internal dialog, but not to the reader. That is just like real life! Gail is not treating the reader like they are stupid and is making them work to keep up and make connections. Reading something by Gail Simone makes your brain overheat and that is a good thing.