Agents of Atlas appreciation 2019

[Frontier]

Brawn. Good lord. We've gone from 7th smartest guy in the MU to a hunk of muscle.

They really should just call him Cho.

[Snoop Dogg]

They really should just call him Cho.

But the irony of one of the mega geniuses galaxy brains being called Brawn is just too good, even though I doubt Zub intended that.

[Unspeakable Evil]

Cool team. I wonder if Pai Chan will show up? Or did Marvel forget about her?

[Frontier]

But the irony of one of the mega geniuses galaxy brains being called Brawn is just too good, even though I doubt Zub intended that.

That just makes it come off like an unfitting name .

[Digifiend]

I actually had a thought about that when the name change was first revealed. His sister Maddie is nearly as smart as he is. So maybe if Cho gets another solo book, they could call it Brains and Brawn, Brains being Maddie.

[Flash Gordon]

I saw the announcement and got so excited thinking Jeff Parker was launching a new AGENTS OF ATLAS series but ah well.

[Lee Stone]

Because the Protectors were spearheaded by Jimmy, Atlas is Jimmy's, and the cult AoA name is better for the mini than the more generic Protectors. And it's nice fanservice.

You mean like Milligan/Allred's X-Force or the Bendis/Marvel Knights Defenders?

[Kaijudo]

Yeah, I like some of the characters, but not enough to pick this up. I guess I'll just have to dig Gorilla-Man as an Agent of Wakanda for the time being.

[Digifiend]

Good point, though to be fair that X-Force team was later renamed to the more suitable X-Statix. That Defenders team was just called that for Netflix synergy and probably should've been Heroes For Hire.

[Snoop Dogg]

You mean like Milligan/Allred's X-Force or the Bendis/Marvel Knights Defenders?

Those teams have weak or no ties to the original. But this Agents of Atlas team is comprised of people serving as agents to the guy who owns and rules Atlas, therefore they are agents of Atlas. It's like New Avengers or something, but even stricter. Jimmy is the one required to call a group the AoA, and there he is.

[Overhazard]

I don't know how to feel about this, on one hand, I love the AoA, I like that Jimmy Woo, Shang-Chi and Silk are on the same team, but I don't feel excited by this announcement.

[mugiwara]

On one hand, I don't like the fact that the "defenders of Asia" have at least two american and one british in their ranks.
On the other hand, this line up is still way better than EXTREME Avengers.

[scribbleMind]

I don't really love it either, and it's not even because these aren't the same characters. To me Agents of Atlas was always a love letter to pulp, and this definitely ain't that. They could pull a Mystery Men and have all original characters, title it Agents of Atlas, and I would be more excited for that than this assuming they kept those throwback pulp sensibilities. I'm happy for more Asian representation in the Marvel universe, but just call this what it is, The Protectors.

[Tien Long]

I saw the announcement and got so excited thinking Jeff Parker was launching a new AGENTS OF ATLAS series but ah well.

I don't really love it either, and it's not even because these aren't the same characters. To me Agents of Atlas was always a love letter to pulp, and this definitely ain't that. They could pull a Mystery Men and have all original characters, title it Agents of Atlas, and I would be more excited for that than this assuming they kept those throwback pulp sensibilities. I'm happy for more Asian representation in the Marvel universe, but just call this what it is, The Protectors.

Part of me was like that when I first read the announcement. I'm very respectful of the Agents of Atlas. While this team has Jimmy Woo, its link to the original team is very tenuous. Protectors would have been a better fit. Perhaps Agents of Atlas was chosen for name recognition. Furthermore, although I'm Asian-American, part of me felt kind of blah. I'm a huge Shang-Chi fan and respect everyone else (though I'm a little frustrated with what was done to Amadeus. He's either the 7th smartest guy in the MU or Totally Awesome Hulk. Not this half way, in between Brawn such and such). Still, are Silk, Jimmy Woo, these new characters, are they enough to get me to read? Part of me doesn't know.

BUT.....y'know what, part of me is excited. I find it interesting that Marvel's Asian-American (and American created) Asian charaters will be teaming up with their more recent Asian created Asian characters. There's a lot of symbolism there. Asian-Americans meeting Asians or Asian-Americans visiting Asia, that makes for some interesting culture clashes. I wonder how the mainland Chinese characters would react to Shang-Chi. How would White Fox react to Amadeus and Cindy? I wonder what it would be like for Jimmy Woo, Silk, or Amadeus to revisit their ancestors' homelands. I wonder how these homelands would react to them. And truth be told, I really liked Greg Pak's first story featuring The Protectors. It felt good to see these characters front and center. It was awesome Pak reveal new layers to these characters (for instance, didn't know that Shang Chi loved karaoke or was such a terrific battle strategist).

Yeah, so the more I talk about it, the more excited I am. Count me in, let's see what happens with these Agents of Atlas!

[Huntsman Spider]

I thought the girl on the top right was a redesigned Radiant/Sun Girl. She looks the most like a manga heroine.

Cool to see them incorporating the Future Fight originals even if we'll probably never see them again after this.

They had me with this up until they said "Brawn" was leading them. Probably should've just called him Cho...

Hey, somebody remembered Silk. That's more then any of the Spider-Man titles have.

Would make a good kids cartoon...but not the kind of thing I think they're aiming at for the Hulu shows.

Read the latest Spider-Man/Deadpool if you wanna see more Silk.