Children of the Atom by Vita Ayala, Vol. 1

Children of the Atom (2021) #1-6

by Vita Ayala, Bernard Chang (Illustrator), Paco Medina (Illustrator)

When did the X-Men get sidekicks?! Now! Don't miss the debut of the greatest teenage super hero team of all time! They've learned from the best - now they're ready to be put to the test! But who the heck are these kids, and where do they come from? Are they just drawing their inspiration from the X-Men's original lineup, or is there a deeper connection? And how will the X-Men react when this untested team of young heroes makes the scene in their name? Prepare for an action-packed adventure that propels the Dawn of X into the next generation!

COLLECTING: CHILDREN OF THE ATOM (2020) 1-6, MATERIAL FROM MARVEL VOICES (2020) 1

Genres: Comics, Marvel, X Men, Graphic Novels, Superheroes, Graphic Novels Comics, Comic Book

184 pages, Paperback

Published October 26, 2021

Reviews

[Baba · Rating 2 out of 5]

The mutants have left the building who will fil the gap? How about a tribute-band like group of teenagers with mutant / alien / science tech, sort of masquerading as mutants fighting the good fight? A core good idea but lost in execution in the too quickly developing at times jumbled Hickman X-universe. Lucky to scrape a 4.5 out of 12, Two Stars from me.

2023 read

[Scratch · Rating 1 out of 5]

This series was an abomination. It featured a bunch of self-involved teenagers obsessed with the X-Men. Of course, in this universe the X-Men are real people, so the teens are displaying unhealthy celebrity worship. The teens have varying degrees of unlikability, mostly based upon their self-involved neuroses. The writer seemed to have made the baffling choice to showcase these neuroses as something readers are supposed to like.

The teenage protagonists model themselves after some X-Men (not all the original lineup, no matter what the Goodreads blurb tries to convince you; Gambit was a fairly late addition from the early 90s). They have no connection to the X-Men whatsoever, other than simple celebrity worship. They then engage in some fairly decent fight scenes with decent artwork, but this is utterly wasted on some contemptible characters. They allow enemies and strangers alike to believe that they're mutants. In fact, one of the key subplots is that these teenagers are trying to fake their status as mutants into fooling a Krakoan gate.

A good real-world analogy would be to imagine a group of white teens liking a black celebrity rapper so much, they make the conscious decision to run around town in black face, and then try to break into his mansion.

The protagonists are pathetic at best, and villains at worst.

I will concede that the story improves a bit in the last couple issues, but that is only after an insufferably low bar. The writer was so focused on scoring woke points, hitting on all the various minority statuses within the group, that the writer just abandoned any pretense at making the story good. The writer got ME to shake my fist at the liberal agenda, and I AM A WOKE LIBERAL.

The writing and the characters were so insufferable, they made a Spanish-speaking gay Italian-Catholic, married to a part-Native gay atheist, with an adopted Latino son, feel like a Fox News commentator.

Like, there were layers to the complexity and possible offensiveness of the writer talking about minority status. If the black guy character feels the need to inform the audience, ad nauseum, that he is more than just a stereotypical black guy, is that insightful? Or just the writer operating from a framework of defensiveness that needlessly reduced a character who had the potential to be anything? If the queer writer introduces a female character who dresses in a masculine manner (that perhaps could be construed as stereotypical lesbian fashion), is it then any sort of accomplishment to "surprise" the reader with the fact this girl truly is a lesbian after all? If you introduce an asexual character, but his orientation then serves no purpose in the plot, does that count as good representation?

Is it enough just to have characters point out their minority status, even at the expense of story? At what point are you reduced to just drawing a series of individual panels of characters waving at the audience with a text box saying, "I'm tri-racial and bisexual!" with no coherent story between the panels?

[Chad · Rating 2 out of 5]

A bunch of teenagers way into mutants and cosplay find some alien tech and become superheroes. That's the entire plot. The storytelling in this is terrible. The characters' persnalities are paper thin. It's all just a bunch of pandering to current YA trends. There's also a concerted effort to beat woke attitudes into the reader at the cost of storytelling. It makes the book feel like a modern day After School Special instead of a well-written comic.

[Jason · Rating 2 out of 5]

When this series was announced I had zero interest in it based on the promos, but decided to read it to have context for the Hellfire Gala issue. The first issue was pretty rough, featuring teenage heroes with cringy names like "Cyclops-Lass" and "Daycrawler". (Of course this makes sense that teenagers would come up with terrible names, and the book even pokes fun at this a bit, but at the end of the day some of the names are still just bad whether the narrative is self-aware of it or not). The clunky heroic banter during the opening fight scene felt more like it was written by an AI that had been fed lots of comic book scripts than an actual human being.

