What's This? A team for the first video game generation.
The facts: The year is 1982. DC Comics is a subsidiary of Warner Communications, and guess what, so is Atari Inc. Packaged with 5 games are 5 smaller-sized comics (5x7) that link to the gameplay. Those games are Defender, Berzerk, Star Raiders, Phoenix, and Galaxian, and the comics feature an intrepid band of future astronauts called Atari Force, led by one Martin Champion. Smaller, but most of them have close to 50 pages of story, are written by Gerry Conway and Roy Thomas, and feature artists like Ross Andru, Gil Kane, and Dick Giordano. A couple years later, Martin Champion assembles a team of superpowered types and aliens to star in a legit ongoing series, by Conway and (mainly) José Luis García-López thay would last 20 issues and a special. I read the whole thing HERE. I am still amazed at the talent both DC and Marvel used to throw at tie-in comics like this.
How you could have heard of it: Well, Dynamite Entertainment announced a licensing deal with Atari, with plans to reprint the old series (both of them?) and create new comics based on other (more) classic Atari games like Asteroids, Missile Command and Centipede (whether with Atari Force in it or not, I don't know). That was five years ago and nothing's come of it.
Example story: Atari Force vol.1 #4 (1982, released with the game Phoenix and as an insert in New Teen Titans #27 and DC Comics Presents #53) by Conway, Thomas, Andru and Giordano
This is the only issue of the original series that comes in at a reasonable page count - only 16 to the others' 48ish - and I did want to look at the original Atari Force since the second team gets individual entries anyway, forcing me revisit volume 2 frequently. And anyway, it ties into the only game I actually played, sort of. I never played the outer space-themed, fixed shooter Phoenix on my Atari 2600, BUT I played the CRAP out Demon Attack, a Phoenix clone put out by Activision and made by Imagic, which was sued by Atari so close was the game. I played Demon Attack until the points flipped back to zero, the demons unimaginably quick and low to the ground, and my hands were crippled. What a day. Phoenix and Demon Attack side by side below:
Phoenix was one of many such arcade games ported over to the 2600, and alien invaders (by any other name) are a pretty easy concept to adapt for our space heroes. Let's look how they did. The comic starts with a savage alien attack in which an Earth ship is destroyed, then cut to... 2005?!
It's 15 years ago, and war-torn Earth (well, it IS working according to video game logic, where's the Combat tie-in?!) and in the sci-fi nation(?) of Northcal (guess where), there's a suicide mission being planned (no save game on the 2600, remember?) using new Phoenix Star-Fighter craft! Sounds like there are several ships slaved to the main one, but I don't see that as part of the gameplay. That's odd, but I guess it's one way to give a ship "lives". Fact is, the games were too simple for them to alone be the basis for a comics story. So the mission here also involves destroying missile bases and the evil Malaglon aliens previously featured in the series. Their big saucer with a death-ray IS from the game, pretty much, but I do wonder why the heroes have a ship called Phoenix, when the game has bird-like ENEMY CRAFT. Anyway...
The Phoenix pilot volunteer chosen at random is the brother of the Malaglon's previous victim, David Marcus (KRUUUUUUUGE!!!!), so there's a bit of revenge in his eye. In fact, he leaves Atari Force's ship, Scanner-One, behind as soon as he can, and attacks the Malaglon fleet alone (unless I count the slaved ships). Screw up your eyes and you could imagine these shapes in glorious 8-bit.
Pilot's real good though. He blasts through the first wave of ships, destroys the missile bases, and even the boss mothership!
Hey, is Atari Force going to do anything? Nope. Bob Marcus is too far away so he's on his own. Lots of ship action ensues, though I'm more interested in the aliens who apparently have the power to reverse their world's rotation!
More ship action, sparks and explosions, and all the stuff you don't really get from an Atari game - where's the carpal tunnel syndrome?! - but the final missile base is a moving target. But finally, nuclear Armageddon:
And the people of the planet are freed! And Bob barely learns a lesson. It's just not that kind of game. I wonder, do these manufactured stakes help players get into the spirit of things? I don't remember needing a story in the old arcade days.
As for the original Atari Force, maybe I didn't pick the right issue! Couldn't one of THEM, perhaps Champion himself, have been the pilot here? Maybe we'll return to those mini-comics. Atari Force's big bad, the Dark Destroyer, makes his first appearance in them, right? Then again, Bob IS a member of Atari Force, just not the main group. Like Checkmate, you gotta have room to tell stories about the Joe Blos, groundlings and foot soldiers of the organization.
Who's Next? Aquaman's home town.
How you could have heard of it: Well, Dynamite Entertainment announced a licensing deal with Atari, with plans to reprint the old series (both of them?) and create new comics based on other (more) classic Atari games like Asteroids, Missile Command and Centipede (whether with Atari Force in it or not, I don't know). That was five years ago and nothing's come of it.
Example story: Atari Force vol.1 #4 (1982, released with the game Phoenix and as an insert in New Teen Titans #27 and DC Comics Presents #53) by Conway, Thomas, Andru and Giordano
As for the original Atari Force, maybe I didn't pick the right issue! Couldn't one of THEM, perhaps Champion himself, have been the pilot here? Maybe we'll return to those mini-comics. Atari Force's big bad, the Dark Destroyer, makes his first appearance in them, right? Then again, Bob IS a member of Atari Force, just not the main group. Like Checkmate, you gotta have room to tell stories about the Joe Blos, groundlings and foot soldiers of the organization.
Who's Next? Aquaman's home town.
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