When is a reboot not a reboot? When the corporate overlords decide they don’t want to endanger the Captain Atom IP. Your Major Spoilers Retro Review of Breach #1 awaits!

BREACH #1

Writer: Bob Harras
Penciler: Marcos Martin
Inker: Alvaro Lopez
Colorist: Javier Rodriguez Studios
Letterer: Clem Robins
Editor: Matt Idelson
Publisher: DC Comics
Cover Price: $2.95
Current Near-Mint Pricing: $3.00
Release Date: January 5, 2005

Previously in Breach: The development of Breach was initially conceived as a reboot of Charlton Comics’ Captain Atom, but the late in the process (like, late enough that the lettering was already complete, even), the decision was made not to revamp. With the book already in progress, though, the decision was made to continue with the series and introduce its hero as a new, unrelated superhero character, albeit one with exactly the same abilities and origin as the good Captain. (That’s decision is actually more questionable than killing a reboot already in progress.) As for this issue’s story, we open in the wilds of Siberia, where our hero and several civilians are found in the wreckage of what seems to be a helicopter crash.
Evidence of the reworked story is seen on page one, as one character insists that he get an answer to a question that never actually got asked. Breach indicates that he still remembers them from when he was human, but tells them that it’s no longer safe to touch him in his new containment suit. Walking away, he thinks back to a time when he still felt something he identified as “hope,” flashing the story back 20 years. Tim Zanetti was a Major in the U.S. Army, stationed at a special base that housed “Project Otherside,” a facility dedicated to dimensional research and finding a way to penetrate the barriers between realities. The story shows him traveling to the facility where we meet Mac (the injured man with the beard in the opening sequence) for the “first” time, including a number of references to incidents that we haven’t seen yet or have actually been edited out of the story during the retooling.

As for the part about the lettering being partly done before the revisions, check out the first word balloon here.
The fact that multiple dialogue references to the hero as “Adams,” the secret identity of Captain Atom, got through the editing process is troubling, but the presentation of the story makes it clear that there was a lot more chopping up done. Major Zanetti’s team is working on breaking through the dimensional barrier in the hopes of controlling time and space itself as part of Cold War realpolitik, but the story makes an overt (and frankly tasteless) reference to Saddam Hussein paired with a conspicuous wide shot of the World Trade Center, reminding us of unexpected changes in the real world future. When an accident causes the system to melt down, Major Zanetti is graphically torn apart on panel, only to awaken in the wreckage. When someone takes his hand to free him, they too are dissolved by atomic forces. Major Zanetti is eventually recovered and put in a stasis chamber for incubation.

Cut forward twenty years.
Awakening, Zanetti breaks free of his bonds with newly-found superhuman strength, fighting off the defensive forces in a sequence that is both strangely blocked and garishly colored. The overuse of weird LED green coloring throughout the comic bugs me, but it is even more questionable when our hero is drawn in that funky green with an orange outline around it. The fight sequence is a mess, honestly, but when the future Breach is brought down, the issue drops what seems to be a big surprise…
…but it’s information that the readers already have. As the book closes, we find Zanetti’s old friend Major (now General) MacClellan, who has clearly married Breach’s wife and adopted Breach’s child, exactly as happened to Captain Atom during his DC relaunch back in 1986. The real shame of Breach #1 is that, even if it had been a Captain Atom story as intended, it would clearly have been a dour, tragic mess that feels like a grimdark Vertigo book from the 1990s, with unclear art and garish coloring that coalesce for a disappointing 1 out of 5 stars overall. The remainder of Breach completed this origin arc (though not in a particularly satisfying way) and chugged on with more grimdark for a total of eleven issues before falling prey to cancellation. A later story would indicate that he was meant to be the Captain Atom of Earth-8 before one of the many multiversal crises, with Breach himself dying during Countdown to Infinite Crisis.

It was almost a mercy killing by that point, as he was nearly as poorly received as the New Blood initiative of 1993, but I honestly can’t blame readers for not responding to the character, given how bizarre and off-balance this debut issue is.

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BREACH #1

13%

13%

Oof.

Bland, grim, garish and confusing combine for a less-than successful comic book.

• Writing

  0
• Art

  2
• Coloring

  2
• User Ratings (0 Votes)
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