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This volume isn't great, but it's finally beginning to feel like Gail Simone and her artistic collaborators are getting a hold on the premise and character of The All New Atom. In this volume, Ryan Choi is recruited to find his predecessor, first by one of Ray Palmer's enemies, and then by the Challengers from Beyond from Countdown to Final Crisis. The inventive, fanciful ideas are in full force, as Ryan encounters a race of tiny aliens, half of whom consider the Atom a god and half a demon, then travels into a simulation of the afterlife where he meets the Ted Kord Blue Beetle, then helps prevent a giant monster attack on Ivy Town, then stops an evil alien using 1960s music to control the town.

But I can't help feeling that though this book has good jokes (the Ray Palmer impersonator in the tiny village is great), it's completely unfocused and not in a good way. Like, the whole fake afterlife thing is largely tossed off and irrelevant, even if it does give us Ryan kicking a jetpack-wearing Hitler in the face.

I mean, one issue ends with the Challengers finding a message written in blood from Ray Palmer that reads, "RYAN, TURN BACK!" In the first two pages of the next issue, Ryan is pulled away from the Challengers by a giant hand from outside the miniature world, and just like, that's it, they're forgotten, along with his whole mission to find Ray. And the Challengers don't go after him, even though in their own series, they're always perfectly willing to put their search on hold to help out someone in need. I mean, I know Ray's message* tells Ryan to "go back," but he's a superhero and Ray's number one fan-- that should inspire him to go onwards! It just feels like the book is constantly being jerked around, away from its core premise. (Though I suppose not being more involved in Countdown to Final Crisis is to the benefit of any book. Also it turns out I should have read this before last week's The Search for Ray Palmer. Oh well.)

Because it's in that core premise where the book always shines. The first issue here is kinda so-so plotwise, but I love the touches of Ivy Town we get, with newspaper stories about its relative lack of radiation and serial killers, or a Pilgrim man sucked across time who doesn't like Ryan's bad driving. There's barely more than a couple pages of Professor "Panda" Potter and the Lighter than Air Society in this volume. Commit to your unique premise, The All New Atom; stop getting pulled into pointless crossovers and diversions! Be yourself, like all the best comics are.

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* We eventually learn it's a fake, but Ryan doesn't.