Agents of Atlas has been a good solid title from Marvel. Writer Jeff Parker continues to channel Steve Gerber from his Defenders stories and combine it with his own twists on the role of super heroes. The new issue should be a quality wrap up to “Terror of the Jade Claw”.
Creative Team
Writer: Jeff Parker
Artists: Dan Panosian and Gabriel Hardman
Story Rating: 8 Night Girls out of 10
Art Rating: 6 Night Girls out of 10
Overall Rating: 7 Night Girls out of 10
Synopsis: Jimmy Woo and his old girlfriend Suwan are relaxing on a beach. She has an implant that connects her to her robot M-21. M-21 is destroying Jimmy’s robot. The two armies were killing each other and Venus started singing to stop the violence. Jimmy’s Agents are falling to Suwan’s Great Wall troops.
Jimmy starts running away. He is now back in his battle garb. He yells for Venus to stop singing. He stirs up some of the Agents as he is running. Jimmy grabs a red triangle from one of his enemies. Using it, he transports into the Corridor that Suwan uses.
Gorilla Man helps gather up the Agents, including the pieces of the robot M-11, and escape.
Back in the Dragon’s Corridor, Suwan is hunting for Jimmy. She is riding on top of her robot. The robot is blasting everything. Temugin uses his powers to transport himself into the Corridor so he can help Jimmy. They split up to throw Suwan off track. Suwan’s robot tracks Temugin. She shoots him.
Jimmy makes it to his flying car that he had left behind. He flies in and rescues Temugin. As they fly out of Suwan’s robot’s range. Suwan says that Jimmy does not realize what he has lost. Her troops have defeated the Agents everywhere except for the Hidden City.
The Agents rebuild M-11 and prepare their final defense. Jimmy sends Namora to recruit some help.
The 2 armies approach each other. Both sides have their own dragon. When the dragons face off, they decide to let the armies fight it out. They will let the humans fight it out.
Namora arrives with an army from Atlantis. They take charge of the battle. The 2 robots face off. Jimmy has Marvel Boy locate the source of Suwan’s robot’s power and destroy it. M-11 destroys Suwan’s robot.
Suwan asks Jimmy to behead her in private. Jimmy refuses to kill her. Instead she will remain in Asia and direct her troops as part of the Agents. To make sure she behaves, Temugin will be ruling over her.
The dragons say that the wheel of history has turned back to their time. The great game has begun.
The Good: This was a fine finish to the Jade Claw storyline. Parker wraps up the story and plants some seeds for future tales.
The characterization was up to the usual level of quality. We get a new trash talking personality for M-11. His dialogue lightened the mood during the serious battle.
I liked Parker’s solution to what to do with Suwan. Forcing her to become an Agent will surely back fire on him in the future.
The Bad: The current art team does not keep up with the script. The art looks scratchy and manga influenced. This is okay in some comics but is not appropriate for this book. A new art team would be a big step up for this book.
Overall: Another good story with art that is lacking. With a more realistic art style, this would have been a great story.
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Jim