Continuing my read through of the 80s video game tie-in Atari Force, this third issue finally makes us care about the two characters who seem to be the protagonists: Dart and Blackjak.

It doesn’t make us give a damn about the hot-headed Tempest, aka Christopher Champion, however, who really does come across as a bit of a dick.

He seems like he may well have been considered the lead character at one point, particularly given the fact that his code name ties in with an actual Atari game; yet perhaps the creators realised just how unlikeable he is and gave him more of a supporting role.

Elsewhere, oddball characters such as Pakrat (who, almost inexplicably, gets to be the cover star here), Babe and Morphea get a bit more time in the spotlight and their stories are starting to come together (at last!).

However, it’s all still very disjointed and there’s little in the way of explanation for at least one of the villains here, plus the world building is currently very poor.

It’s all very nicely designed, with a very colourful universe and plenty of vibrant, well designed creatures and characters in general, but Atari Force still feels as if it doesn’t quite know what it wants to be, or how to tie everyone and their disparate stories together.

I did find it notable, particularly given its Comics Code Authority approval, that it features a very obvious allusion to a sex scene happening, even if it doesn’t show the act itself, as well as several characters smoking their way through the pages of the story.

It certainly makes it feel like a much more mature comic than you may be expecting, and also less of a tie-in to anything related to Atari at all; one sequence in which a ship fights against the effects of gravity did put me in mind of Atari arcade title Gravitar, however.

This may or may not be intentional; despite a strong pedigree and plenty of experience, writer Gerry Conway seems to be at a bit of a loss with what to focus on in Atari Force.

One thing I’ve yet to mention that’s an absolute joy, with this or any old comic, is checking out the old advert pages.

As you’d expect in Atari Force, there are many ads for video games; amusingly, however, many of them seem to be for systems that were rivals for Atari back in the day.

Anyway, it makes the reading of these individual issues a bit more bearable, at least.