Thankfully things did improve a bit from the first issue, but I never really felt connected to or particularly interested in any of these characters, despite them each getting a single issue where they narrated their feelings about their current life situation and place on the team. I don't know if this series was originally intended to be a mini-series or an ongoing that got canceled, but so much of the character development feels rushed, and writer Vita Ayala takes the time to set up drama between the characters (oh, one of the girls on the team is a lesbian who is in love with the leader, but she is in love with the lesbian's close male friend) and then doesn't bother to explore any of that tension. In fact, the leader of the team, Cyclops-Lass (ugh), who dresses in a traditionally non-feminine way, conveniently decides that she's suddenly bisexual and has feelings for the lesbian who is crushing on her too right as the lesbian character's feelings are brought out into the open. Of course, teenagers in particular are prone to exploration as they figure out who they want to be, but this just seemed a bit too convenient in how it immediately resolved, as if the writer was suddenly given notice of cancellation and had to wrap things up quickly and in an unsatisfying way. In several instances the author set up drama between characters but always opted to immediately resolve it rather than let it play out for a while. I do feel like some narratives drag on the drama for far too long, and that does get tiresome, but if you resolve it within moments of its introduction, then it just feels completely pointless to include it in the first place.

These characters are basically mutant wannabes who found a bunch of alien tech that all-too-conveniently happens to almost exactly mimic the powers of some of the most prominent X-Men, and so they basically run around cosplaying as their favorite X-Men and doing superheroics. There's actually some good potential here but it doesn't get explored with any particular depth due to the brief nature of the series. One of the team members discovers during the course of the story that she's actually a mutant after all, which results in a bit of drama and jealousy between some of the other team members, but again, this is resolved so quickly and neatly that it doesn't serve much purpose other than to give one of the team members a legitimate excuse to attend the Hellfire Gala just so this series can tie into that over-arching event. The series doesn't even go into any detail about what her power is. We just see a visually confusing sequence where it first manifests and then a couple characters refer to it as a shapeshifting power, but we never actually see the power depicted.

It's just as well that this was a mini-series, because based on this volume I don't think I'd have continued with it anyway. The art is handled by a variety of artists and varies in quality a bit, but nothing in the book struck me as amazing or horrendous--it was all competent enough, but nothing really stood out much.

[Brian Garthoff · Rating 1 out of 5]

Children of the Atom is mostly poop. It gets worse as it goes, the characters are all one note and predictable and then it tries to have a message about identity at the end and that feels incredibly forced and bad. This was a book that got delayed but should’ve just been cancelled. There’s nothing additive for fans of x-men and we’ll probably never hear from these characters again.

[Jason · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.25
This title really impressed me, and I was prepared to not like it. It looked gimicky. But it was actually very fresh and interesting. The social issues were timely and handled very well. But more importantly, the characterization was really great. I hope they show up again...somewhere.

[Chris Lemmerman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Teens who look up to the X-Men attempt to follow in their footsteps, only to discover that playing at being a mutant is a dangerous game. There's some good groundwork laid here for what I assume was meant to be a longer story, but instead it all feels a little truncated.

There's a spotlight issue for each character, just in time for the whole book to try and wrap up AND tie into the Hellfire Gala in the final one. It's a lot at once, and given how long it took for the book to come out at all, I'm actually surprised they bothered. While it's good fun, it does feel slightly inconsequential, and I doubt we'll see half of these characters again any time soon.

Artists Bernard Chang and Paco Medina tag team the book for the most part; they're not entirely suitable partners, but both of them thrive on clean visuals, so it's not too much of a problem.

Good ideas stifled by a shortened length and an inadequate amount of page space to really tie-up everything that was laid down. See also, X-Factor. Sigh.

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

This isn't outright terrible, though I do wonder why it exists. Who are these people? How did they get their "powers?" What part do they have to play in the Marvel Universe? None of these questions are very well explained in this six-issue series that has the loosest of ties to Jonathan Hickman's X-renaissance. The artwork's not bad. The characters seem like people who'd be friends of Miles Morales. But in the end, it just doesn't add up...

[TJ · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a ride! Great characters who are diverse. The commentary is interesting. I can’t recommend this enough! 5/5 stars and a new favorite graphic novel.

