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Graphic Novel Review: Atomika: God is Red

Created/Artwork by Sal Abbinanti 

Written by: Andrew Dabb 

Published: By Mercury Comics

Reviewed by Howard Lee

More than Just Comics

 Sometimes the title of a book can cause an immediate reaction from the public without reading the book for good or bad. Atomika is such book or should I say graphic novel. But to say Atomika is just another graphic novel would be doing it an injustice to the story that Atomika is trying to tell.  Simply because Atomika isn't a story but a history lesson wrapped in modern mythology that the world is still living in and may never fully put in its past. The story of Atomika is the story of Russia in the 20^th century and how its form of communism has shaped Russia creating it's own modern gods based on the Russian revolution and how that revolution changed not only Russia views the world, but how the world views Russia then and now.  Atomika makes the reader think about U.S. capitalism, God, spirituality, and how modern man has changed his relationship with God and man's technology has in many ways made man into a techno-god himself.

 The origin of Atomika takes place in 1929 after the Russian Revolution. The goddess Mother Rus is watching with her son the change in the people of Rus. Man has created a new god through technology and science that god is called "Arohnir" he needs the people of Rus to love him or fear him it didn't matter which, but needed a son for the people to follow one that was created by the spirit of the revolution but also fused with the spirit of the new technocrats of Russia. So Arohnir kills Mother Rus and captures her son. Then after forging him in the fires of the new Russian spirit Atomika is born.

 Atomika becomes the new god of Russia embodied with all of the industrial and spiritual might of the new Russia. But there was a problem Atomika like any child grew up to be more powerful that Arohnir could ever imagine. Atomika lusted now only for more power but total worship of all the people of Russia he demanded that they call him savior. Arohnir sensing that Atomika may even be more powerful then him and worshipped by the people Arohnir plots to kill Atomika by sending five man-gods Sputnik, Magnarac, The Iron Curtain, Pravada, and White Wolf to kill Atomika. When Atomika kills all of them Arohnir knew that he had to find a way to control Atomika. Atomika had plans of his own he knew while the old of gods of Russia still lived he would never be fully worshiped by all the people of Russia and be all powerful. So set out to kill all the old gods of Russia. Much to the dismay of Arohnir he had enlisted the help of the old gods to control Atomika. Atomika begins to destroy all of the old gods of Rus but while he was destroying Leshia the last of the old gods of Rus he gives Atomika a warning "Atomika will be replaced by man just as Atomika replaced them" On hearing this Atomika withdraws from man and from being a god he abandons the people of Russia.

 With Atomika gone Arohnir realizes that his attempts to kill or control Atomika were wrong he needs Atomika to control the people of Russia. But Atomika did not want to return unless he can be the savoir of the Russian people so Atomika tries to become a savoir of the Russian people but find out he can only destroy no matter what he tries to do to help them. Now Atomika must comes to grips of what he is a destroyer of man. How long will it be before man creates a new god to destroy him?

 Personal Notes:

After reading Atomika I was struck not only by the story of writer Andrew Dabb but how well the artwork of creator Sal Abbinanti blends in with the story the Artwork is dark and brooding like the story with deep rich colors that pulls you into the world of Atomika. The panels and the realism of the character might throw some reader off since sometimes you can't tell if this is a horror story not a story about the gods of Russia, but that is the great thing about Atomika by making the characters look like demons you begin to understand the world that forged Atomika.  The only thing I could compare Atomika world to is that of Spawn both struggle to find their humanity in a world where humanity don't exist.  But unlike Spawn a human in made into a demon by a god you have a god wants to be worshipped by man has their savior.  

I had the pleasure of meeting creator Sal Abbinanti and a recent comic book convention. We spoke about the development of Atomika and how bringing in characters from Russian mythology to a U.S. book was a challenge since Russia history is not taught in the U.S. and making the characters believable enough to keep the reader interested. I could not agree with him more. For me reading Atomika was fun since I am a student of the Russian revolution I thought Sal did a great job capturing that moment in history and putting his spin on it. The only thing that I thought he should have added was the character of Octborbriana the female spirit of the Russian revolution that was featured in many of the underground Russian comics books from the 60's and 70's. Still Atomika is a great read even if you are not a fan of Russian history but just like a good story.

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If you want to purchase Atomika: God is Red you can purchase it from Mercury Comics at <a rel="nofollow" xhref=http://www.mercurycomics.com>Mercury Comics</a>