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The War of the Realms: New Agents of Atlas #1 Review
Marvel

Comic Books

The War of the Realms: New Agents of Atlas #1 Review

Greg Pak is introducing a slew of new Asian characters to join the ranks of Marvel’s greatest heroes.

When it comes to summer events, tie-ins are king. That includes unnecessary tie-ins, vital ones, and slight tie-in stories like this one that introduces new characters. That’s right, Greg Pak is introducing a slew of new Asian characters to join the ranks of Marvel’s greatest heroes. Question is, as a tie-in, is it good?

So what’s it about?

Read the preview.

Listen to the latest episode of our weekly comics podcast!

Why does this matter?

Did you see what I said above?! New heroes, a new team, a new reason to get international with the superhero stuff!

Fine, you have my attention. What’s good about it?

The War of the Realms: New Agents of Atlas #1 Review

New heroes!
Credit: Marvel Comics

This issue opens on two brand new characters with impressive powers coming together by accident. They soon discover the War of the Realms has dropped on Earth and it’s not looking good. The story then cuts away to the heroes we’re more familiar with, like Amadeus Cho and Silk. They’re training and we soon learn their latest task is to be a fully functional team. Their time on the Champions, and other adventures by Greg Pak, haven’t made them as efficient as one might like. But a war like this one, with no warning, thrusts them into the adventure.

As the story pushes forward Pak does a good job showing how the dysfunction of the team is affecting how they do in the field. Many of these heroes are quite powerful, but without a good leader, they’re almost worthless. That’s a theme that will be fun to track as the story moves forward.

As far as the new characters go, each one has an interesting power set and/or personality. With all the chaos going on in the issue we don’t get a good sense of everybody, but we get enough to know this will be an interesting team going forward. I can’t help but love an international team like this, too, since it opens up the world quite a bit.

The art is by Gang Hyuk Lim, with colors by Federico Blee and together they do a lot of heavy lifting. I say this as the book is eclectic in its scenarios and characters on the page. From a cool robotic test bot to the various characters, settings, and villains, there’s a lot to see here. The team aspect is held strong due to the art’s ability to capture expressions and the subtle body language of certain characters. Silk, Ms. Marvel, and Amadeus Cho all look solid in their parts and it’s easy to see how their age is a factor. They’re still young.

The War of the Realms: New Agents of Atlas #1 Review

Familiar heroes!
Credit: Marvel Comics

It can’t be perfect, can it?

It’s a trial by fire issue to be sure, so many of these characters aren’t fleshed out or relatable yet. That makes the narrative feel like a fight comic more than it maybe should. A closer look at who these characters are and what their deal is, or even why we haven’t heard of them till now, would be helpful in fleshing things out.

Is it good?

I liked how a big event series is being used to introduce a whole new batch of characters. Greg Pak has always kept character as a priority for his books and it’s fun to see how he’s exploring the team book here.

The War of the Realms: New Agents of Atlas #1 Review
The War of the Realms: New Agents of Atlas #1
Is it good?
I liked how a big event series is being used to introduce a whole new batch of characters. Greg Pak has always kept character as a priority for his books and it’s fun to see how he’s exploring the team book here.
Introduces new characters amongst a big event
Art keeps its focus on character
Good way of exploring leadership on a young team like this
Doesn't deliver on character writing for the newbies
8
Good

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