It is impossible to keep this reading index without giving place to the side comic of Rex Splode and Atom Eve, but for the moment I will not add the Atom Eve origins side-comic due the episode of the Amazon TV series generated so much hype, so this won´t be a priority, even the section to discuss that comic is posted in this sub.
If it were a chronological reading order, this side-comic would occupy one of the first positions since it shows us part of the origin of the young heroes, but it puts special focus on Rex Splode, well remember that we are reaching the Issue 60 and this marks a terrible moment for this same one.
Why is Rex so annoying? Why does he have so many behavioral problems? What does he want to show or hide? Is there room for redemption in his character?
Some of these questions are answered here.
________Issue I_________
Chronological-wise, Rex’s origins are set at the history point where the GDA is already under director Cecil Stedman management, working alongside the Guardians of the Globe and with Omni-man, the defender of democracy, under his command too.
But also, those events fit´s before Brit side comic, given that Ericksen is a recurrent villain here.
In the young Rex we find the figure of a child thief moved by the noble cause of providing support for his family. It apparently denoted the supremacy of his skill compared to others, since eventually the former GDA director, Ratcliffe, would turn his attention to him.
The rest of the story is very sharp… one day Ratcliffe appears before the Sloan family and proposes to buy their son in exchange for a lot of money, deceiving them that he still works for the government.
We had already seen that when Ratcliffe worked for the GDA he had no problems moving through the gray areas of morality, a trait that he would retain years later, since taking advantage of the context of poverty and marginality of Rex’s family, Ratcliffe chooses to bribe the young man’s family with supplies such as food.
Finally, the offer is made and immediately accepted: a lot of money in exchange for young Rex Sloan.
Things couldn’t be any other way, and Rex is sold to this man.
It turns out that Ratcliffe had abandoned his stake in the Global Defense Agency to become fully involved in his own agenda, for which he set out to train his own hit-man which would be little Rex.
In this way, Rex is implanted with his signature weapon, a cannon surgically attached to his wrist, with which he can charge and explode objects as long as they are not organic, apart from this this could turn any other object into a very unstable explosive using a minimum kinetic energy.
As time went by, Rex’s abilities increased and so did the task given to him, which ranged from robberies to assassinations in combat or with surprise explosives on targets… eventually,Rex himself would doubt that he could to do with these actions that are crimes in themselves, but Rattclife would insist that he remember the past when he stole to feed his family, even alluding to how these crimes could even serve to feed a greater good.
Among Rex’s criminal list at that time, we can even find terrorism, due to his ease of moving any material and converting it into explosive weapons to attack people or key locations in other countries, such as his mission in Japan.
Everything would begin to change for the young Rex from the day that Ratcliffe would give him a very special mission: to infiltrate below the USA Pentagon, into the headquarters of the organization that he previously led, the Global Defense Agency, and assassinate its current director, and his former protégé, thus destroying the whole operation.
Soon Rex would begin to understand what he was really getting into. The person who had pseudo-raised him and given him his super-powers had trained him as an assassin who acted in the shadows committing any atrocities, operating with a terrible hunger for power.
The curious thing is that this was the first red-flag for Rex, perhaps because this attack would be against his own homeland.
_________Issue #2___________
After this mission was assigned to him, Rex takes some time to think about it and just at that moment he meets the also young heroine Atom Eve, who was fighting with her nemesis Killcannon.
After this confrontation, both young people have a conversation where Rex asks for advice, since the man who raised him and gave him his superpowers has always told him that they worked for the government fighting on the side of good, but lately he has sent him to assassinate numerous targets and the next one is inside the Pentagon.
Let’s remember Atom-Eve’s background, she does not doubt that even within the government there can be bad people, but after hearing Rex’s version of events she does not hesitate to invite him to stay with her, in her parents’ house, while he is settles your affairs.
This is how Rex spends the night at Eve’s parents’ house thinking about what he is going to do.
The next day, he leaves a letter announcing his retirement and that he has made a decision.
He soon arrives at GDA headquarters with a briefcase for director Cecil Stedman, which goes through several checkpoints and is finally delivered by an agent.
It is a golf ball that was going to be used as an explosive, and next to it is a note that warns “I don’t know how you are but I just saved your life”
Sure enough, as Eve expected, Rex made the right decision.
