I guess not even Jeff Parker can make a last issue for a series needing lots more issues work. Parker gives Bob a romance and then takes it away. So cruel.

The issue ends with Bob joining Jimmy and the rest of the Atlas team (before they were know as Atlas, right?). I’d completely forgotten he might join up with them before the series ended. I’d forgotten it was a tie-in to something else. I was just so impressive with what Parker is able to do with only three issues.

There are a couple problematic things this issue–there’s a very unlikely giant monster and the series ends with a problematic personal moment for Bob. It’s a great scene, it just isn’t an organic narrative development.

There’s also this great fight scene with a goofy science villain.

I hope Marvel lets Parker keep going with these Atlas spinoff series.

Oops. I didn’t realize Bob couldn’t fly in the first issue. I sort of assumed he could.

The second issue doesn’t have much heroics at the start not based in alien technology (Marvel Boy is an ideal period piece in some ways just because of the sci-fi elements, like a fifties atomic paranoia movie)… I just assumed he could fly.

Anyway, Parker makes it into a really neat plot point.

Right off, we meet Bob’s father for a bit. My questions about him and his relationship with the Uranians are immediately answered. Then we get Bob on a date, where he reveals his identity faster than any superhero ever has before. It’s really touching and fun and I’m peeved at Parker for cutting it short.

But it’s to go to Uranus, so I guess it’s all right.

My only complaint about the comic is it only has three issues.

It’s hard not to look at this comic and not think Omega the Unknown. Ruiz’s art is a little too indie for Marvel, just like the art on Omega. And then there’s the whole comic book influence on Marvel Boy, the character. Parker does a lot of different stuff here–I mean, he packs more story into the issue than he does even an Atlas issue–so I feel bad mentioning the comparison… but it’s sort of there.

This series is, apparently, a revised origin, getting in all the new revelations. Reading the Uranians plotting against earth and an unknowing Bob is kind of strange, but also really cool. It creates this concern for the character (and especially his so far unseen father) just through implication.

The comic book stuff–a comic company shepherds Bob’s superhero career–offers the only humor. Otherwise, it’s a depressing story of McCarthy era America.