They fought together in the fifties. They didn’t have any fancy name, secret headquarters or secret weapons. They were just heroes who knew that they could accomplish more together than apart. But as with most good things, it was short lived and they went their own ways. Now, years later, after Jimmy Woo, their leader, is lured into a trap and nearly killed, they are the only who care enough to look for the reasons that Woo was attacked.
You may have missed Agents of Atlas when it was coming out last year. I know I did, distracted by the bright and shiny Civil War and ignoring most everything else that Marvel was doing. Boy, was that kind of foolish. In Agents of Atlas, writer Jeff Parker and artist Leonard Kirk take a throw away concept from an old What If? and give it new life, making it an essential but hidden keystone in the Marvel Universe.
What Parker is doing with Agents of Atlas reminds me a lot of what Ellis was doing in the early issues of Planetary. Through a character who belongs to the world but can’t remember why, he explores a world of wonder. Parker’s Elijah Snow is Jimmy Woo, FBI agent and acknowledge leader of the team. He’s the glue holding this odd collection of characters together. I don’t even think Captain America could make Gorilla Man, Venus, M-11, Namora and Marvel Boy work as a team. They were a strange group in the fifties and they’ve only gotten weirder as time has moved on.
It’s the eclectic nature of this team that makes it enjoyable. Like a lot of teams, they work well together because they’re outcasts. None of them are Avengers or X-Men or even Defenders. They wouldn’t work on teams like that. Gorilla Man would not work being on the same team as the Silver Surfer or even Nighthawk. Marvel Boy, who grew up on Uranus, is the typical man without a home. M-11 is the ever present and ever silent robot. He’s a presence but doesn’t connect with anyone else. Namora has been believed to be dead for years and Venus may not be the goddess she thought she was.
Parker and Kirk introduce another new character to the team, Derek Khanata, a new SHIELD character. Khanata’s character is a bit redundant in the book because, in some ways, he serves a function that Jimmy Woo already serves; the stand in for the reader. Both Woo and Khanata are experiencing a new world, one they’re not familiar with. Woo has the added strength of actually being part of the team; he’s the center of action but he’s also the character that the reader can enter the world through. Khanata doesn’t really serve any unique purpose. He is more along for the ride as he learns about the world. Of the cast, Khanata is the weakest point, introduced for the most tenuous reasons. Take him out and the book wouldn’t miss him.
Leonard Kirk may be one of the most under-appreciated artists around right now. His art is easy and clean. He nicely brings a classic look to his art without seeming old-fashioned, traditional without appearing being stuffy. He’s also easily able to bring the different elements of the story together and make it just seem right. There’s one image where a gorilla is driving a vintage convertible with a naked lady, a space man and a robot as his passengers. Kirk makes the right choice in not over emphasizing any one part of that image but instead presents it as a very natural scene and creates a fantastic image.
Agents of Atlas is the beginning of something. The book leads up to a point of revelation about the nature of Jimmy Woo and his team that makes the end of the book the beginning point of the future. Parker and Kirk also set up this team as a potentially powerful force. Hopefully we’ll be able to eventually see a lot of the possibilities that this book introduces.
AGENTS OF ATLAS (hard cover)
Written by: Jeff Parker
Penciled by: Leonard Kirk
Inked by: Kris Justice with Terry Pallot
Colored by: Michelle Madsen
Lettered by: Dave Lanphear