Q: Is Mister Atom dead?
A: Oh sure – as dead as any robotic life form made out of metal when they’re disassembled can be. We’d love to see the ambulance pull up with only a wrench inside…
Awww, dang it!
I knew, sooner or later that they were going to kill somebody off that I liked. It's all well and good to view the death of someone like Uncle Sam and the Black Condor with clinical detachment, but the DC Universe is all the poorer (and Captain Marvel is all the poorer) without that absolutely fantastic Monster Society of Evil member.
He has a great look, neat powers, history...it's unfortunate that they decided to eliminate this particular killer robot.
Q: Kite Man?
A: Chalk up another villain who will be missed by seven people. Likewise, if you’re keeping track, cross out Fisherman (an old Aquaman villain) too – he took four in the back in Gotham Central #37 courtesy of Detectives Josie MacDonald and Marcus Driver.
I really hate how when they say "clean house," what they really mean is "kill off Silver Age characters with potential that haven't appeared in comics stories in decades." If Kurt Busiek could do one of the greatest AVENGERS stories ever with Kulan Gath, who's to say some future Aqua-writer can't tell a good story with the Fisherman? That's the most shortsighted thing in the world.
Apparently, the only people that can ever have bad ideas are Silver Age writers. You know what would be great? Is if they did a Crisis and only eliminated
MODERN Age characters. The death of Damage was a step in the right direction. Anybody ever read the recent DC Comics Encyclopedia? Choked to the rim with lousy comics: Lab Rats (ugh) the DNAngels (double ugh) any character that ever appeared as an enemy in STEEL, YOUNG JUSTICE or IMPULSE - all these people are calling for the ultimate penalty! Ditto for those odious little weasels in Young Justice, the Relative Heroes, Young Heroes in Love...
Don't forget Ma'alefik (giving the Martian Manhunter a totally boring archnemesis? Good going, ferretbrains!)
That one character not created by Kirby who is yet ANOTHER son of Darkseid (yawn)
Any Superman villain created by Chuck Austen, any supporting cast member created by John Byrne or the Carlin team (Ron Troupe, Cat Grant, and most especially Rampage - which is an act of intellectual theft so obvious and so crooked after even touching a comic with her in it, I feel like bathing in lysol)
Any Modern Age Superman supervillain sans Maxima and Riot: La Encantadora, Conduit, Doomsday, Misa, that...guy that makes deathtraps for a living whose name escapes me at the moment
The Huntress, who without Earth-2 has been deprived of a reason to exist
Any "teen replacement" for an experienced superhero (yes, that means you, Ray, and you, new Firestorm)
Anybody in the Peter David Aquaman supporting cast: the wizard Atlan (who?) that crooked High Priest, Thanatos...
And finally, for the love of GOD, Lobo. He's not only a joke that is not funny anymore; he's a joke that drunk relatives bring out over and over during the holidays that you come to slightly resent.