Take less time to discuss this 2-issue mini-series than it did to write all those names. Consider this as a companion piece to Avengers vs. Atlas (discussed in Sunday Splash Page #59). The other mini-series Marvel tried to use to get a little more fanbase engagement with Agents of Atlas before the second attempt at an ongoing. Atlas only lasted five issues, shorter even than the original mini-series, so we can safely say that didn't work.
This is set during the stretch when the X-Men had formed their own little island community. No, not Krakoa. No, not Genosha. The island off the coast of San Francisco made from leftover bits of Asteroid M. Man, that thing just rained down over the entire planet, didn't it? Way to mass pollute Magneto, you dick.
Atlas steals Cerebro, sorry Cerebra, because Bob the Uranian wants to use it to boost his telepathy to find their missing teammate Venus. Because they figure the X-Men won't agree to let them borrow it. Because Atlas was posing as a criminal empire with ties to Norman Osborn, or just because they're jerks? Either/or. Turns out Cerebra doesn't mesh well with Bob's headband that allows telepathic transmission, and the Atlas team and the (surviving) Original 5 X-Men get sucked into some sort of shared feedback loop thing, playing off the story Parker did in X-Men First Class where the kids meet Gorilla Man while looking for Xavier.
Parker also takes the opportunity to continue the grudge match between Wolverine and M-11 he established in the first Agents of Atlas ongoing. The one dating back to Logan blowing the robot up during a mission involving mind-controlling insects in Cuba in the 1950s, then renewed during a fight against the New Avengers.
The fight gets halted by Namor, of all people, since he's allied with both groups. He literally shouts, 'Cease this battle at once! Namor Commands!' and it works. Everyone just stops and looks around awkwardly while Emma Frost notes Namor still has the loudest voice. Anyway, the groups set their differences aside, Bob locates Venus, who has actually been abducted by agents of Aphrodite, who is displeased about Venus borrowing her likeness without paying usage rights. That leads into the mini-event Assault on New Olympus, which was mostly an Incredible Hercules storyline, but I'm pretty sure the Agents of Atlas were involved.
The art's not quite as much a mess as the credits would suggest. Samnee draws the sections in the shared telepathic space. Hardman draws the part at the end involving Venus at the very end. Rodriguez takes over for Pagulayan after Samnee's part, which is a little distracting because his art is close to Pagulayan's, but just different enough you notice the shift.
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