Atlas. No, the other one

I really really loved the Kurt Busiek Thunderbolts run, and for my money, it's one of the best superhero comic runs ever.

And easily my favorite character from that run was Erik Josten, the former Goliath who became Atlas. Given the characters I usually tend to relate to and talk about, this is a pretty odd choice. The thing to keep in mind is that Erik really, really, was a mess. He always made questionable choices, and most of the time, he wanted nothing more than to not have to make a choice at all. He had to struggle to develop a moral compass after a lifetime of bad choices and errors in judgement. He had to learn from the consequences of some pretty huge mistakes, to build himself a better person.

And I think that's it right now; his choices had consequences, not just for him, but for the people he cared about. Actually, more often it was others who ended up suffering for his mistakes, whether it was members of his family, or his teammates, or just other civilians. The character's struggle struck a chord with me because this was a guy who had come face to face with the wreckage left in his wake, and he had to struggle to find a way to make up for it. And it didn't come all at once either - he still made mistakes, he backslid, and progress was painstakingly slow.

But I couldn't help but root for the guy.