Nuclear Atomic Explosive
This cover isn't the one originally solicited, but it's AWESOME. The vibrant blue really makes it stand out, and the sort of electricity significantly intensifies the impact. It compliments the central focus of Firestorm as nothing more than a skeleton with key marks of his costume. It's really quite intense.
Dan Jurgens' artwork is definitely at one of its higher points on this series. He tends to reuse a lot of fight poses, especially in the air, but it wasn't too noticeable this issue unless you've been reading a lot of Jurgens lately. The facial expressions are excellent, and the energy combat looks pretty spectacular.
Now that Jason and Ronnie are one when they become Firestorm, this is exactly the kind of unique story they needed. Someone else has taken over the Firestorm body, and he's mad with power. Not an outright villain, but definitely right on the road to becoming one. This is a bit more of a treat for Captain Atom readers, as Megala spent the whole run on the road to villainy. It's really intriguing to see the changes wrought by those 13 issues on both Megala and Atom himself. Atom has certainly become more detached after his time on the moon, and you can see it in both the artwork and his dialogue.
The two of them kind of take over the issue, as the arc title suggests, and engage in their inevitable brawl while Ronnie and Jason attempt to wrest control back. It's intriguing to see Firestorm and Captain Atom treated with the proper severity. The two of them have abilities on such a huge scale, but they don't always get treated as such. And when they go toe-to-toe it leads to an epic climax with some shocking ramification.
In Conclusion: 4/5
This issue is certainly all over the place in terms of guest stars, but for someone following those other tales like myself, this issue is a huge delight. There are big things set in motion from this issue, and I think Firestorm's about to heat up to quite a strong intensity soon.
