Atari Force and ROM

 Here's a tale of two licensed properties.  Both had talented writers and artists working on their comic series, but one had a distinct difference.  Atari Force was alone with its own story and continuity, while ROM was placed squarely in the middle of the Marvel Universe, with familiar heroes and villains crossing paths with the titular hero.  Perhaps if DC had made Atari Force a pert of the DCU, their comic would have had a wider appeal than it did.

I bought it mainly for the gorgeous JL Garcia Lopez art.  Here's an original sketch of Starfire by him from my collection:

Gamora and Dart

 

Comics that were basically video game or toy tie-ins never really appealed to me, with a few exceptions and Atari Force was one of them.  I can't say I remember too much about the series, what really made an impression on me was the incredible art work of Jose Luis Garcia Lopez.  It is too bad that the series has never been collected to my knowledge, maybe that's a rights issue.  Some of the characters, especially Dart, had a ton of potential.

Alien Legion and Atari Force

 

Atari Force was an interesting comic.  For one thing, it was it much better than I expected a video game tie-in comic to be, with the interesting characters and absolutely gorgeous JL Garcia Lopez artwork.  Still, I was not sure of what the actual connection to Atari was.  Sure some of the characters wore the logo on their costumes, but it's not like the series was based on any Atari game that I was aware of - and I would have loved that.

Atari Force and The Micronauts

Comics based on toys usually held only marginal interest for me, but there were a couple of exceptions.  The Micronauts was based on some of my favorite toys of my youth, and featured the gorgeous art of Michael Golden.  The fact that Marvel had the characters firmly rooted in the Marvel universe, with plenty of guest appearances, made it even better.  I didn't really pay much attention to the video game tie-in aspect to Atari Force, it was the amazing artwork of Jose Luis Garcia Lopez that drew me in.  I'd love to see either of these teams return, but with tangled rights situations, I am not holding my breath.

Batman and Atari Force

Here's a new one I just did as a request. I don't remember much about Atari Force back in the day, I think I only had one issue - but I have heard many good things about the series so maybe it is something I need to check out if a collection is ever released.

One major thing the series had going for it was the absolutely phenomenal artwork by Jose Luis Garcia Lopez. It's too bad that licensing red tape is probably preventing this series from being reprinted.