Solar: Man of the Atom #2 Review

Will Erica be dragged further into her fathers world? Read on to find out.

The official description from Dynamite:

In the stunning wake of Issue One’s shocking climax…where is SOLAR? What will massive doses of unstable radiation do to his family? And even if they survive, what horrors are lurking in the stars? It’s cosmic-fueled fantasy from the hit team of FRANK BARBIERE (Five Ghosts) and JOE BENNETT (Iron Man)!

Solar: Man of the Atom got off to a great start last time round with the chemical superhero brining us some maths. Due to the shocking climax of said issue this one unfortunately slips slightly with the drastic drop in pace causing the issue to lag. It did however pick up near the end giving yet another exciting climax but unfortunately it’s overall slow pace let it down.

Frank Barbiere gives us a look into Solar’s past in this issue as with the man himself being out of action for nearly the entire issue there needed to be something different. The way that this insight into Solar’s relationship with his daughter and her overall upbringing was interesting as though I’d much rather more from Solar it wasn’t a bad alternative. The main thing that bugged me about Barbiere’s script was the inconsistent tone and pace as though it was nice to see some energy and excitement near the end it came rather suddenly feeling slightly jarring.

Joe Bennett once again delivers some fabulous artwork with his visually amazing pencils and inks being fantastic. The dynamic layouts that he produces also add a lot of impact and though there’s not a huge amount of action in this instalment when there was it was explosive and energetic. Bennett also gave realistic facial expressions with the emotion adding to the dramatic tone of the issue. Kelly Fitzpatrick and Mauricio Wallace took on colourist duties for this issue with the faded tone of the flashbacks and vivid look to the present being outstanding.

Solar: Man of the Atom drops slightly in quality with it’s lagging pace being disappointing. It still however has some excitement and overall gets a recommendation from me.