Madman Atomic Comics 12

Well, I suppose if I'm going to call this a comics blog, I had better talk about comis, right?

First let's talk about me, because I am awesome (well my mum says I am :P).
For most of my life I had been a fan of superheroes and monsters. I will admit, while I loved good heroes like Batman, Superman and Spider-Man, I wasn't exactly very good with knowing what made a good superhero. For one I imagined a number of characters myself, one of which was known as Twisterman. In a nutshel, it was a miniature tornado with a face wearing a superman costume. TERRIBLE. Not as bad as Fireman and Bloodman. Fireman was a rip-off of the Human Torch, except he couldn't fly. Bloodman, his partner, was exactly the same, except instead of fire he was covered in blood. Not only is this gross, but also pretty useless.
But that's nothing compared to my idea of superheroes in general. All of them could fly, wear capes and shoot lasers. Even if your name is Crocodileman, you will fly and shoot lasers. Fortunatley as time went on, my mind got better...somewhat.

As you may tell from creating my own characters, I aspire to write comics. Actually I aspire to direct movies, but for now comics seem easier. Over time I created slightly better heroes. I digress that they were still terrible. I had no idea what made a good plot and my skill for writing can be summed up in two hyphonated words...Bunny-Girl. Nowadays my ideas tend to suck less, and I don't create characters off the drop of a hat. I think about it THEN drop the hat. I still create characters a little too much.

But then I started wanting to read comics. From TV I could tell that this was where superheroes are truly gods. However I had no idea where to look for a comic store, so I went to News Agents and bought whatever was there. Though at first I felt that finding a copy of Action Comics or Spectaculer Spider-Man Magazine (no relation to the TV show btw) was a great find, once I finally got to a REAL comic store, I was truly amazed. I won't bother you with how one works, cos chances are that you already know. However, if you live in Adelaide and want a good comic store, I pledge my alligence to Adelaide Comic Centre in Rundle Mall. That place is great.

Well let's start with one of my first, shall we? When I first went there, I had heard of Madman, and had become interested enough to pick up and issue without a thought. Look at the character, he's memorable and this is essentially what I consider a TRUE comic cover. The heroes in peril and the villain is on the edge of victory, what happens next? So, let's further dig into, Madman Atomic Comics 12.

Just to make sure we're not confused throughout the review, Madman is really Frank Einstein, but that's not a secret identity, Madman is like a nickname. He wears the costume to hide the horribly frankenstein-like creature he is, and because the material is intended to heal his flesh. His 'parents' were two scientists who revived him after a car crash with enhanced reflexes and a magical aura about himself, allowing himself to learn any skill instantly. More recently, his girlfriend Joe was killed and absorbed into the body of fellow superheroine Luna, AKA It Girl. This allows her to live on as a composite being known as LunaJoe. Frank has inherited a house from his previous life and is returning to the scientist lab where LunaJoe is being seperated into a cloned body. Yay.

We start out with basic superhero stuff, Frank jumping along telephone wires to get back quicker. He runs into his friends, The Atomics, the superhero team who It Girl belongs to. Meanwhile, the cloning has been a success and the two girls are two different people again. Also, the Atomics ship blows up. This issue is mainly displayed in a series of panels split vertically along the page. Creator Mike Allred sure knows how to experiment, as he had also done a whole issue as a long fight scene that scrolled along the screen, I have to give him props for that.

The Atomics discover that a bomb had been placed on their ship and are unable to figure out who did it. Frank is concerned, but they assure him they can handle things and send him off. Except for stretching hero Mr. Gum who helps Frank get home quicker. Unfortunatley, they are attacked by an army of robotic insects. Gum tells Frank to just run while he handles them. And by handles them, he apparently means get beat up by them. Meanwhile again, Luna wonders if the cloning process could possibly revive her dead boyfriend Adam, whose brain was eaten by an alien creature a few issues ago. The scientist, Dr. Flem says that while he probably can, it won't be as easy as he's already cloning the missing organ (the brain) rather than a whole body. Also, Joe is donning a costume to become Madgirl. Not as catchy, byt meh.

As Frank returns home, the scientists and girls are attacked by Monstadt, Franks arch nemesis who was previously dead, but keeping with the cloning area of the story, he's back in a suped by cloned body (pictured). He proceeds to lay the smack down on the supporting cast while Frank defeats a robotic worm. How does he do it? He licks an active power point. And considering that this is a family friendly comic, 'That's an excellent message for the kiddies, ain't it?' Frank returns to the lab finally and is captured in what looks like a giant dead rose. Seriously, I don't know what it is.

Frank awakens in the boiler room where Monstadt proceeds to toss his beloved supporting cast into the alien furnace so that he may take over their alien powered HQ. He's too weak to do anything as the blue fiend prepares to dispose of him in the same way...

This comic is great! It's part of a complex storyline and I was instantly hooked! I couldn't wait to read the next issue. Unfortunatley when I did it was a major cop out. Joe uses the extra cosmic energy from her revival to shoot a laser that kills Monstadt and protect her friends from the flames. I soon realised that while older issues were basic if original superhero stories, Atomic Comics...weren't. Even the finale issue, number 16, featured Madman being burnt to a crisp but no villains or combat.THAT MAKES ME MAD!. But I digress, the series isn't actually bad, I just went in expecting a superhero book and didn't get one. Admittedly issue 9 has a pretty elaborate one, being the scrolling one I mentioned earlier, but it just didn't have that effect on me. In fact my favorite comic fight of all time is in an issue of the original Tick comics, but that's because I really liked the Tick at the time, and it was well drawn, there's plenty of other good ones.

So what's my verdict? I dunno. But I do plan on seeing the Madman feature film if it ever comes to fruition, and I'd also pick up the next Madman series, cos while it didn't deliver what I was expecting, I can't help but like the character. I'll also discuss some other problems I have with it another time. But for now, this is ThatKidWithTheSidebunrs, Sideburning off...that was terrible.