Atrocitus Avoids Explanation
Ok, there's no denying that this is a particularly awesome cover. Not my favorite, but I have to appreciate the intensity and the balance. The only problem is that it doesn't reflect the events of the issue whatsoever. Yes, Bleez is on Earth, but her role in this issue is entirely passive. She's an observer who takes little to no action herself. It's RANKORR who actually does stuff on Earth, and nothing even near that major.
This issue comes so close to FINALLY being that one issue that begins to turn this series around. The artwork is intense with actually fluid action, and even Dex-Starr doesn't look as off as usual. And the pacing for this issue is actually quite solid, especially Rankorr's long overdue return to Earth and Dex-Starr's much appreciated and quite amusing side-story. And I love what Atrocitus is doing, I just wish it made a damn lick of sense.
I'm so happy Dex-Starr got some focus again, even if it was just for a short tangent, though one that might come back to bite them in the ass. And Rankorr is finally getting some development again as he returns to Earth to confront the source of his rage, to a lesser extent his asshole brother, but mostly the killer of his grandfather. We get to see what's happened to the people he left behind in his sudden journey into space. Rankorr tries to dig back into the true meaning of rage AGAIN, but in a way I kind of have to appreciate the way he's succumbing to the version of rage Atrocitus preaches. This series has spent far too long wallowing over the same moral quandary, and it's time to see it lean into arguably the darker choice.
And then there's Atrocitus. I think the idea of him recruiting the weapon of the object of his rage in order to fight The Third Army and their masters, the former masters of the Manhunters, is utterly delicious irony. It's just that the process makes no sense repeatedly. Atrocitus declares that what he's seeing is not a hallucination.... and then two panels later realizes this is a 'dream'. BECAUSE THAT'S SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT? And it's the dream of..... some.... random... skeletal bug thing buried underground RIGHT in front of him? Aaaaand killing that thing that might have already been dead anyways suddenly made the real Manhunters appear. So then Atrocitus goes back into angry mode and contemplates whether or not this is a good idea, something he would've done by this point, but of course he has to remember the events of the past two issues so we can have an editor's note REMIND US THAT HIS RECOLLECTION IS FROM THE PAST TWO ISSUES. And then after he activates them they all obliterate him for some reason I have no idea.
In Conclusion: 2/5
There was a lot of nice stuff in Rankorr's story and especially the side story of Dex-Starr, and I even like the direction Atrocitus' section is taking. It's just that the main story with Atrocitus continuously avoids explaining ANYTHING. It skips along at its own admittedly smooth pacing without bothering to justify any single bizarre plot point that drives it along. I could FOLLOW the story, it's just that it keeps baffling me at how it moves along. There were FAR too many nonsensical plot points whose confusion were completely ignored for me to give this any higher a score despite loving certain parts of it.