The next day, es Rex returns his safe-house he struggles with the recent events, like the kind of things he is forced to do and how his family turn on him as a kid. Also, in a wall full of Ratcliffe career pictures, he spots one photo where Ratcliffe is hanging with a few soldiers, among them Rex´s father, how he recognices due to an star tatto in the left hand.Also, in order to get an idea on Ratcliffe reach, in the same wall are photos of him alongside heroes of the caliber of The Immortal, or with agents such as Brit, Brittany and Euclides.
Suddenly Ratcliffe approachs him and aks why there is still nothing about the Pentagon and GDA bases explosion incident, to what the young one answers that may be there is all being covered, and asks about his father picture.Ratcliffe hits Rex and after a discussion he argues that he give Rex everything, a home, food, job, money and the most important thing: power.
That´s all about for this man who formerly was the front man in Earth protection as head of the GDA, he breaked bad due to the power and ambition that this entailed. In the middle of the discussion, Rex overloads Ratcliffes glasses with enough power to cause a explosion when he went into contact with this, causing an explossion that blows Ratcliffes head.
Rex panics and escapes from the facility, causing an explosion that blows up much of the building used as a facade. Later, he seeks refuge at Eve’s but she warns him that he has made an even bigger mistake than he thinks, since logically the government will investigate the mysterious explosion of this place that contains technology to develop super soldier.
She even warns Rex that she herself has dealt with these types of government agents before, and ndeed we can see Ericksen and Dr. Rodgers, whose are already investigating the ruins of Ratcliffe opperation.
_________Issue #3___________
As soon as Eve and Rex arrived at the ruins of the Ratcliffe operation, they notice that the government has already made their presence in the place, even Eve recognizes Eriksen and warns Rex about him.Due to Rex lack of stealth, the young duo gets spoted.
While Rex can’t help but kill some soldiers, Eve instead uses her superpowers to neutralize the rest of them, thus getting out of the situation.
The young tries to avoid more fight and move forward to the point, that is blowing up the rest of Ratcliffe operation.So, Rex have the plan of going underground in order to cause such explosion, but as soon as he is about to do it, Eve gets caught.Eriksen confronts Rex asking his name, and this reveals to us that it is Atom Eve who calls him for the first time by his nickname “Rex Splode”, so she being the author of the nickname.
Ericksen tells Rex that he would usually be taken to a clandestine prison and executed, but given his abilities he is willing to offer him a position in his army, where he would be forgiven for his past actions.
Rex already knows guys like this, so he refuses to work with Ericksen, and just as the gas main ends up blowing, Rex manages to escape with Eve.
Some time later, Eve takes her boyfriend to the tailor Arthur, who desings Rex his signature suit from his life span as super-hero in the entire comic-series.Also, this is the first time uses her suit from the core comic, designing it in order to replace the one destroyed during the fight.
Eve admits she is being rude because is affected about Ericksen pressence, since he killed her family, telling Rex the truth about her origins and the reason why she developed those super-powers.Also, she hints that she may ereased Ericksen memories about her, solving the plot hole of why he didn´t recognized her.
Although as time went by, we can see that Rex could never fully forgive his parents, occasionally he struggled by looking at their photos, reaching a point where he finally found them.It seems that he only wanted revenge for what they do to him, and for a time thinked about killing them, also letting Eve know that.Finally, when Rex reached his parents new house he discovered that with the money they earns by selling him to Ratcliffe, they were able to move to an ostentatious house, managing to form a new family, with a daugther and a baby to whom they give the love that they never gave to Rex.
For this, he decides to forgive them. Eve even intercepts him and tells him that she imagined he wouldn’t be able to do it, which just confirms her hunger for revenge.
Curiosities
- Second Rattclife apperance.
- First Killcannon apperance.
- At his beggining, Rex was most likely a black-ops hitman.
- Apparently before working with the GDA Ratcliffe had a military career.
- It´s funny to see Eve’s financial problems recurrently, given that she doesn´t have a work.
- Eve defeated the Lizard League with her two then super-hero boyfriends.
Man, I’m really hoping they do Rex’s origin as the next special episode. It’s gonna make his moment during the Invincible War hit so much harder.
Im surprised he was such an skilled assasin. Also in the TV show Cecil hints he is ok with Rex perfomance in the new Guardians of the Globe team