[Alex Sarll]

It probably doesn't help that I only recently read the original Young Avengers, and this is in many respects a retread, with characters who look like junior versions of various X-Men, but are soon revealed as something else altogether. The problems go beyond an accident of timing, though. That revelation, for instance, where I suppose I should gesture faintly towards a spoiler warning, even though it's blatantly obvious within the first issue, not least because the characters will...will all pause and stutter, or once even "ahem", to flag when they're not being entirely honest. And where it's never even really given a big unveil, the comic just gives up on the half-arsed misdirection once it's clear we've all grasped the situation anyway. Namely: these kids aren't mutants at all.

Now, there are potentially interesting stories in that, not least because in the Krakoan era, mutants have flipped from oppressed minority to global (and beyond) power. Questions over whether that affects what behaviour counts as legitimate enthusiasm, and when that tips into appropriation. Glimmers of which do make it through, but for the most part the characters' behaviour doesn't feel like a slippery slope so much as them acting in ways which are fine; fine; fine; entirely and obviously unacceptable. Likewise the reaction when, in an admittedly nice twist on the squandered initial twist, one of the kids finds out they are a mutant after all.

Trapped in all this, not to mention some unhelpful storytelling choices like the flashback which looks far too similar to the present, there are some potentially interesting characters. Yeah, in places they feel a bit like one small team is trying to tick every possible diversity box, but fuck it, that's the urban youth of today. And the costumes at the Hellfire Gala are divine. For the most part, though, it's a reminder that even the revitalised X-office has its off days.

[Dakota Morgan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Children of the Atom is the epitome of forgettable and skippable. A handful of teens find alien armor and pretend to be mutant superheroes, somehow baffling the X-Men, who are like, "We gotta keep these teenz safe until we can figure out why they can't get into Krakoa." The whole "are they actually mutants?" piece is teased out confusingly, so it's completely unclear for the majority of this volume just what's going on.

Vita Ayala focuses the majority of her attention on the individual characters, with each one narrating an issue. It's generally okay, but this writing style makes Children of the Atom feel like a low-budget volume of Ms. Marvel or Champions. At least the art is decent in the back half. I'd be surprised, though, if any of these characters ever show up again, as Children of the Atom offers absolutely nothing to the Hickman-verse.

[Clint · Rating 3 out of 5]

This has a much different premise than I expected, especially the source of these kids’ powers, but pleasantly so in how it shows another unique angle to Krakoa. The dialogue is very touchy-feely and sometimes runs on a bit, with everyone expressing their many feelings and insecurities in a level-headed way that feels like an emotional power fantasy for teens. Sometimes that’s charming and sometimes it’s more like an after-school special, but overall I enjoyed the new characters introduced here and would be glad to see them show up in the margins of other X-comics in the future.

[Michael Church · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a long and slow read without much payoff. I love Vita Ayala’s work in other areas, but more than anything, I just found this boring. I don’t know if the ending was meant to be a twist, but it seemed obvious from the first issue, except for the part about Carmen, though that also became obvious as soon as the idea was introduced.

There are a couple of messages that seemed valuable to include, notably about identify and forms of appropriation and same sex attraction coding, particularly in comics. Unfortunately, both are kind of shoved into the final two issues, so they don’t seem to have much nuance to them, and end up reading more like an informational essay than a storyline that I should be emotionally invested in.

The story is relatively slow and boring. Each issue follows a different member of the cast as the narrator. It’s an interesting enough idea that has worked other times, but here we just end up with issue-long monologues essentially expositing whatever we need to know about that character in the story. Carmen feels disconnected? She’s going to tell you that herself. Benny is afraid to let people in? No time to show you, he’s just going to say it.

Now, with all that said, I do know that this title got messed up even more than most by COVID-19 and related delays. I don’t know how much that would have changed things. I don’t know if this was intended to be a longer series that would have had better stakes and more natural characterization. Despite all that, though, we can make excuses forever and that won’t change the book that was actually produced.

The art was fine, I guess. None of it stood out to me. I liked Cherub’s design, and that was about it. Something about Cyclops-Lass never looked good to me, whether in or out of uniform, which is strange because I loved that 90s Cyclops look in the day. Maybe I’m just too invested in it being a broad man that I find attractive wearing the suit. I didn’t like her civilian clothes, either, with constantly high-waisted pants and her little ties. The visor looked weird too. Marvel-Guy is probably my second least favorite look. I guess it helps to know he’s also inspired by Wolverine, but it’s still not great. His body type also seems to fluctuate wildly from panel to panel or issue to issue.

So anyway, my bottom line is that there’s some good here, but it may not be worth trying to uncover for you.

