#atari force

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[atariforce]

Atari Force by Howard Chaykin

[inhousearchive]

House-ad for Atari Force (1984), a series featuring characters and stories loosely based on trademarks of Atari, Inc.

[smashedpages]

Happy birthday to colorist Tom Ziuko!

[cantsayidont]

August 1985. José Luis García López illustration from the WHO'S WHO entry for Dart (Erin Bia O'Rourke-Singh), a precognitive interstellar mercenary from the DC ATARI FORCE series.

[rhade-zapan]

José Luis García-López  Atari Force #6 1984

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[tomoleary]

Eduardo Barreto “Atari Force” Who's Who The Definitive Directory of the DC Universe (1985) #1 pages 24-25

Source, source

[sebeth]

Morphea

[zacksoto]

Back in 2011, I was asked "So, what old DC comic would YOU like to reboot, and what's the angle, and can you draw a cover for this theoretical comic relaunch?" I was not asked this by a professional editor at DC, but by my friend Jon who was doing a themed blog thingie. Look, it was before the world we live in now—we had time to imagine a better world and fool around! Anyway, I am reposting the "pitch" I wrote, as well as the illo I did back in 2011 (below), just to have it here. Above is a more recent posca drawing/painting of Dart (as you will see if you read the wall of text below, she's my favorite 😂)

ATARI FORCE #1 (of 12)

2063: A.T.A.R.I. (Advanced Technology And Research Institute) combs an infinite number of realities in order to find a suitable new world for the population of a dying Earth. In their travels through the Multiverse, one of the expeditionary forces does battle with and ultimately kills the ultimate evil - a lovecraftian devourer of dimensions they dub the DARK DESTROYER. In the course of this battle, they find a perfect, empty world in a universe teeming with advanced civilizations. After some false starts both the recolonization of New Earth and the socialization of the New Earthlings with the rest of their new neighbors is a success.

2088: THE ATARI FOUNDATION, now the de facto governing party of New Earth, has ushered in a new era of utopian prosperity. After the Old Earth was brought to the brink of destruction by gross negligence and mismanagement, the people of New Earth are only too happy to put themselves in the guiding hands of ATARI. All live in relative prosperity and happiness..

Except for MARTIN CHAMPION, brilliant Multiversal scientist and the leader of the original expedition that battled the Destroyer. Martin is haunted by the death of his wife in childbirth, and is convinced that the Dark Destroyer somehow caused it. Instead of going about his life and picking up the pieces, Martin sits in his lab sending probes out in to the Multiverse, in hopes of finding proof of the existence of the Dark Destroyer. Martin has, over the years, become a laughingstock of ATARI, as well as driven his now adult son out of his life, due to misplaced anger about the death of his wife. All he has left is his obsession..

Until one of his probes goes missing after sending back readings of energy very similar to the kind the Destroyer radiates. Worried that he's given the Dark Destroyer a direct route back to New Earth in the lost probe, Martin hijacks his now antique Multiversal scout ship

SCANNER ONE and heads out to stop the Destroyer once and for all. To help him on this mission, he enlists:

ERIN BIA O'ROURKE-SINGH, aka DART - A telepathic mercenary, as well as his goddaughter. She's one of the deadliest, sexiest beings in the universe, and she has a precognitive "second sight" that comes in handy.

MORPHEA - An alien empath, forced on Champion by the ATARI FOUNDATION to serve as his psychiatrist. Ostensibly she's there to help him with his "delusions", but her connection to Martin's deepest convictions gives her reason to think he's actually right about the danger facing the Multiverse.

CHRIS CHAMPION, aka TEMPEST - Martin's estranged son. A professional fighting champion who's anger management issues and freakish teleportation abilities have made him a star in the Mega-Brawl circuit.

Wanted by the government of New Earth, and pursued by the ATARI Security Squad, Champion has to outwit them all and defeat the ultimate expression of evil all over again. Luckily this time he has the new, improved, ATARI FORCE!

Over the course of their adventure, their rag tag team grows in size as they pick up new members:

BABE - The hulking, freakishly strong infant from a world of rock-like creatures.

TUKLA OLY, aka PAKRAT - An impish, self-absorbed master thief who goes into berserker rages when cornered.

TAZ - A master soldier, last of her race, who carries deep anger and sadness within her.

MOSES FISK, aka BLACKJAK - Dart's lover, a roguish mercenary once thought dead, secretly brainwashed to do the Dark Destroyer's bidding. --- I loved AF as a kid, so when Jon asked me what book I'd reboot if I got the chance, it was one of a handful of titles I considered. I especially loved Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez' designs and storytelling, and Gerry Conway did a really good job weaving all these plot threads together in an exciting way.

My reboot of the book would reprise it as a 12 issue mini series (or maxi series, as it would have been called back then), and really play up some of the hard sci fi elements at the fringes of the concept, as well as inject a sort of European sense of storytelling to the character bits, while still remaining true to the general arc of the original.

The only character I would really change that much is Chris, who in the original is pretty lame/bland/whiney and was quickly overshadowed by Dart. I thought giving him the MMA-style fighting league to be a part of would be something interesting for him to use to try and cope with being crapped on by his dad all his life, as well as ground him more than in the original series, where he's really sort of a cypher-brat.

Another wrinkle I would explore is the sexual tension between him and his "sister", Dart. It's hinted at in the original series, but I think that I'd have it bloom fully in my version on these long weeks and months stuck on Scanner One - Chris always having had a thing for Dart since they were kids, and Dart being rather depressed and lovesick because of Blackjak's apparent death early in the series. Things would, of course get rather sticky when Blackjak reappears.

Needless to say, the ATARI FORCE gang eventually wins out against the new iteration of the Dark Destroyer, but not without some serious losses, and they limp off still wanted by the ATARI FOUNDATION and use the failing Multiversal drive on Scanner One to take them into unknown space..

Atari Force was created by Gerry Conway and Roy Thomas. (Read more)

[coupleofdays]

Important advice for time travellers: If you ever find yourself in a future timeline where Atari is somehow still a successful corporation, get the heck out of there as quickly as possible. For example, look at Soylent Green, set in the far-off year of 2022, where overpopulation has led to horrific conditions and probably doomed mankind to extinction. And look what's in the background in one of the apartments in this bleak future:

That's right, it's Computer Space, Atari's first attempt at an arcade game, which was never much of a success in real life, despite its cool futuristic cabinet design. But in Soylent Green, it's still somehow around and apparently popular in 2022, suggesting that Atari is as well. And then there's Blade Runner, also set in the distant future of 2019, in a dark, dirty dystopia with evil megacorporations and opressed robots. And look, there in the background:

Okay, that's a pretty small sign, maybe Atari isn't that big? Well, look at the sequel, Blade Runner 2049:

Yep, skyscraper-sized billboards for Atari.

But maybe I'm being unfair. Let's see what kind of a future Atari themselves depicted in their licensed comic "Atari Force", set in the distant future of 2005, wherein Atari has become a major research institute:

Okay, that looks pretty nice, but what's this "Break-up" they're talking about?

Okay, so just a short World War III, I'm sure there were no lasting consequences...

Oh dear. Earth is basically dying, and the premise of the comic is that the only solution is for Atari to construct a dimension-travelling spaceship that can locate an alternate universe Earth where humanity can escape from their dying home world.

I know it's just three examples, but it's enough to make me think that while the world is in a pretty bad shape right now, it would be even worse if Atari was anything other than a brand name owned by another company at this point.

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[atariforce]

Atari Force: Dart by José Luis García-López

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