Posted in: Comics, Recent Updates | Tagged: Comics, Dynamite Entertainment, entertainment, Frank Barbiere, joe bennett, Solar: Man Of The Atom

The Science of Superheroes in Solar: Man Of The Atom – Plus Preview

Published Sun, 20 Apr 2014 10:00:00 -0500

by Hannah Means Shannon

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Solar: Man of the Atom debuted this week from Dynamite Entertainment, written by the stellar Frank Barbiere with art by Joe Bennett. With it, Barbiere updates a Gold Key character and navigates bringing a classic hero into the modern era, with some big twists in exactly who the hero is going to be early on in the narrative as well as a much bigger jump into science-fiction than fans might be expecting. Here are some of Barbiere's thoughts about the comic:

On Updating Science

We live in a very different landscape now, and nuclear power has a lot of new problems and stories attached to it. We very much do want the story to reflect the real world in that nature–and not to make light of the dangerous times we live in, but it almost re-ignites that interest…as with the 60's, this was all new territory, and now we know the all too real dangers.

On Creating a New Solar

I really thought that Solar had been a very insular character and story in most of its inceptions. I wanted to open up the scope of it, to see how his change would affect a family unit, rather than just Phil. I think family conflict is very relatable as well, and goes a long way to humanizing a character who has near limitless power and brings the story down to a more personal level.

On Going Beyond Superheroes Into Sci-Fi

The story will be opening up into much bigger, sci-fi locales. Part of the fun of having a character like Solar is the fact that we can take it to places that a lot of other superhero stories can't go–and definitely no one else in the current Gold Key universe. It has a lot of great potential for fun and exciting stories.

And here's some of the artwork on the book, including a preview of the first 5 pages of issue #1: