Review by Ian Keogh

As with other tie-ins marketed as connecting with King in Black, Atlantis Attacks may disappoint for actually having little to do with the core concept, or in this case, nothing at all. Instead Greg Pak follows up on the Asian refugee community of Pan, introduced during his Agents of Atlas series. That community is hidden from the remainder of the world by magical elements powered by an ancient Atlantean dragon, and Namor decides it’s time the dragon was returned.

Integral to the community was its foundation by Mike Nguyen, a figure not entirely trusted by Amadeus Cho and the Agents of Atlas team he leads to protect Pan in the absence of Jimmy Woo. Those suspicions are short lived as someone has a vested interest in not only fermenting war between Pan and Atlantis, but stirring up trouble between assorted Agents of Atlas, past and present.

Ario Anindito and Robert Gill draw separate sections of Atlantis Attacks, and at their best as on the combined sample spread they’re ambitious and decorative. Their skills are diminished, though by having to force so many characters into a plot that has no space for all of them. It leads to pages crowded with talking heads and looking uninteresting.

Whether those intent on war can be prevented on unleashing catastrophe by those with level heads maintains tension, but is complicated by the actions of a tech-savvy demagogue seemingly always a step ahead of any opposition. That’s a good idea, but allegiances shift too often, characters are lost in the crowd and much is introduced in passing without being followed up, as if Pak’s concern is just setting up his next job on another short run series. One of his ideas is humanity has only progressed due to the planet’s true rulers being dragons and advising rulers for millennia. Really? Over sixty years into Marvel’s continuity is hardly the time to be introducing that, never mind that it contradicts so much else. Did the dragons also advise the Celestials, the Norse gods and Thanos?

Fewer characters and a more coherent plot would have improved this no end. Oh, and isn’t marketing this as connected to King in Black false advertising? It’s nevertheless part of the King in Black Omnibus.