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Vol 1 Issue 1

48 Page comic included with the Atari game Defender.

Written by : Roy Thomas & Gerry Conway
Art by: Ross Andru, Dick Giordano and Mike Decarlo

A red and white clad, clearly multi ethnic team charge towards the reader under a cartoon style logo on the cover of the first Atari Force issue.

The Atari Force comics were inserted into Atari cartridges to help promote their games. Both companies were owned by Warner Bros, and you can see the change in approach that DC took when dealing with another industry.

The racial diversity used here to promote a truly global team, while trying to attract as many customers as possible, is at odds with the difficulties DC had in introducing any diversity in its own comics over decades. Those characters that were introduced were clumsy, often offensive, stereotypes. Yet Atari Force moves beyond this effortlessly, making you wonder about the target markets for DC as well as its editorial & commercial stances.

Neil Pozner’s design skills also deserve special mention here, as you can see the difference his approach has made in the packaging of the book.

The splash page shows the phallic NorthCal Atari research & development building reaching into the Californian sky in 2005(1).

As a darkly clad intruder(2) breaches the security perimeter of the Atari building, we learn that there has been a 5 day war and that California has broken up. As she talks to herself, we learn about Project: Multiverse(3).

Forty thousand kilometres above, Martin Champion(4) saves the personnel module of a vital solar energy platform from disaster. As Doctor Orion bandages Champion’s wounds, both are summoned by assistant director Perez to the Northcal facility. The issue: Project Multiverse. Perez is cool towards Champion’s assumption of an old friendship.

As the pair return to earth we see a flashback to a moon colony established in the later 1990s(5). NASA, disbanded by Champion’s time, had just begun to receive materials using a mass accelerator, when an attack wiped out most of the personnel and facilities(6). Champion and Perez flew a rescue mission to the moon, but as they waited for their own relief, war broke out on Earth between the US and an unnamed enemy with a faltering economy(7).

Champion and Orion meet Perez and as they travel to the Northcal facility we learn about Orion’s past as a medic with the also now ended United Nations, and the futility he felt over the endless combat(8).

As the three enter the Atari Institute, Perez informs Champion & Orion that Project: Multiverse may offer solutions to the world’s problems. Behind them, our intruder slips in undetected behind Perez’s jeep(9).

DC certainly put a lot of effort and talent into creating a believable near future world to support the type of games produced by Atari. Thomas and Conway were top writers at the time. While later Atari Force issues would have Garcia-Lopez art, Andru and Giordano are excellent here, bringing believability to locations from central Africa to the moon.

Atari Force aren’t super heroes and they aren’t necessarily adventurers in this first appearance. They are very capable people trying to help a destabilised world. Atari Force shows that there's much more to heroism than a costume and some derivative superpowers.

Champion is a former football player and later astronaut with the right stuff mentality. Orion has used his medical skills selflessly in both the UN and in Atari’s medical research space station. Perez is an engineer with project and pilot skills. These are well developed characters who have pasts, flaws and tensions between them.

The flashbacks that show much of the character backgrounds are informative, segue nicely between travelling downtime scenes and are triggered by current events. They still slow the pace down thankfully occurring towards the end of the issue, just before a final scene leading onto the next issue/cartridge.

The comic itself doesn’t seem to have direct ties with the Defender game. The original idea was to have the team confront an enemy that would tie into each of the game releases, in a more standard comic book approach. This was felt to be too clichéd, and allowed Atari Force to stand out as something quite different.

Notes:
1 – When politics and military action fail, it’s comforting that the fresh ideas from the people who create video games will be there for us, in the form of the Atari Institute. I’ve always liked this. Why should Atari settle for anything less in their world? Besides, we could have done a lot worse.
2 – Our intruder has a definite Irish feel to her language. It has its ups and downs but is still much better than the Legion’s Devlin O’Ryan a decade later.
3 – The Multiverse would become a rather important part of DC only a few years later in Crisis. While comics had been bouncing between alternate worlds for decades, Atari Force made it the central concept in a book.
4 – I’ve never liked Champion as an adventurer’s surname. It’s a little obvious.
5- Seeing even a basic lunar colony in a comic as late as the early 1980s shows just how much belief in the US space programme was still evident at the time.
6- Atari Force keeps the technology hopeful, but fairly hard sci-fi compared to the likes of the Legion. At least in the first issue.
7 – The presumably Soviet enemy isn’t named. Why alienate a target market?
8- Just Imagine the Justice League looking down at another atrocity and then continuing their fight to maintain the status quo. The concepts behind Atari Force were years ahead of Alex Ross books and the Authority.
9 – Of the four central characters seen in this first issue, there’s also gender equality too. Strong characters of various genders and races would be a very positive point throughout the Atari Force comics.

Well it's about time!

I can't wait until you get to volume 2.

"48 Page comic included with the Atari game Defender."

^ I wish amazing things like this happened more often. 48 pages! gee whiz!

