King in Black: Atlantis Attacks

Atlantis Attacks #1-5

by Greg Pak, Ario Anindito (Illustrator), Robert Gill (Illustrator)

The armies of ATLANTIS face ATLAS in a showdown destined to shake allegiances and break hearts! AMADEUS CHO, SILK, WAVE, SHANG-CHI, and all the heroes of the Atlas have bonded with each other after the challenges of WAR OF THE REALMS. But when a terrible secret incurs the wrath of KING NAMOR, who's the true friend -- and who's the true enemy? A titanic tale of love and betrayal, heroes and monsters, gods and underdogs -- plus the shocking return of JIMMY WOO and the original AGENTS OF ATLAS!

COLLECTING: ATLANTIS ATTACKS (2020) 1-5

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Marvel, Superheroes, Graphic Novels Comics, Ebooks, Fiction

112 pages, Paperback

First published July 20, 2021

About the author

Greg Pak is an award-winning Korean American comic book writer and filmmaker currently writing "Lawful" for BOOM and "Sam Wilson: Captain America" (with Evan Narcisse) for Marvel. Pak wrote the "Princess Who Saved Herself" children's book and the “Code Monkey Save World” graphic novel based on the songs of Jonathan Coulton and co-wrote (with Fred Van Lente) the acclaimed “Make Comics Like the Pros” how-to book. Pak's other work includes "Planet Hulk," "Darth Vader," "Mech Cadet Yu," "Ronin Island," "Action Comics," and "Magneto Testament."

Reviews

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was OK but nowhere near the jaw-dropping spectacular it clearly wished it was. In this mini-series. Marvel's new Agents of Atlas find themselves teamed-up with the original Agents of Atlas in a war with Atlantis.

Well, I say 'war'; it was a couple of skirmishes at best, really, and the original Agents were woefully underused; it was hardly worth them being there, to be honest.

It didn't help that the final issue of this mini got dragged into King in Black for no good reason.

My next book: Moominvalley in November

[Dimitris Papastergiou · Rating 2 out of 5]

Unfortunately, I'm going to go ahead and tell you not to read this one.

Unless you're a hardcore Amadeus Cho fan (doubtful) this one will do nothing to help you with the King in Black event, or even with the title, which is "Atlantis Attacks" but sadly, has no invasion happening here, no war, no nothing. It's just Amadeus and his team, Agents of Atlas, and Namor fighting back and forth while threatening each other to start a war etc.

A chore to read, all the while nothing happens and it has nothing to do with Knull at all, unless you count the last page?! Gimme a break. Too many unimportant characters that nobody likes with a simple plot and mediocre dialogue.

Great artwork!

[Chris Lemmerman · Rating 3 out of 5]

While this is billed as a King In Black tie-in, King In Black has nothing to do with this book until the last few pages of the last issue. It's actually a follow-up to the last few Agents Of Atlas series, as the city of Pan comes under attack by dragons and Namor.

This one's kind of like Agents Of Atlas: Civil War more than King In Black. Greg Pak brings back all the characters we've already seen as well as the original Agents Of Atlas too in a conflict that has them all fighting each other as well as the bad guys. It's not a bad idea, but there were already so many characters involved that some of them get lost in the shuffle. If your name's not Amadeus Cho, there's not a whole lot of substance here unfortunately.

The pencils are shared between Ario Anindito and Robert Gill, both of whom are fine. Gill can sometimes be really impressive and other times kind of bland, and I think in trying to mesh well with Anindito's style he loses a bit of what makes him unique.

This is a fun book, especially if you've already been reading this new iteration of the Agents through War Of The Realms, Pandemonium, and now here. If you're here just for King In Black you'll be disappointed, though. Bad marketing, Marvel.

[Craig · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't know what this has to do with the King in Black storyline, but it's another one of those "everyone fights each other because of a stupid misunderstanding" storylines, stretched out over 5 issues. There are so many characters to keep track of that they each get a tag every time they appear. The art isn't terrible, but what was the point of all this nonsense, really?

