Doctor Solar Volume 1: Troublemaker

Doctor Solar, Man of the Atom

by Jim Shooter, Roger Robinson (Artist), Dennis Calero (Artist)

Empowered by a thermonuclear catastrophe, Doctor Solar commands the awesome forces of the universe. But in the aftershock of the cataclysm that created the Man of the Atom, ripples throughout space-time imbue one Whitmore Pickerel with the power to create life—which he uses to serve his selfish desires and reckless ambitions. But some of Pickerel's creations have power beyond his dreams and hungers beyond his control!

An icon of heroic fiction, Doctor Solar, Man of the Atom returns to comics, written by superstar scribe Jim Shooter and illustrated by Roger Robinson (Batman: Gotham Knights) and Dennis Calero (X-Men Noir). This volume collects issues #1–#4 of the new Doctor Solar series, plus a story from Free Comic Book Day 2010.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels

104 pages, Paperback

First published April 26, 2011

About the author

James Charles Shooter was an American writer, editor and publisher in the comics industry. Beginning his career writing for DC Comics at the age of 14, he had a successful but controversial run as editor-in-chief at Marvel Comics, and launched comics publishers Valiant, Defiant, and Broadway.

Reviews

[47Time · Rating 1 out of 5]

Even though the covers are cool, the story couldn't be less enjoyable if it tried. I managed to finish the first issue after the fourth sitting, so it's not a page turner. Later on I started to believe that it's intended as a parody of sorts. Or it might just be the author's weird sense of humor. Everything about the comic feels wrong, from the dialogue to the story twists. It's a 60's comic set in present day. I guess it's difficult to relocate a classic character to a modern setting without having everything feel forced.

Solar's powers are nice, but not well defined. It doesn't make a lot of sense for an energy manipulator to be punched around as much as he is. The 90's style foe he faces is named Leviathan. He was created by a geek named Whitmore Pickerel who simply wrote a sci-fi story about him. This power came from the same event that gave Solar his power - some lab experiment. Whitmore also created Glowtorch, a musky, improbably-bosomed martian nympho that nobody with a nose can stand to be in the same room with.

Solar warns the two to stay out of trouble, so they start to ord over their creator. After Whitmore gets rid of them by threatening to unmake them, the writer creates Susan as company during his lonely nights and as a free maid. Another creation, Moloch the Devourer, is supposed to protect him if Leviathan or Glowtorch decide to return. While Moloch is a challenge for Solar, he also turns on his master who then creates Surya the Sun God to fight him. But he bows to Moloch instead. The twists in this comic are laughable.

Moloch orders Whitmore to create an disposable army of rock creatures and sends them to wreak havok on the city. Solar has to face the stone army, Surya and Moloch, while also satisfying his teen urges and visit his crush from work, dr. Gail Sanders. She's just as immature emotionally, so they get close until Solar has to return to the fight and is joined by Leviathan and Glowtorch. The two feel they owe him for helping them get away from Whitmore. After seeing Gail, Solar is suddenly focused enough that it's a walk in the park to defeat Moloch and Surya. He has Whitmore promise to never write again.

[Adrian J. · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book has gotten a lot of undeserved flak. It isn't great - even by Shooter standards. But it isn't awful. I really liked Leviathan and Glow, and think I would have liked Solar more... except I felt as though the writer and editors just expected readers to have some basic knowledge of Solar from his previous incarnations.

Good, not great, and certainly not as bad as half the internet claims.

[Sean Goh · Rating 3 out of 5]

CampyAF, but the doctor has cool powers. Which are so poorly defined he seems to up his power level to match the situation. But fun ride nonetheless, especially due to Leviathan and Glow.

[David Cordero · Rating 3 out of 5]

Awesome storytelling by one of the greats. Jim Shooter is a living legend.

