The Atomic Knights

The Atomic Knights by John Broome
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

After the nuclear apocalypse of 1986, only one force stands between humanity and lawlessness... The Atomic Knights!

Back in the day, in that hazy time before the coronavirus, before the internet, and even before I could drive, most of the comics I got were from the Big Pevely Flea Market. One such find was an issue of DC Comics Presents featuring Superman teaming up with the Atomic Knights. Knights? Riding Dalmatians? After a nuclear war? Sign me up! And then I forgot about the Atomic Knights for a couple decades. I was busy!

Anyway, this volume collects all the Atomic Knights adventures by John Broome and Murphy Anderson in the silver age of DC comics. As such, the stories contain all sorts of fun silver age stuff, like bad science and quaint 1950s style sexism. Once you get past that, the stories are cheesy fun. There are killer telepathic plans, Atlantis, Dalmatians the size of horses, mole people, and medieval armor that has somehow become radiation proof.

John Broome was clearly having fun with the writing. He also must have been a John Wyndham fan because there are numerous Day of the Triffids homages, namely Garnder Grail leaving the fallout shelter to find the world changes and the Trefoil plants, mobile killer telepathic pea plants.
Murphy Anderson's art was better than I expected. I'd put it up against anything DC or Marvel was putting out at the time.

The stories were running out of steam near the end. I guess there are only so many things you can do with the Atomic Knights premise. I liked how Broome had the freedom to advance the timeline and let the characters progress a bit. I imagine Murphy Anderson was getting tried of desert landscapes by the end, though.

The Atomic Knights is a fun journey into the post apocalyptic world of 1986. I'm looking forward to visiting again with Hercules Unbound later this year. Three out of five giant Dalmatians.

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