Space Adventures #39 (April 1961)

Tags

Captain Atom, Joe Gill, Rocke Mastroserio, Silver Age Captain Atom, Steve Ditko

“Test-Pilot’s Nightmare”

• Writer: Joe Gill
• Artist: Steve Ditko

This story opens with Captain Adam on an air base looking over a new space plane, the X-49.n  He is with a Dr. Hargus, a balding pudgey man in a bow tie (bow ties are cool).  Dr. Hargus is calling Adam a liar because he was just on the phone with the Captain three minutes before and Cap said he was in Florida, “more than two thousand miles away.”  Cap brushes the doctor off, telling him he’s concerned about the oxygen pump on the X-49.  It is as if Adam has lost a little of his humanity.  He sees no point in even coming up with a cover story.  Like to him people like Hargus are beneath him or something.  Perhaps I am stretching here, but it seems like he’s going down the “A live body and a dead body contain the same number of particles. Structurally, there’s no discernible difference. Life and death are unquantifiable abstracts.”

Okay, yeah, I am really reaching on that one. Still…

Hargus says the oxygen pump will be fine, that the test pilot, Major Silberling, has already used this gear on a different plane.  Cap tells him the X-49 is much faster and the pump will fail.  Hargus tries to get Adam kicked off the project but a general informs him Cap is there under orders from the president.

The X-49 is released from the bottom of a B-52 with Silberling at the controls.  All goes well at first, but out of nowhere Captain Adam announces that the major is suffering from anoxia.  Hargus basically tells Adam to get bent and leave him alone.  Meanwhile, Silberling is singing to himself (an editorial note explains that one of the symptoms of anoxia is feeling drunk).

Adam jumps out of the B-52 and transforms into Captain Atom.  He blasts through space to the X-49, hypothesizing that the oxygen pump failed because of “the fine oil vaporizing when subject to negative pressure in space.”  He comes up on the craft realizing the Major only has seconds to live.  Cap moves some grease around and the pump starts working again.  The X-49 touches down safely.  The Major saw Captain fly by, but Silberling ends up brushing it off as his mind playing tricks on him.  Captain Adam winks at the reader and the story is over.

I thought this story was cute.  I give Joe an A for this.  Ditko’s art seems a little sloppy.  Not great attention to detail and at times Captain Atom looks kind of overweight.  C for art.

“Peace Envoy”

• Writer: Joe Gill
• Artist: Rocke Mastroserio

For the first time, Captain Atom was drawn by someone other than Steve Ditko.  And he instantly looks younger.

We join the story after a great deal has happened off-panel.  It is summed up in the opening:  “The attack came without warning… on a morning in Mid-way, the intruders from outer soace came in, their lethal disinto-rays pulverizing every patrol craft we sent up!  Only their strange withdrawal after thirty minutes saved the world from total destruction!”

Captain “Adams” (sigh) is shot down by the aliens.   Strangely, instead of a flight suit, he is wearing his service dress blues.  As he plummets toward the ground, he transforms into Captain Atom, and flies up into space to blast the aliens into jelly.

He goes back to the city and props up a building that is falling over.  Having read all of Cap’s appearances to this point, I know that he has never done something so publically before.  However, as he is propping the building up, someone addresses him as “Captain Atom.”  Then after calming the panicking throngs of people, Cap flies to Washington.

Captain Atom meets with the president (again, looking nothing like Kennedy), who wants to know if they can count on Cap to stop another attack.  The aliens deliver a message to the president, calling for Earth’s surrender (Captain Atom predicted they would).  Cap flies off to meet the aliens, looking super pissed off.

He discovers their mothership, a huge “artificial planet.”  He flies around it to them them know he’s there, and they open up an entrance for him.  When the aliens reveal themselves to him, they say, “Now, see us, Earthling!  Are you not repulsed: sickened by our ugliness?  For we are ugly!” (Hoo, boy.  What heavy-handed dialogue.)

Cap says maybe he’d be considered ugly on their world (but surely not on Earth, mrrowwww! – sorry, I don’t know quite where that came from).  They ask if all humans can fly through space and survive in space.  Cap sort of dodges their questions, not letting on that he is unique.  When he wants to ask them some questions, they hit hi with, “We do not answer questions!  We are stronger, the victors and answerable to no puny Earthlings!”  Wrong answer. Cap goes apeshit and starts wrecking their “artificial moon.”  (That’s no moon.)

The aliens reveal (stupidly) that all the weapons they have took much time to manufacture and are nearly impossible to replace.  So Captain Atom blows their crap up.  The aliens bow down to him and promise to leave peacefully and never return.  For good measure, Cap kicks their little artificial-moon-planet-spaceship out into deep space.  He then says to the reader, “They may return… Keep an eye peeled for their scout ships!  You may spot them first!”

Oh, how awesome this could have been if it were an entire issue and not just seven pages!  Joe Gill spuna good yarn this time (overlooking the obvious mistakes – “Captain Adams” and the public heroics).  Taking that into consideration, I’m awarding ole Joe an A+.  I really really liked this one.  And Rocke Mastroserio’s art is an A.  He forgot Cap’s symbol twice

“An Ageless Weapon”

• Writer: Joe Gill
• Artist: Steve Ditko

Captain Adam is tasked with delivering ultra-secret European defense plans to NATO headquarters.  He changes into Captain Atom and flies to Berlin in 30 minutes.  He buzzes a passenger plane on the way, and the pilot says if he reports one more UFO he’ll be thrown to the flight surgeons.  This bugs me because IN THIS VERY ISSUE, Earth was invaded by aliens.  How quickly they forget…

Cap touches down in Berlin, switches back to regular old Captain Adam, and heads for NATO headquarters.  On his way in, he is distracted by a young lady tripping.  When he helps her up, she pulls a gun on him and leads him to a waiting car.  They drive into East Berlin with Cap telling them the whole time they have the wrong guy.  He is led into a building and brought before Vladimir Koss, a man who “had a book-length dossier in every allied intelligence office in the world.”

Cap produces the documents and asks what he gets for cooperating.  Koss says nothing, so Cap shoves him in the face.  A thug hits Adam on the back with a gun, which breaks.  He zaps another dude’s gun after he fires on Captain Adam.   Cap, Vladmir, and the young lady go back to the car where Cap makes them drive back to West Berlin and NATO headquarters.  He turns over the baddies and delivers the intel before flying back to Washington.

An okay story.  It was cool seeing Captain Adam at work rather than Captain Atom.  B for story and A for art.

This “universe” was absorbed into DC Comics’ Multiverse when the Charlton characters were purchased by DC.  This universe became Earth-4.

Crisis on Infinite Earths #6 (September 1985)

Tags

Alexander Luthor, Anti-Monitor, Aquagirl, Aqualad, Aquaman, Azrael, Black Canary, Black Condor, Black Manta, Blok, Blue Beetle, Brainiac, Bronze Age Captain Atom, Captain Atom, Captain Marvel, Captain Marvel Jr., Changeling, Dawnstar, Deathbolt, Doctor Light, Doll Man, Dolphin, Green Lantern, Harbinger, Hawkman, Human Bomb, Johnny Quick, Judomaster, Katana, Kole, Lex Luthor, Lori Lemaris, Martian Manhunter, Mary Marvel, Nightshade, Northwind, Ocean Master, Pariah, Peacemaker, Per Degaton, Phantom Lady, Power Girl, Psycho-Pirate, Star Sapphire, Starfire, Steel, Supergirl, Teen Titans, The Atom, The Flash, The Question, The Ray, Thunderbolt, Uncle Sam, Wildcat, Wonder Woman

“3 Earths! 3 Deaths!”

