Giuseppe Camuncoli has worked on such DC-published titles as Swamp Thing and The Intimates, but his profile has remained somewhat limited. I suspect this project could prove to be a major breakthrough, as he offers up some dynamic super-hero artwork that's bound to please fans of the genre. It's just too bad that the accompanying script for the first issue of this series wasn't as strong as the penciller's contribution. It's not that the story is bad, per se -- it's that there's no real story to speak of yet. A lot of space is spent on exposition that contributes little to the new direction, but even more frustrating is the fact that Pfeifer throws the stereotypical misunderstanding-between-heroes fight scene at us.
Captain Atom's self-sacrificing actions to save the Earth of the DC Universe from annihilation has hurtled the quantum-powered hero through the walls that separate realities, and he's finally come crashing down (literally) on Earth, but it's not the one he knew from before. The impact of his uncontrolled landing takes a life, but the victim seems oddly pleased about the incident. Of course, one of this world's resident heroes doesn't view the fatal crash in a favorable light at all, and further property damage ensues thanks to the superhuman conflict.
A significant portion of the flashback scenes in this issue refer to events from Superman/Batman, and Camuncoli does a good job of bringing his art in line with that of Ed McGuinness, the artist who initially rendered those DC Universe scenes. At the same time, Camnucoli doesn't cast aside his own style; he's just careful to achieve a sense of consistency. His efforts are richly detailed throughout the issue, and that brings the devastating and dangerous nature of the damage to life quite realistically. The color art is brilliant and brings out the dazzling sci-fi look of the title character quite well.
Wouldn't it have been enough to tell readers that a huge explosion in the DC Universe sent Captain Atom to the world of Wildstorm characters? Did we need to revisit the giant Composite Superman armor/robot thingie or the brief reappearance before the Man of Steel and the Dark Knight? Pfeifer spends far too much time explaining where Captain Atom came from and how he got to where he ended up. What was needed was an explantion of how his powers work; introduce us to the character, not to the concluding events of an unrelated story arc in Superman/Batman.
Sigh... the sight of Majestic dropping out of the sky and attacking another superhuman was disappointing. Majestic makes no effort to learn whom he might be up against, what happened and if there was any malevolent intent that would even require a violent encounter. He attacks because a super-hero story calls upon the writer to include some action, and it seems in this case, neither editor nor writer seemed too concerned about that action making any real sense or contributing anything to the plot. 4/10
