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Doctor Solar, Man of the Atom #3
Publisher: Dark Horse
Writer: Jim Shooter
Art: Roger Robinson
Cover: Michael Komarck
Jim Shooter has written the penultimate Dr. Solar story. By issue #3 of the brand new series from Dark Horse, we realize that Shooter has penned a well crafted tale, giving us possibly the greatest Dr. Solar villain. When we look at Dr. Solar, we look at a man who can pretty much do anything. He can teleport, he can fly, he shoots beams, he has endless knowledge and is beyond time and space. Dr. Solar in many ways has become a god of sorts. Shooter these past three issues has written an innocent character, Pickerel, who has the power to create whatever he wants from his dreams and own mind, in doing this creating another character with god-like powers, but wait, what happens when this character dreams up a pretty much indestructible god? In issue #3, Shooter gives us the new villain, Moloch, who is an ancient god, now here on Earth. Between Pickerel and Moloch, Dr. Solar has met his match with those who can actually match him in power. This has provided us with an intriguing and addictive story, that has paid off more and more with each issue.
Shooter’s writing is solid. Admittedly I wasn’t thrilled with the humor he was mixing into the comics at first, but now I see they are a 100 percent necessary element to make the comic work. When you have a character like Dr. Solar who is so beyond humans fighting a god like Moloch, you still need that humor from a human character to make it accessible so we can connect with it on multiple emotional levels, in which Shooter has delivered. The art in the issue by Robinson is fantastic as well, not feeling over done, and right at home other Dr. Solar comics of the past.
The only problem I can see with this, is a question for Mr. Shooter, which is: where do you go from here? You have pretty much come up with the only characters who can match Solar in terms of power, so after this story arc is done, and someone wins, what can you do next that won’t seem like a second rate story to this?
I suppose we will get to those questions someday, but for now, I am certainly enjoying the new Dr. Solar, Man of the Atom series, issue #3 on stands now.
Drew McCabe
drew@comicattack.net