Solar, Man of the Atom: Alpha and Omega (Slipcase Edition)


By Jim Shooter, Barry Windsor-Smith & Bob Layton with Kathryn Bolinger (Valiant)
No ISBN

The 1990s were a slow period for comics creativity: the industry had become market-led, with spin-offs, fad-chasing, shiny gimmicks and multiple-covers events replacing innovation and good story-telling in far too many places. One notable exception was a little outfit with some big names that clearly prized the merits of well-told stories illustrated by artists immune to the latest mis-proportioned, scratchy poseur style, and one with enough business sense to play the industry at its own game…

As Editor-in-Chief, Jim Shooter had made Marvel the most profitable, high-profile comics company around, and after his departure he used that savvy to pick up the rights to a series of characters with Silver-Age appeal and turn them into contemporary gold.

Western Publishing had been an industry player since the earliest days, mixing a plethora of licensed titles such as Disney titles, Tarzan, or the Lone Ranger with the occasional homegrown hit like Turok, Son of Stone. In the 1960s during the camp/superhero boom these latter expanded to included Space Family Robinson, Brain Boy, Magnus, Robot Fighter (by the incredible Russ Manning) and in deference to the age of the nuclear hero, Dr. Solar, Man of the Atom. All of supremely high quality, they won huge fan-bases, but never captured the media spotlight of DC or Marvel’s costumed cut-ups.

With an agreement to revive some, any or all of these four-colour veterans, Shooter and co-conspirator Bob Layton came to a bold decision and decided to incorporate those earlier adventures into their refits: acutely aware that old fans don’t like having their childhood favourites bastardized, and that revivals need all the support they can get. Thus the old days were canonical: they did “happen.”

Although the company launched with a classy reinterpretation of Magnus, the key title to the new universe they were building was the only broadly super-heroic character in the bunch, and they had big plans for him. Solar, Man of the Atom was launched with an eye to all the gimmicks of the era, but was cleverly realised and realistically drawn. However, that not what this book is about.

The main text of the series followed comic fan and nuclear physicist Phil Seleski, designer of the new Muskogee fusion reactor as he dealt with its imminent activation. Inserted into the first ten issues was a short extra chapter by Shooter, Windsor-Smith and Layton that described that self-same Seleski as he came to accept the horrific nuclear meltdown he had caused and the incredible abilities it had given him. As the world went to hell Seleski – or Solar – believed he had found one chance to put it right…

That sounds pretty vague – and it should – because the compiled ten chapters that form Alpha and Omega are a prequel, an issue #0, designed to be read only after the initial story arc had introduced the readers to Seleski’s new world. That it reads so well in isolation is a testament to the skill of all the creators involved, and when I review the accompanying collection Solar, Man of the Atom: Second Death hopefully that will convince you to seek out both these outstanding epics of science-hero-super-fiction.

Conversely you could take my word for it and start hunting now: and just by way of a friendly tip – each insert culminated with a two-page spread that was a segment of “the worlds largest comic panel”, and the slipcase edition I’m reviewing includes a poster that combines those spreads into a terrifyingly detailed depiction of the end of the tale…
© 1994 Voyager Communications and Western Publishing Company, Inc. All rights reserved.

3 Replies to “Solar, Man of the Atom: Alpha and Omega (Slipcase Edition)”

  1. My bad… misjudged not only Valiant in general but BW Smith in particular, witnessing how really good he is, with lateness.

    Wouldja believe that I’ve always, ALWAYS mixed-up Bob McLeod with Bob Layton!?! And then there was the third Bob… the artist who attended the late John Buscema’s school… Bob Hall..?

    Damn…

    Ok, reminiscing further, I’ll brag how I met Jim Shooter in person when I was allowed to visit 575 Madison Ave. MARVEL offices in July 1980. Met Jim who was generous with his time, patience and kindness — later I’ve read quite contrary stories in The Comics Journal and elsewhere but Jim, Larry Hama, the late Archie Goodwin, Nancy Murphy and John Romita SR (plus several jolly Bullpen members in the office) made me feel at home. Great memories, only two photos remaining to remind me of the occasion…

    Always thought Jim Shooter ‘dumbed down’ comics making them more juvenile, DC-izing them in the worst Mort Weisinger-Jack Schiff vein, enforcing the retro-approach even at Valiant and beyond.

    I tend to think nowadays, with a hindsight, that he attempted to hold the anchor and prevent the storm to take the ship away uncontrollably. No, I don’t think it was good to fire Gene Colan, force Gil Kane to go elsewhere, create bad office politics driving some artists into despair [JR JR and J.Owsley/C.Priest come to mind] and so on.

    And yes — he DID make Vinnie Colletta his protege etc.

    But still … at the end of a day, where-ever he was in charge, more or less good comics were produced steadily and money-makingly.

  2. And now he’s at Dark Horse working on a revival of the Gold Key/Valiant characters.

    The thing that people forget about Vinnie is that he delivered. Give him a 22-page story that needed inking overnight, and come next morning the pages would be there. They wouldn’t be very good… but they were there. Reliability like that was worth gold — look at the mess of late comics we have now that it no longer exists.

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