Thursday, February 27, 2025

I swear I never see all four issues of this in the same quarter bin, because I'd absolutely buy it so I could be sure: from 1983, Sword of the Atom #3, "Mourning's End" Written by Jan Strnad, art by Gil Kane. (Kane also has a co-editing credit, with Dick Giordano; I wonder how he finagled that.)
The title refers to both plot threads this issue: Ray Palmer was still stuck at six-inches tall in a South American jungle, and was currently preparing the rebel army to attack the city Morlaidh. Ray had managed to not get killed by the archer Voss, and makes him second in command; since the rebel leader Taren had been blinded, and expected to die soon. And does, sacrificing himself to an ant swarm rather than let Ray risk his life defending him. This does free up Princess Laethwen to go after Ray, since life in the jungle was uncertain, and they didn't have time to wait.
Meanwhile, back in Ivy Town, Ray's ex-wife Jean Loring has buried the body that had been identified as Ray's, from his ring: she was a good enough lawyer, to know that was circumstantial evidence at best. Actually, it's less good lawyering than good old-fashioned spite that leads her to the right conclusion: Jean figures it would be "just like him, too" if he were to turn up alive now. The nerve! She heads to South America, where she may find some answers before the end of the series.
Posted by googum at 5:00 AM
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5 comments:

Mr. Morbid said...

If you’re interested, I see that Amazon has a Sword of the Atom trade for sale, collecting all 4 issues & 3 specials:
https://www.amazon.com/Sword-Atom-Jan-Strnad/dp/140121553X

I honestly didn’t know that era was collected in trade, so that’s certainly good to know. I definitely have a fondness for this era of Ray’s, especially since it directly leads to the Roger Stern ongoing & I REALLY enjoy that particular era as well.

Just going off how she’s portrayed here, I REALLY don’t see what Ray saw in Jean. Maybe he didn’t mind her being a type A personality and probably being the dominant partner & personality in their relationship? Idk, but we all know she somehow morphed into a crazy villain with a warped way of getting Ray back in her life in Identity Crisis. I wonder if all that’s been retconned away in the last couple reboots or not.

6:15 AM
H said...

She was actually a pretty typical ‘superhero girlfriend’ up until the late 70’s, when she got kidnapped (and possibly tortured- been a while since I read that storyline). This was way after the last regular Atom series so she barely appeared between then and Sword of the Atom, but she was about here when she did.

3:38 PM
H said...

I see this miniseries in sets pretty regularly for a decent price (not the specials though- got to go singles for those). It’s definitely one of the better reinventions DC did around this time. Don’t get the third special though- it’s terrible and really is there to kill everyone but Ray off and get him back to civilization.

The reason Gil Kane got the co-editor credit was the whole thing was his idea. He pitched the barbarian Atom concept and I believe even did the basic outline Jan Strnad used to write the series. That’s probably why the third special is so bad- Kane didn’t have anything to do with it.

4:28 PM
Mr. Morbid said...

I know there’s a Silver Age story in the Atom/Hawkman buddy series where Jean goes evil for the first time. I’m guessing that might’ve helped open the door for her heel turn in IC.

6:07 PM
Mr. Morbid said...

Well that explains that. I definitely can verify seeing a copy/excerpt of Kane’s proposal in an article in Wizard or somewhere similar, maybe CBR? Even though it wasn’t destined to last, for obvious reasons, it was still a fun experiment that actually worked, especially to Ray’s strengths.

6:10 PM

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