• Writer: Marv Wolfman
• Pencils: George Pérez
• Inks: Jerry Ordway
• Colors: Anthony Tollin
• Letters: John Costanza

Crisis on Infinite Earths was a 12-part maxi-series and crossover event, produced by DC Comics in 1985 to simplify their 50-year-old continuity.  The series was written by Marv Wolfman and illustrated primarily by George Pérez. The series did away with the old “multiverse” in the DC Universe, and featured the deaths of some DC mainstays (like the Barry Allen Flash). It was ambitious, gigantic, and a huge whopping mess that I personally have never been able to fully wrap my head around.

At this point in the story, Azrael, Flash of Earth-2, Blok, Katana, and J’onn J’onzz (Martian Manhunter) materialize on Earth-4 before an anti-matter curtain in the American Midwest.  Captain Atom blasts Azrael, but is not fully in control of himself.

The Blue Beetle and the Question realize that they are being forced to attack the other heroes, but are unable to stop.  Katana, Blok, and J’onn J’onzz end up in a stalemate with the Blue Beetle, Judomaster, and Question.  Harbinger, existing simultaneously in Earths S, X, and 4, suddenly draws their universes away from the anti-matter and pulls them through her focused image.  Back at the lair of the Anti-Monitor, the Psycho Pirate suffers feedback from losing control over the people of those three Earths.  Harbinger manages to link Earths S, X, and 4 with the merging Earths 1 and 2.  Doing so, she ceases to exist as Harbinger, reverting to the identity of Lyla.

Not much to say about this one.  It was epic.  Cap only appeared on one panel of one page.  But I really like the way George Pérez drew him.  He’s the most down-to-Earth “humanistic” looking Captain Atom I’ve seen up to this point.  Because Marv Wolfman’s task was so sweeping and huge, I give an A for story and definitely an A for art.

Captain Atom #2 (April 1987)

Tags

Batman, Blue Beetle, Bob Smith, Brian Mulroney, Captain Atom, Cary Bates, Dr. Megala, Firestorm, General Eiling, Jeffrey "Goz" Goslin, John Costanza, Martin Allard, Modern Age Captain Atom, Pat Broderick, Plastique, Ronald Reagan, Superman

“Captain Atom… A True American Hero?”

• Writer: Cary Bates
• Pencils: Pat Broderick
• Inks: Bob Smith
• Colors: Carl Gafford
• Letters: John Costanza

This story opens with some of the world’s heroes in their respective cities thinking about this new upstart Captain Atom.  They have yet to formulate an opinion.  We see Batman in Gotham City, Superman in Metropolis, Firestorm in Pittsburgh, and Blue Beetle in Chicago.  Firestorm instantly has a chip on his shoulder, thinking Captain Atom is “nobody I couldn’t burn atomic circles around any day of the week!”  And Blue Beetle, “…out of the blue I get this weird feeling in my gut telling me I already know this guy from somewhere…”  That was a nice touch.  Blue Beetle and Captain Atom were both originally Charlton Comics characters.

We find Nate in a bar in Canada, dressed in a nice blue suit and trying to remember his cover name “Cameron Scott.”  He’s been sent on an undercover mission.  Meanwhile, the bar TV is airing a report on Captain Atom.  One of the patrons is pissed off about Cap while a female patron makes it clear she’d like to bed him.  A bar patron picks a fight, which is the code for his contact.  They go outside, where the contact (Phillipe) takes a club to Cap.  Adam is too quick and drops Phillipe.  The  female patron of the bar comes out and removes her wig, revealing she is Bette Sans Souci (a.k.a. Plastique), a terrorist with super powers.  She holds a gun on Cap, telling him she does not trust him.  Plastique drops a smoke bomb and rabbits.  She says she’ll see Cameron Scott again in 48 hours.