[Tom Ewing · Rating 2 out of 5]

The X-Men’s status as a metaphor for prejudice has always come a little unstuck when people ask the follow up question “OK, which prejudice?”. The Krakoan era has mostly jettisoned the question entirely as the kind of radical separatism Krakoa represents maps very uneasily onto the politics of any real world minority (except perhaps, as some have pointed out, the global super-rich).

Every now and then, though, someone will do a story which throws the question into sharper relief. How do we judge the lead characters of Children Of The Atom, human kids who stumble onto alien tech and use it to become superheroes (yay) who also strongly imply that they’re mutants (hmm) to the point of trying repeatedly to get through the mutant-only Krakoan gates?

It’s a concept that makes perfect sense in terms of the X-Books’ current set-up (and echoes lots of previous wannabe-mutant characters, some of whom are even in the book) but also points to how strained the old metaphors have become. Are the kids wrongly appropriating someone else’s identity? Yes, the comic suggests. Are the X-Men biological determinists policing single-species spaces? Also yes, but that’s not what we’re meant to read anything into. The fact that one of our heroes *is* a mutant doesn’t do much to untangle these ideas.

Of course “are the X-Men still the good guys?” is a question the whole Krakoa line loves to dance around, which is partly why it makes for such high quality comics overall. Children Of The Atom answers that question with an uncomplicated yes, though, which simplifies the ideas it does raise too much.

It doesn’t help that the team aren’t exactly thrilling characters, and that each individual issue has a different member narrate in a way that’s divorced from the action, reading like notes from therapy sessions. These kids are well-meaning if self-absorbed nerds with thoroughly resolvable and banal problems.

A misfire, then, which is a shame as the final issue - with a human family objecting to Xavier’s Krakoa on entirely reasonable grounds and a viewpoint character who actually likes her non-Krakoan life - raises questions the X-books have spent the whole era largely avoiding.

[Shannon Appelcline · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a comic that never would have gotten made if not for the ability to link to the madly popular Krakoa X-Men run, and frankly it's a bad fit. The comic tries to offer a human take on the mutant nation, but it doesn't say anything interesting. Beyond that, the script is sometimes muddy, the villains aren't interesting, and a lot of the character motivations seem over-the-top unbelievable even for a comic. I liked learning about the characters through their inner dialogues, and I enjoyed the last issue twist, but through some combination of fanboy characters and overly earnest attempts to offer the message of being yourself, this just didn't go anywhere interesting. It's the first Krakoa X-men comic that I question whether it should stay in my collection (and let's be honest, we've had a few a few bad comics).

[Sarospice · Rating 1 out of 5]

I think I would have liked it more in trade form. Read as individual issues and the payoff isn't there. Kids who pretend they were something they're not? How millennial!

[Brandon · Rating 5 out of 5]

I LOVE THIS BOOK! I'm reading the entire X-run right now and I have to say that this mini series has by far been my favorite to come out this year (Vita's new mutants run coming in second) The way that this series has made me like these characters (and even dislike, and then like again) in such a small amount of time... I cannot give this book enough praise... (but I can try) Both of the main artists for this book have done an amazing job at bringing this world to life, and of course Vita's writing is superb, the book is able to do full in depth character studies while also having it flow well with the main plot and ideas of the book, I was skeptical on how a plot about mutant cultural appropriation would go over, and in the end Vita is able to explore those ideas very well in just six issues, also I like that this book has actually been able to have explicit representation and be loud about it, which is something that most marvel books lack, it was really awesome to see a coming out scene be handled incredibly well and feel very modern, It was also very cool seeing a marvel book have full panels that are completely in Spanish with no translation or apology. Overall this story has been fun, interesting, and exciting to read over the last six months and I cannot recommend it enough.

[Nicole · Rating 1 out of 5]

This comic is a perfect demonstration of my problems with the X-Men as metaphors for discrimination. Much of the inter-character conflict was poorly executed, and the resolution to the romantic arc in particular was unreadibly poorly written.

[Dom Nuno · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh… more pandering.

[Ross · Rating 4 out of 5]

THIS is how teens/mutants are supposed to be perceived. One giant bundle of awkwardness and stubborn creativity. Nice to see something that harkens back to that classic concept of what the X-gene meant in the world, let alone what it means as a youth.

The Marvel universe has the Kamala Act, being X-gene active, and Terigenesis as the big things that can wreck an otherwise normal teenage life.

These kids just want to help change the world. They'll do whatever they have to to be like their heroes.

