Kickin’ It Old School: Solar: Man of the Atom #2

It’s Tuesday which means it’s time for a new edition of Kickin’ It Old School, our weekly column in which we look to the past and review books from the original Valiant universe! This week, I’ll be discussing Solar, Man of the Atom #2.

Solar, Man of the Atom #2

Published in October of 1991
Written by Jim Shooter
Penciled by D. David Perlin
Inked by Bob Layton with Thomas Ryder
Colored by Kathryn Bolinger with Jorge Gonzalez

Key new characters

• Doctor Dobson- administrator with power to shut down Seleski’s work, but no backbone

Synopsis

Sol is still trying to stop Phil Seleski from continuing on his current path towards disaster. He first tries to persuade Doctor Dobson to shut Phil down. He then goes off to an abandoned warehouse and goes crazy. Solar then pops out of his head (disproving my theory that Sol will become Solar), and they fight, with Sol running off when Solar gains the advantage. A kid who witness what happened fell and hurt his leg, so Solar takes him home.

In a conversation with the id and his mother, Solar states that he has somebody else’s memories in his head, as well as his own. Solar takes off, seeking Sol and coming across all the places he’s been.  When he arrives at Phil Seleski’s house, he discovers a long box of comics, including Solar: Man of the Atom comics.  We discover that Solar was created from Sol’s memories of the comics that he used to read. Sol uses his knowledge of Solar comics to bait Solar with a projection of his girlfriend. They fights, with Solar dispatching Sol.

The issue ends with Solar returning to the house of the kid he helped, looking for somebody to talk to.

The Alpha and Omega part 2 insert shows Phil progressing through the madness towards the reactor.  An anti-proton pump is broken, which is the source of the malfunction.  He jumps into the reactor in desperation, ending the segment with Phil floating in the plasma flow, dissolving.

Review

I liked the character development in issue 1.  My initial thought is that character development was thrown aside by having Solar pop out of Sol’s head.  This seems like a cheap way to appeal to fans of the classic Solar.  After a second read, though, I have a little more faith in the direction of the book.  It was pretty cool seeing Solar dig through a long box and pull out issues of the original Solar.  This issue lost some of the momentum of the first issue, but was a better transition from introduction into plot than what Magnus #2 accomplished.

Kickin’ It Old School: Solar: Man of the Atom #1

Originally from ValiantCentral.com