[ReyReyPod · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very fun...always good to see Solar in action against other big hitters

[Artur Coelho · Rating 3 out of 5]

Há pouco de inovador ou intrigante no género dos comics de super-heróis. Trocam-se as cores dos uniformes e as iconografias, modifica-se o gravitas da personagem, mas fundamentalmente é tudo similar. É aí que reside o seu encanto, um género de cultura popular previsível e mutável dentro de estreitos limites do expectável. Uma versão literária do hamburguer gastronómico. Apesar de limitado e estereotipado, o género tem espaço para inventividade que nas mãos de alguns autores se traduz em voos quase psicadélicos, ou impactos de estranheza que se entranham na cultura popular.

Doctor Solar, Man of the Atom é um personagem clássico da era atómica. Na sua primeira encarnação, era um banal super-herói cujos poderes lhe foram concedidos por um acidente atómico. Mas às mãos do veterano Jim Shooter, numa das periódicas reinvenções que estes personagens sofrem com a evolução dos detentores dos seus direitos de autor, transformou-se em algo... interessante.

Shooter actualiza o mito original com uma boa dose de pseudo-ciência com fortíssimos toques de ficção científica. Nesta encarnação, da existência do personagem depende a existência do universo, os seus poderes manifestam-se na manipulação das forças físicas elementares e o obrigatório arqui-inimigo funciona como uma espécie de anti-partícula negativa oposta à força positiva de Solar.

O acidente provocado por sabotagem que transforma o ambicioso físico Dr. Solar num super-ser destrói o universo. Num esforço de busca por fontes de energia limpa, uma equipe de investigação prepara-se para criar e estabilizar um mini buraco negro, mas a morte acidental de um sabotador torna o buraco impossível de conter e arrasta o incauto cientista. Arrastado para o horizonte de acontecimentos do buraco, morre em nano-segundos, mas no interior do buraco o tempo estende-se até ao infinito. Num segundo muito longo, os restos da sua consciência percebem como manipular as forças físicas elementares e reconstituem o corpo... e com isso todo o universo. Com algumas anomalias, para a coisa ficar interessante.

A premissa elementar de Doctor Solar é que a consciência humana se manifesta pela manipulação de campos quânticos elementares cujo efeito pode sobreviver à aniquilação da sua fonte. Pois. A extraordinária ciência dos comics. A reconstituição do corpo de Solar pelos restos quânticos da sua consciência salva, literalmente, o universo e dota-o de poderes sobre as partículas elementares. O que é útil: deixa de precisar de telemóveis para comunicar, transforma-se em ondas de radiação, manipula directamente os bits digitais embora continue a sentar-se frente ao ecrã porque, enfim, há metáforas irredutíveis.

O seu arqui-inimigo é um homem sinistro, rico e poderoso, que pretende refazer o mundo à sua imagem e que adquire poderes equivalentes aos de Solar através de uma recriação digital hiper-realista do colapso do buraco negro. Leram bem. Recriar uma simulação confere poderes na realidade. Interpretação divertida das teorias sobre universos holográficos.

Talvez os mais intrigantes adversários de Solar sejam criaturas incompletas saídas da imaginação de um escritor sem talento. Personificações dos estereótipos do género, são forçados pela forma como foram descritos a agir conforme o previsto por argumentos mal escritos. Uma brincadeira bem humorada com os limites e os hábitos do género dos comics.

Sem ultrapassar os limites estereotipados do género, Doctor Solar é uma leitura divertida com um toque pseudo-científico que insufla ficção científica na nostalgia da era atómica.

[Travis · Rating 1 out of 5]

How did the guy who got Solar so right for Valiant get nearly everything wrong this time?

Art was uneven, characterization felt off on so much of the cast, and a big rape scene in the second issue, in case we didn't figure out the bad guy was evil made me feel that this attempt at re-imagining the Gold Key heroes crashing so in a year was a mercy rather than a sad event.

Text book example of how to get a great character wrong. Maybe it was Shooter trying too hard not to repeat himself, but this was painfully bad.