And the quality of those 48 pages. DC clearly saw, or were more likely told by Warner, about the potential in crossing over into this market. The creative freedom that involved ditching the most obvious approach to tying in with the games has to be applauded too, for everyone involved.

My surprise was that I can see how DC thought Garcia Lopez was a natural replacement for Ross Andru. It's really good work here and I'm now aware of how little of Andru's work I've seen.

I read the Star Raiders graphic novel for the first time last week. So that will be following the first series, and then it's into vol 2.

Which isn't to say I can't tease about vol 2...

I actually liked the original teams costumes too, simple yet slick like the boots and belts.

wicked fierce.

I loved Atari Force! It made me a big fan of Jose Garcia Lopez. Great review. I wish I could get my hands on some of those mini comics.

Vol 1 Issue 2
48 Pages included with the Atari game Bezerk.
Written by : Roy Thomas & Gerry Conway
Art by: Ross Andru, Dick Giordano and Mike Decarlo

As with the first issue, the cover of issue two introduces the characters but seemingly little else. The space ship looks like many others and it’s not until later that readers would see its importance to the story.
Orion, Perez and Champion, along with a new character, are told the secret of Project: Multiverse as our intruder from the first issue listens above. But no sooner than we begin to learn about alternate worlds, the intruder’s heat pattern is detected.

The code for such am intrusion is “Beserk” which at least almost gets the game’s title into the storyline fairly early.
For a moment it looks as though the security alarm is going to save us from another character flashback. Unfortunately, the sirens and lights send the new character Mohandas Singh into a trance, where he relives his childhood. This flashback really interrupts the pace. Singh has reached his Atari position after being raised from poverty by a beneficent white man after an incident involving the death of his friend. The intruder felling a guard is not the only cause of a clunking noise.(1)

We return to the story nearly six pages later when the group track the almost superhumanly agile intruder to a hanger. A ship is contained within, but it is not a spaceship according to the Commander. Possibly to avoid Perez’s enmity, Champion engages the intruder in combat and loses.

The intruder is revealed to be Li San O’Rourke, Atari’s chief of security. She is conducting a field test of the security systems. Conveniently, she was due to be summoned by the director, so that she could join the others as the crew of the craft.(2) The director explains that the additional training they have all recently received in the Atari 8000(3) is to prepare them for operating the Scanner-1 ship.

On discussing the craft’s weaponry (4) O’Rourke tells Singh that “we may hope for peace, but we must be ready for war.” The ten page flashback into O’Rourke’s life moves from the Irish troubles to securing oil fields during the War(5). Although O’Rourke left the army to join Atari she has clearly killed in combat and her philosophy is markedly different from the others.

The director tells the group more about one of Atari’s key enemies in a post national world: The Co-Op. Not a socialist cooperative, but a collection of government owned multinationals who are also looking at solutions to the world’s food shortages after the war(6). It would seem the detonation of two “death bombs” has been enough to cause longer lasting damage to the eco system as well as reducing the population significantly.

Atari’s solution is to use Scanner-1 to travel to alternate dimensions. The ultimate aim is to find one suitable for colonisation.

An over-long departure, involving the ship showing the crew their posts(7), gets quotes from everyone on the craft. O’Rourke’s Irish accent finally gives up with “I’m as comfortable as a leprechaun with his own pot of gold.”
Scanner-1 shifts from the hanger and between dimensions (8). Martin Champion not only wonders about new worlds, but the reason behind Perez’s dislike of him.

There wasn’t much in the way of escalating tension in the issue(9). We had some conflict from the intruder who wasn’t and O’Rourke’s flashback. The friction in the Perez/Champion relationship flared only on a couple of occasions. The rest was essentially a build up to something that may have looked momentous on paper, but is not much of a leap for DC readers used to multiple earths. It has taken 96 pages for them to leave on their first mission.

The flashbacks are well enough written, and the characters are interesting. But they are overly long and derail the main story. Yes, we do know the characters well but that only makes some of their pre launch dialogue a little cringe worthy. Having the intruder/chief of security/war veteran say “the ship is secure” with a big smile is one example. The dialogue has a few awkward moments in this issue.

The art isn’t of the same standard in issue 2 either, but everyone is still distinctive well rendered. The poses from the combat scene are particularly well done.

New worlds await, but the readers will have to wait for the third game to be released.

1 - Having praised the title for embracing various cultures, this stereotype is a disappointment.
2- Although enemies are mentioned, not seeing any actually pose a threat takes a lot of the tension out of this issue, not to mention making the last issue something of a red herring.
3 – The Atari 2600s were available around the time of the comic and this is a nice in joke about what the future would bring. It’s also not too far away from Hal-9000.
4 – Possibly another hint at the point of the games.
5 – It’s interesting to see that securing strategic energy resources from the enemy was used here, as it would be in real conflicts.
6- The Co-Op would seem to be competitors rather than enemies since both groups are looking to achieve the same goal. The lack of their involvement, or any other real foe, takes something away from the issue.
7 – The maze like Scanner 1 may be a nod to the mazes in Bezerk.
8 – I’m expecting the first stop to be a Monitor controlled Qward, even though we’re years too early.
9 – This is something I’ll probably be coming back to.