[Mr. Cody · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mostly dull

[Alan · Rating 1 out of 5]

Whereas I was possibly rating Aquaman too high, I really don't feel guilty about this rating. By the end of this mini-event series I felt like everything good that had been done in Pak's run on the new Agents of Atlas series was lost. Both characterization, and then having to toss in a war with Namor, Atlantis, and others under the sea to try and make this feel important.

Arguably Agents of Atlas had two goals to highlight Marvel's diversity with an emphasis on its Asian characters and to use new characters to try and build interest in the Asian market (example: the new characters were from South Korea, Hong Kong, the Philippines). I'm for diversity, hell I admit to a guilty pleasure being DC Comics' Global Guardians.

But, by the end most of these new characters felt like tokenism, and any work that was starting to be done with existing characters, say Amadeus Cho feels tossed in the garbage when this attack is done.

Yeah, by the end not a fan.

[Dakota Morgan · Rating 2 out of 5]

First things first: it's odd that Namor gets two King in Black tie-ins (see: Namor) when he's in King in Black for all of three pages.

The other Namor book is better, in any case. In Atlantis Attacks, the pan-Asian city of Pan has angered Namor, so he attempts to exact his revenge. Tables are repeatedly turned. Incidents are resolved, just as wounds are re-opened. It's honestly head-spinning. It certainly doesn't help that two Agents of Atlas teams appear in the book - all told, there are maybe 20 named heroes? If you have to provide character introductions in every issue, you might have too many characters.

The artwork is decent and most of the action is fun, but tracking the narrative twists and turns is too demanding for a Marvel event tie-in that doesn't even bother to reference the main event.

[Anthony · Rating 5 out of 5]

Namor proves once again why he is such a formidable foe in the Marvel Universe. With the weight of an entire kingdom at his back, the King of Atlantis showcases the terror of the sea against the forces of ATLAS. This team of heroes must not only contend with Namor but with a shady backer of their work, and the incredible artwork and focus on one of the most needed yet unexplored corners of the Marvel Universe makes this a truly fantastic book.

[Jason Tanner · Rating 2 out of 5]

This has nothing to do with King in Black. I don't care, mind you, but that needs to be stated. This is one of those bullshit marketing things where they slap a crossover title on a book that's on the bubble in the hopes of a sales bump. It's cynical, but at least we got some closure on the New Agents of Atlas and the Pan story.

And that's what I came for. The AoA book was interesting enough to me that I wanted to follow up. The story itself was... okay. Namor's mad at the surface world again and he once again proves himself to be overly emotional and easily manipulated by anyone with a three-digit IQ.

There really wasn't much time for characterization, which kind of sucks for an ensemble book like this. It was mostly the Cho and Namor Show, with a little Silk and Wave thrown in. Nobody else really mattered, except Jimmy Woo.

And Jimmy Woo did not come off well in this book. Unfortunately, I don't think anyone but Jeff Parker really understands the Agents of Atlas and their mission. Woo is not a "stand in the shadows" guy. He's a field agent. Yes, he's in charge of a giant secret organization, but he's still a man of action, and that didn't translate in this book.

But it's fine. Everything worked out, more or less.

I was a huge fan of the Parker AoA serieses. But I'm pretty done with the concept now, unless someone figures out how to bring the magic back.

[Cheeno · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really appreciate Wave taking a prominent role in this series. However, the conflict raised in this series doesn't make any sense. It's trying to be a a huge deal but it should not have been in the first place. Amadeus is suppossedly a genius but he can't figure out that Mike Nguyen is the cause of all these and an annoyingly stupid character too. Or maybe just poorly conceived because whatever he did raises tons of economic issues that should not have been that unchallenged. If he's part of a bigger conspiracy then fine. But acting on his own? Then he turned to an evil hypocrite then back to good. Then Amadeus blamed himself! I understand some point of Nguyen, him telling about things not black and white, but it's poorly executed. Choose your motivations, man.
I enjoyed the amount of characters here and the interactions of Silk and Amadeus. I think the main conflict should have been planned well. The dilemma didn't really feel like a dilemma. Amadeus could have just captured Nguyen for all of it. I'm not even convinced that the Sirenas planted the chip.
The art here is better especially with some facial expressions of Namor. The cover art, drawn mostly by Rock-Je Kim and Carlo Pagulayan and colored by different artists, is really good.

