REVIEW: The Atomic Yeti #1

Over 50 years ago nine skiers suffered an unexplainable demise, but now Lane Decker is traveling to Russia to learn the truth.

The Atomic Yeti #1
Writer: Daniel Cooney
Art: Jeff Himes
Lettering: Jeff Himes
Editor: Carolina Cooney
Publisher: Red Eye Press
Cover Price: $.99/$5

Previously in The Atomic Yeti: On February 2 1959, nine experienced skiers tore open their tents and started running barefooted in snow and temperatures of -30 degrees Celsius. Corpses showed no struggle, but two victims had fractured skulls, two had broken ribs, and one was missing her tongue. Upon testing of their clothing they were found to be highly radioactive. And so we begin…

WORD BALLON MADNESS!

The Atomic Yeti’s central character is Lane Decker; a journalist who used to work for the New York Times, but due to an unknown reason was fired and now writes for The National Examiner. His position is about to change as we find out in the first section of the issue that the Examiner is being bought out by another company. The fight Lane puts up to not transition from a print to television journalist is believable if you have worked around anyone in the Media field before, though he still comes off a little dickish.

Cooney did place a small sequence in here that is suppose to make the reader feel sympathy for a Decker; however, it fell a little flat for me. Lane is reading to a former co-worker who is in a comatose state, then goes into his jobs woes as the patients mother walks in. It is at this point that we learn it is actually our main characters fault that the patient is in here, and at one point exploited him to gain a prestigious award.

For the rest of the issue we are taken over to Russia as Lane and his film crew prepare to climb into the Ural Mountains in search for the mysterious cause of those nine skiers’ deaths. This was the best portion of the issue, for me, as it kept building up the characters, used a few troupes well, and increased the mystery surrounding their purpose for traveling to Russia. There was a lot of dialogue to drudge through to get to this point, but now that we are firmly in Russia I can see the story taking off.

DOUBLE-PAGE MANIA!

I read my issue of The Atomic Yeti digitally from the comiXology app on my iPad. I need to establish this because the way comiXology handles double-page spreads is by making you hold the iPad horizontally so the page fills the entire screen, and this is the way the entire issue is. Digitally it works great, as there is no binding crease in the middle, but I’m slightly concerned that details will be lost in the physical copy. And to miss any on Jeff Himes work in this issue would be just a shame. While there were a few minor qualms, the art enhances the story nicely.

BOTTOM LINE: DON’T LIVE IN RUSSIA

First off, it always seems to be cold and snowy in Russia, so why would you want to live there anyways? There also seems to be a radioactive yeti running through the mountains, and if that ending reveal is to be believed, Russia is just one wacky place that I will keep my distance from. And even though I don’t like are central character, there are parts of his story that are intentionally left out that I’m curious to learn about. While I’m not shaking in anticipation for the next issue of The Atomic Yeti, Cooney and Himes have perked my interest enough that I will pick it up and give this first outing 3 out of 5 stars along the way.