Co-Feature Blues

I'm kinda sad that the new Captain Atom co-feature will appear in Action Comics. I like the character - have done since the very early days - and after the mauling he had during Countdown where he became Monarch once more and presided over the destruction of an entire Earth, I'm interested as to how he's dealt with.

The interview here at Newsarama with the story's writers, James Robinson and Greg Rucka, is interesting and grabs my interest more than a little. Greg Rucka says:

"I can tell you tight now that when the co-feature starts, the fan reaction is going to be "What the ---?" I think that there will be a contingent that will be ticked off by it - there’s always that contingent who, when they find something different that’s not explained immediately, they become furious. So the furious brigade will be burning us in effigy from the start, but it makes sense - there’s a reason for it all."

and, a little later:

"NRAMA: Would it be fair to say that there’s a fair amount of redemption in this story, or a putting him back on the tracks in a sense?


GR: I think it’s very fair to say that, in many ways, this is a very redemptive story."

all of which makes me rather depressed.  I'm not a huge an of Superman and have never picked up his titles as an ongoing, just the occasional trade paperback. And with the state of the economy right now, there's no real way I can pick up a new title just for the back-up story.

So I guess I'll have to settle for reading about it on the net and hope against hope that the Captain Atom story will get collected some point down the line.