There must be a thing with comic book writers named Kevin, where they have their characters chatter incessantly about Catholic guilt or clown sodomy, or how the human race is still worth saving despite all it’s hateful flaws.  Oddly enough, the latter wasn’t the main part of the two-page spread of dialogue this time; Adam and his wife, Candace, rush needed character and chemical development between the two, right before things start getting good.

There are indeed some good moments in this issue. The first one, and where the issue finally starts to pick up, is when Adam goes one-on-one with Sentry, in a brawl to decide who truly deserves to be Marvel’s premiere Superman “parallel.” (There is one part in particular that had me laughing heartily at the Sentry’s expense, but I won’t spoil it for you.) The second is when Adam utilizes his physics know-how and Avengers-level resources in old-school comic book fashion that team books are painfully missing nowadays. (Meanwhile, Reed stretches around and shoots the bad guy with a big gun.) This in turn leads to Anti-Man losing his thrift-market Galactus hat, exposing his head/hair that is similar to when Johnny Storm’s flamed on, only on an atomic (and therefore cooler) level; really, that hat was dumb and I’m glad it ultimately discarded.

The final good point of this issue was the end itself, and the fate of Adam. Last month I was curious about where Adam’s place was in the days of the Dark Reign, and now we may soon have an answer. Or later. Point is – if I may drop a critical spoiler on everyone – Adam stood alive and triumphant after all the (atomic) dust had settled. I’m hopeful that he will eventually have a prominent place in the Marvel Universe, and will get the time in the spotlight and thick of action that he deserves.

In Conclusion: this series was hindered by a lot of things – Grevioux’s bantering, art that only works during action, an era of the Marvel U that people preferred not to stay in any longer than was needed – but the bigger picture still managed to keep me going up until the end, as well leaving me interested in the future of the Blue Marvel.