[Sean · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've never had an issue with books that skew younger or even YA books as long as they're good. This wasn't. Writer Vita Ayala tells an afterschool special with forced relationships, super cliched characters, and an extremely vanilla plot. The new teen team was so hard to read about. None of them were interesting, all had generic powers, and worse looks. I was bored to tears. The art by Bernard Chang and Paco Medina was very good but the characters designs (not sure whose they belong to) were abysmal. This is not a book that will be fondly remembered or remembered at all.

[Tristan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Didn’t know what go expect going into this one, but it was a mixed bag. I appreciated the story it was trying to tell but definitely felt like an odd inclusion to this era of X-men. Also felt mildly in bad taste? At least considering the mutant metaphors and whatnot. Felt like it both should’ve been longer and probably left on the cutting room floor. That’s not to say it’s the pits, just that other stories have had this plot and done better with it. It was down to earth in a nice way, and the characters had some nice moments. But really a skip I think.

[el · Rating 3 out of 5]

Perfectly fine book for new readers. I would’ve loved it in high school, clearly that is the audience and not 30 year olds like myself. The names reminded me of our middle school joke xmen, we literally had a daycrawler. And a “meatclops” and “denim black”, lol.

[Robert Kirwan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this. Artwork was fantastic and the characters were energetic and fun.

[Joe Bogue · Rating 2 out of 5]

Like the character development, but thought the plot was boring and the story was confusing

[Aaron · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was not for me.

[Andrew · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'd love to hear the story on this one... first Marvel is pushing it as the next big X-Book, they are highlighting it on red to indicate it is a game changer in the Krakoan Age.... then it doesn't come out. Then it gets delayed longer. Then it comes out and is incredibly forgettable Runaways attempt.

What was it originally? What did they change? I see nothing here that makes me think they had a worldbreaker on their hands. I wonder if it just wasn't good enough so they defanged it and printed it on the backside of their publishing.

[Adam Rodgers · Rating 2 out of 5]

Advertised as an X-Men spin off with a new generation of heroes modelled on some the more famous mutants we follow this new team; who call themselves the Children of the Atom.

This isn't much of a spoiler to reveal (as it is made clear fairly early in the book) that this new group are in fact not mutants at all, their powers all technology based (how they come by them is never properly explained). This fact is what the book really hinges on and yet it is very casually revealed and wholly underused. The ideas of hero worship or even cultural appropriation are danced around but never really explored which could have elevated this book out of the mediocre story that is delivered. Rather so many teenage identity issues are crowbarred in; sacrificing an entertaining narrative to have each theme represented.

While Ayala doesnt come across as a bad writer per se they have failed to make the story they want to tell engaging. Each issue is largely told from the perspective of each team member trying to deal with their own sense of identity and belonging but it is espoused at such length it becomes tedious. When the real X-Men finally make an appearance they quickly leave after finding their young counterparts aren't mutants, which while true to their current overall message of 'mutants first' in the other x-comics should have been expanded to at least a proper conversation.

The artwork by Chang and Medina is solid but wasted on a lacklustre story, especially the work put in on tying the main characters costumes to the established mutant heroes.

[Rob Marney · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is a perfect example of why the comics industry fixates on #1 issues. Gorgeous art can't save a concept that gets worse every ten pages until it was physically difficult to finish. Like those bargain basement WW2 movies where the squad includes exactly one black guy, one Jewish guy, one nerd, and one farm boy, this new team of super heroes has so much representation they forget to have personalities. They all get their own interior dialogue, but they all sound like Vita Ayala giving a PSA about how winners don't do drugs. They all have varied backgrounds and act like they have different outlooks on life, but they really don't. The last issue has a full twelve page love-fest about how everyone loves and supports each other and agrees about everything, no matter what they were doing and saying in issues 1-5, because otherwise someone might be sad, and we can't have that in a 2021 comic book.

The art is really good, though. The "mismatched X-Men powers and body types" shtick is just fun enough to fill a miniseries. So it's not a 1 star book.

[Allaiyah Weyn · Rating 1 out of 5]

Boring teen drama. I'm not familiar with the Stan Lee or Joe Casey's "Children of the Atom," it doesn't have any established X-Men characters to help me invest myself into a group of all-new characters, it had a switch-&-bait of starting off as action before slipping into a state of slice-of-life that it never leaves, 2 of the 5 characters remained completely undeveloped, & it ends being an origin story for characters that never show up in anything, outside of one Hellfire Gala cameo.

The art & coloring can also make or break a comic for me, but nothing was popping for me. Ayala's writing was better in "New Mutants" & even better in "Wolverine: Black White & Blood," so I an not writing the author off.