Vol 1 Issue 3
48 Pages included with the Atari game Star Raider.

Written by : Roy Thomas & Gerry Conway
Art by: Gil Kane, Dick Giordano and Mike Decarlo

“A billion billion universes, impaled like shining pearls on an invisible string, each existing an infinitesimal heartbeat from the next.”

Scanner One, the Atari Force’s ship, moves through the layers of universes that Perez would later draw so vividly in Crisis on Infinite Earths. Here, the group travel through a sort of dimension space connecting these realities. It’s reminiscent of the later concept of the bleed used by DC.

As each of the crew reflect on the wondrous sights against their own beliefs (1), they discover they are not alone in this space between cosmoses. From a dark nebula, a vast tentacled creature grasps Scanner One (2). The crew are forced to activate their dimensional drive to escape.

They appear above a barren looking world, where remnants of technology have lain for millennia. Ozymandius is cited to describe the remains of this time worn world and a falling Icarus to describe the state of Scanner One.

The crew begin to explore (3) and encounter a Hukka (4). Scanner One tells them that certain ruins are 15 billion years old. The crew split up. One team to explore this impossibility, and the other to follow the Hukka that has adopted them.

O’Rourke states that splitting the team is a bad idea, which makes a nice change. Perez is left to facilitate repairs to their ship.

Further exploration does nothing for O’Rourke’s accent as she says “Sweet saints of old Eire!” She and Singh have discovered a space ship (5) It launches in time to dispatch two Zylon (6)ships that have attacked Champion and Orion. Interestingly Orion’s pacifism means that he would prefer to die than fight.

O’Rourke and Singh were led to a gem by the Hukka. It provides visions when pressed to the forehead.

We see the inhabitants of this world reaching out to explore space. They had met the mechanically adept Hukka, but then encountered the deadly Zylons. Their civilisation was destroyed by the Zylons before they could launch their ultimate counter weapon. The Zylons obliterated every “higher” life form on the planet. The Hukkas remained, maintaining the remaining technology over aeons, knowing that its owners would never return to claim it.(10)

Atari Force, with the exception of a surprised Orion, cry out for vengeance on the Zylons. Champion and O’Rourke depart on the Star Raider. After they destroy their first Zylon craft(7) Orion informs them that the Zylon pilots are simply empty suits. The Zylon craft are being controlled from the dark nebula where they encountered the giant octopoid horror.

The three Atari Force members, and Hukka, depart to the nebula to confront the creature they call the Dark Destroyer (8) from Scanner One. The three use a probe(11) designed to overload to detonate when it reaches the Dark Destroyer. The blast disrupts the Zylon craft that were about to destroy a beaten Champion and O’Rourke. As the pair return to the barren world they reflect on their sudden battle lust stating “Nobody ever wins at war.”

Atari Force depart the barren world (9) with the Hukka. In the Dark Nebula, the red eye of the Dark Destroyer begins to open once more.

After the slow burn of the first two issues this one has plenty of action. The book is now free from character flashbacks, and we see the fruits of them in the character relationships here. Everyone’s actions are consistent with their beliefs and skills. Everyone has a role to play in the story. The tensions between Perez and Champion surface in a friendly way to remind readers that they exist and O’Rourke gets in on all the combat.

The scope of the book is much more evident. A limitless number of worlds await exploration and with that comes an unlimited number of foes and challenges.

(1) Another example of the differing world views of the characters that helps them to stand out.
(2) Tentacled cephalopods existing outside our normal spacetime is a staple of HP Lovecraft. Conway would also have a character called Lovecraft appear in the JLA. Grant Morrison would also use this idea in his Zenith comic. Hellboy also uses this concept.
(3) Atari Force wear protective helmets and accessory laden vests when they explore. It’s good to see at least some common sense being taken for a change by comic explorers who usually seem to survive on air.
(4) Hukkas would become a link throughout the Atari Force books.
(5) A link to the Star Raiders Atari game.
(6) The Zylons are based on Battlestar Galactica and the ships are similar in design. The Star Raider has similarities to Galactica’s Vipers.
(7) The battle uses screens that are supposed to resemble the Star Raiders game.
(8) The Dark Destroyer would also feature in vol 2.
(9) This world would be the main location of the Star Raiders graphic novel.
(10) There’s a small reminder of the film Silent Running here.
(11) ATARI probes would be used again at the start of vol 2.

Great review. I hope you go on to the full sized comic as well.

Thanks Wang Lung. I'm really looking forward to vol 2 as well.

I have the first few issues of Volume 2, so I'll definitely chime in when you get to them.

That would be great. It's lovely to see the appreciation of Atari Force on LW.

I unfortunately didn't get to read the first volume. My parents wouldn’t get Atari I really wanted it just for the comics lol. But I did get the second and loved it. I think it was the book that really made me love sci-fi and lead me to the Legion. I’m pretty sure I read this before I read any Legion.