the All New Atom #23 - DC

I like this new direction that Rick Remender is taking with this story, but . . on the weirdness scale? . . it's off the charts. This whole thing started when Ryan found some weird organism in his blood stream, and then decided to enlarge it. Not a very bright decision there. Anyways, it starts pulling in his friends, Panda, and other people around the city as it seems to go on a rampage. Then Ryan's belt starts going screwy. He starts shrinking without control. Now he appears to be in his own blood stream, or at least a cell of it, and he's being chased by what looks like gigantic prehistoric eels. So, the only thing he can do is try to fight them off and work his way to the surface. There he finds what looks to be land masses floating about 100 miles above the ocean . . or . . blood-cell. . All he can do is try to climb up to get away from his attackers. They give chase, but apparently they have an aversion to sunlight. When he gets to the top, first he finds the corpse of . . himself? . . and a female Chronos. Then he's almost attacked by . . . Panda. Panda? Yes, this is where all the people have gone that the organism sucked into itself. But time passes faster here. Panda says he's been here for years. So Ryan doesnt have his Atom-belt, but he does have his bang-stick, and a gun. Oh, and the suit he's wearing is charged with dwarf-star radiation. But that's all the tools he has to work with. And before they can figure out how to get out of this place, they have to fight the eels everytime the suns go down. Also in this group of people is councilman Matt Wilson. He's a real pain in the butt, and definitely has the Atom on his short list. The issue ends with him having appeared to blast off Ryan's head with his own gun. Like I said, the weirdness scale is high on this one. I have no idea where they're going to go from here, or how they're going to possibly get out of this predicament. Ladronn contributes another fantastic cover, and Pat Olliffe is the current artist in residence. I thought he was pretty decent on the Four Horsemen mini, but I think he's doing an even better job here. I'm not sure what the next issue blurb means, but it says . . "Return of the Atom!"