[Chad · Rating 2 out of 5]

First of all, this has nothing to do with King in Black, this was one of those casualties of the Pandemic that got this reshuffled to a miniseries and two King in Black pages tacked onto the last two pages of the miniseries. It's a continuation of Agents of Atlas with the New Agents of Atlas confronting the old ones and everyone trying to stop a war from breaking out between Atlantis and Pan. It's OK. It's really an Amadeus Cho book because he's the only one that gets much screen time. Some of the Agents don't even get named in this. This feels really disjointed though and it's pretty clear this suffered from a bunch of last minute reworking.

[Dallas Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this once for Agents of Atlas continuity and now I just finished rereading it for Namor continuity!

Amazing how well this short little epic works from all angles!

As a huge Amadeus Cho fan, this feels like a must read!
As a new Namor fan, I really enjoy seeing how he's adapted more recently. The way he reflects on his past behavior and tries to be clever with how to function and guide others as a King stand out here.
The pacing of his action is incredibly badass in this book!

Love seeing Wave's story continued from her solo series too!

Shocking how short it is and how quality it still manages to be!

[Caleb M. · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 ⭐

I was hoping for more Sword Master as I was enjoying those comics and it directed this to me next.

Not very much Sword Master.

That being said, this wasn't bad. But it was your typical every day superhero story. I could see this working well on screen a la Avengers, but it just didn't read that great.

I will say that I very much enjoyed Amadeus Cho and Namor. Those are 2 very cool characters in this story. Obvious standouts. In fact, my interest in Namor shot through the roof after this.

But as a singular story I just can't really say I was super invested.

[Sesana · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not great. The storyline is kind of boring, and out of the big cast used here, only Amadeus and Wave get anything like a focus. I guess it serves as an on the page exit from Agents of Atlas for Amadeus, and to show that Namor is more or less sane again, but that's about it. It's billed as a King in Black tie in, but it isn't really. Sure, the last page sort of vaguely gestures towards the event, but that's it.

[Michael Rivas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Surprising a lot of action and political deception. The deception kept me interested and the action was almost on every page. Again, I’m a DC guy so there were new characters here I never knew where in the marvel world like the entire world on “Pan” but overall this wasn’t as awful as others. This was a prequel to another king in black issue.

[Sebastián · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this expecting to see something related to King in Black and... I got what I wanted!!! The thing is... It was in the last page of the last issue. The rest of the story was just dull. And namor is such a shitty character btw

[Fuuma · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am. So confused. But it was very readable and I liked the characters? And the plot was like, consistent in a totally inconsistent way? But wow did it feel like coming into a show at the season finale.

[Meri · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF

[Daniel Butcher · Rating 3 out of 5]

Scratches head…well that has nothing to do with the King in Black.

I don’t like Jimmy being seen as less than honorable and I prefer the classic agents to the new ones.

[Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not completely related to the King in Black event.

[Corey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Too quick and dirty. I wanted more characters, more story, more relationship building, just more.

[Brian · Rating 1 out of 5]

Nothing to do with King in Black.

[Kory · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great storyline leading into King in Black. I need to read more Amadeus Cho comics to see how he got here. Plenty of Asian superheroes to check out.

Loved Namor in this too.

[Rocky Sunico · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wasn't quite sure why someone decided another Atlantis Attacks story was needed. Maybe people just enjoy making Namor act really douchey. And this book was a prime example of that.

This is a continuation of the plot elements established in the Agents of Atlas series with the consequences of imprisoning an Atlantean dragon to be used as a power source. In this case, it means you get a very angry king attacking the surface world city of Pan. And apparently, the collection of mostly Asian heroes is not enough to stand up to the full forces of Atlantis.

This was a weird little side-adventure that is part of the lead-up to the King in Black story, although how is not immediately evident apart from a reference to a king made at the end of the book. There were some interesting fights but a lot of messy action and perhaps too many characters in one book for things to make sense. Heck, I don't even really know what Shang Chi's contribution was to all this.