Atari Force #1

Jan 1984 · DC · 0.75 USD; 0.95 CAD; 0.25 GBP

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“Part One: Fresh Blood”

★ 1st appearance — Babe

About this Issue

Atari Force #1 (January 1984) is the opening chapter of one of the most ambitious corporate-synergy-to-genuine-art turnarounds in Bronze Age comics: what began as a promotional mini-comic tucked inside Atari 2600 cartridges was reinvented by DC as a fully-formed, direct-market science-fiction epic that stood on its own creative merits. The issue marks the first appearances of the entire second-generation Atari Force roster — Tempest, Dart, Morphea, Babe, and Pakrat — a richly diverse, alien-inclusive cast whose dysfunctional-family dynamics and genuine ethical weight pushed well beyond standard team-book convention. It also represents one of the earliest sustained video game/comics crossovers, helping establish the template that countless later publishers would follow when adapting game properties into sequential narrative. As an artifact of the Copper Age's direct-sales expansion, the issue demonstrates how a licensed concept could transcend its commercial origins and earn a devoted cult readership entirely on storytelling and artistic grounds.

writer Gerry Conway · artist José Luis García-López · inker Ricardo Villagrán · colorist Tom Ziuko · letterer Bob Lappan · cover José Luis García-López

ComicBooks.com Value

Our Model is In Beta

Raw (VF) $7

CGC 9.8 · 77 in census $69

CGC 9.6 · 27 in census $40

CGC 9.4 · 9 in census $22*

CGC 9.2 · 6 in census $20*

CGC 9.0 · 7 in census $20*

CGC 8.5 · 7 in census $20*

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CGC 8.0 · 3 in census $20*

CGC 7.5 · 3 in census $20*

CGC 7.0 · 1 in census $20*

CGC 6.5 none in existence

CGC 6.0 none in existence

CGC 5.5 · 2 in census $20*

CGC 5.0 · 1 in census $20*

* estimate — limited direct-sales data at this grade

Our model’s value — refined as new sales data arrives · CGC census counts shown where available

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History

The 1984 ongoing series grew directly out of a Warner Communications synergy play: both DC Comics and Atari, Inc. were subsidiaries of the same parent corporation, making a shared publishing venture a natural corporate move. Writer Gerry Conway, who had co-scripted the original 1982 Atari 2600 pack-in minicomics, returned to reshape the property for the newsstand-to-direct-market era, and DC editor Andy Helfer shepherded the project under executive editor Dick Giordano. Conway reconceived the team as a second generation — the children of the original crew — and brought in José Luis García-López, DC's de facto house-style master whose character designs appeared on virtually every piece of DC merchandise of the era, to design the new cast and serve as lead penciler, inked by Ricardo Villagran. The result was a book that, despite its licensed origins, operated as a standalone direct-sales-only series with genuine world-building ambition, even including an in-book recap page that doubled as a history of the entire Atari Force mythology.

Trivia · 8 facts

First appearances of the entire second Atari Force lineup: Christopher 'Tempest' Champion (son of original team leader Martin Champion), Erin 'Dart' Bia O'Rourke-Singh, Morphea (an insectoid empath), Babe (an alien infant of enormous strength), and Pakrat (a humanoid rodent thief) all debut in this issue.
The lead story is titled 'Fresh Blood,' scripted by Gerry Conway with pencils by José Luis García-López and inks by Ricardo Villagran; the cover is also by García-López.
The series was a direct-sales-only release — not sold on newsstands — making it an early example of a major DC title produced exclusively for the specialty comic shop market.
The book's existence was made possible by the shared Warner Communications corporate parentage of both DC Comics and Atari, Inc., mirroring a similar cross-subsidiary arrangement that produced the earlier Swordquest project.
Issue #1 contains a full-page prose recap of the entire prior Atari Force history (the 1982 minicomics and the 'Code Name: Liberator' insert) rather than an editorial caption, an unusual structural choice that signaled the series expected readers to treat it as serialized literature.
Tempest's defining character trait — the ability to travel between dimensions by 'phasing' through the Multiverse — is established in this issue, making him one of comics' early dedicated multiverse-traveler heroes.
The issue was reprinted internationally multiple times, including in a Netherlands-language edition by Juniorpress (1985) and French-language editions by Arédit-Artima (1985), reflecting the series' reach beyond the American direct market.
The 1986 Atari Force Special, which followed the 20-issue run, remained the last original material until Dynamite Entertainment announced (but ultimately failed to deliver) a reprint and revival initiative in 2015–2017, leaving the series in publishing limbo largely due to the lapsed Atari license — a fate it shares with other Warner-era licensed properties like Rom: Spaceknight and Micronauts.