“Captain Atom” was one of those DC New 52 titles that really needed to blow me away to keep me on board for more than one issue. Not only did it not blow me away, it turned out to be a drab and almost laborious read. J.T. Krul tries writing a story that both introduces us to a character and makes us care about his plight but I found it hard to invest in Captain Atom or his story. We get a sequence in the middle of the book that introduces us to the supporting characters working in a hidden research facility in Kansas. It’s here that we find out that Captain Atom’s powers are endangering his life. But these scenes don’t pack any punch and these side characters aren’t that interesting. The issue starts and ends with flat, drawn-out monologues that don’t help the almost lifeless story. And then there’s the dialogue. It’s not that it’s poorly written, but at times it feels more like a college nuclear physics lecture than a comic book story. It just didn’t work for me.

Perhaps even worse than the story is the scraggly, borderline ugly art from Freddie Williams, II. There was very little that I found appealing about the look of this issue. Neither Captain Atom nor any of the supporting characters look particularly good with Dr. Megala looking especially bad. The opening and closing action sequences are visually flat and are seemingly void of any attention to detail. The story really needed the art to pick it up and stand out. Unfortunately the book looks worse than it reads.

There’s just not much positive I can say about “Captain Atom” #1. It fails to create an interesting character worth investing in and it certainly doesn’t look like the kind of title that can sustain an ongoing monthly series. Captain Atom and his particularly cool powers should make for an interesting book but Krul never cashes in on it. He’s not helped by very sub-par art that only brings down the book more. I was hoping this would be one of those surprise titles from DC’s New 52. That’s certainly not the case.