Children of the Atom #5 Review

Vita Ayala WRITER

Paco medina ARTIST

David Curiel color artist

VC’S Travis Lanham lettering

Tom Muller Design

R.B. SILVA & ERICK ARCINIEGA Cover art

Blue Fox: Reviewer

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THE PREMISE

Dr. Barrington and her army of U-Men seized the young heroes, mistaking them all for mutants! Luckily Jay-Jay isn’t one of those and gets help instead of trying to rescue his friends on his own. Enter the grown-up X-Men.

THE STORY

Too often in stories like this, the teens tend to be written a bit ‘dumb’… But this time Jay-Jay acts smart. Children of the Atom #5 begins with Jay-Jay monologuing about the current situation and how to save his friends from the U-Men’s clutches. He ends up contacting the Krakoan embassy with somewhat predictable results. Then, the story progresses fairly straightforward to its logical conclusion.

ART

Paco Medina’s art is usually lively and youthful but in this issue, the art feels kind of uninspired. Panels don’t really pop out and the layout isn’t completely thought out. It’s in no way ugly or unreadable, just very by-the-numbers. Medina can do better. David Curiel does his best with the colors to give more life to otherwise uninspiring pages.

FINAL THOUGHTS

I’d like to give Children of the Atom #5 a better score because I really like the thought behind this team. However, it just wasn’t a very energetic issue. Nevertheless, COTA (Children Of The Atom) are a group of teens who adore their mutant heroes and strive to emulate them. Yet, this issue didn’t feel much teen energy. It was rather a tired old mule. Not even Gimmick being invited to the Hellfire Gala seemed to raise many emotions on her peers. And, the fight scenes with the adult mutants against the U-Men felt forced. The connection to the Hellfire Gala event was also treated as nothing more than an afterthought which also left the issue a bit to desire.