Cut to the base, where Megala and Eiling are going over the Captain Atom Project. The General does not trust Adam and Dr. Megala thinks Cap isn’t ready for the field yet.  He points out that Nate is twenty years behind everyone else.  The last panel on page 8 has a mistake (Eiling is saying Megala’s line and vice versa).

Back in Canada, Cap meets his government contact, reporting he has met Plastique.  He then goes back to his hotel to relax.  Phillipe calls him and sets a meeting.

Cut back to the base where Eiling and Megala are briefing their team on the progress of the project.  They are still in disagreement on how ready Captain Atom is.  Both the General and Megala are smoking.  It occurs to me that we rarely see General Eiling without a cigar.

Adam meets Plastique in a warehouse, where he is jumped by Phillipe and knocked out.  When he comes to, he is suspended from the ceiling, naked, with an explosive strapped to his body.  A video left by Plastique explains that once Cap begins to perspire, the bomb will go off and kill him.  Pretty clever and it would have worked if Cameron Scott/Nathaniel Adam wasn’t also Captain Atom.

Adam triggers his transformation into Captain Atom, detonating the bomb.  It was rigged to take down the whole warehouse and Cap isn’t able to absorb the entire blast.  He quickly gathers whatever intel he can and heads to his Toronto base of operations to deliver it.  Meanwhile, President Reagan is meeting with Prime Minister Brian Mulroney in Washington, DC.  There is a confusing bit at the bottom of page 13 where I think one of the panels is out of order.

Cameron Scott’s liaison officer walks in and it is none other than Sgt. Jeff Goslin, Nathaniel Adam’s old Air Force buddy.  The two of them talk briefly, and Nate wastes no time telling Gos who he really is and how he was blasted to the future (leaving out the metal skin and powers part).  Cap asks for help tracking down Peggy and Randy (of course Gos says he’ll help), and a tech comes in (interrupting Nate and Gos embracing each other) to say they’ve made sense of Plastique’s plans.

Plastique plans on blowing up the Canadian Parliament building in Ottawa.  As the team scrambles to action, Adam slips out, transforms into Captain Atom, and flies away.  Cap swoops into the parliament building, scooping up the terrorist inside who is wearing a bomb belt.  He throws the bomb aside and it detonates above the St. Lawrence River.  A quick interrogation of the terrorist reveals another bomb is set to go off at the Statue of Liberty in New York and that Plastique is also going to assassinate the U.S. President and Canadian Prime Minister.

Cap makes it to New York in time to scoop the terrorist out of the statue, but not in time to save her.  Her belt goes off and she is killed over Ellis Island.  Meanwhile, Plastique is at the press conference with Reagan and Mulroney.  She spouts some rhetoric about allowing Quebec to secede from Canada, then opens fire on the two world leaders (missing, of course).  She holds off the Secret Service and explains to the gathered press and TV cameras that she has already taken out the Statue of Liberty and the Parliament Building.  Just as she is delivering the death blast to the two world leaders, Captain Atom bursts in and absorbs the explosion.  He then punches Plastique in the face, taking her out.

On the last page we cut back to Batman, Superman, Blue Beetle and Firestorm.  They are all thinking to themselves that it looks like Captain Atom really is one of the good guys.  All except Firestorm.  He’s still jealous of Cap and is pissed now that Atom is getting all this press for taking out Plastique, something he did himself not long ago (see The Fury of Firestorm: the Nuclear Man #36).  I don’t know why Firestorm is so jealous or why he instantly hates Captain Atom.  It really doesn’t make sense when you consider that Firestorm is actually two men, Ronnie Raymond and Professor Martin Stein.  Sure, I could see Raymond having some jealousy, but seems out of character for Stein.

Throughout this issue of Captain Atom, we see magazine covers with his silver face plastered on them.  They are: Timely, NewsWorld, Omna, and Today’s Life (obviously meant to represent Time, NewsWeek, Omni, and Life).  I found that a nice touch.  Cary Bates’ story is pretty good (although as a first outing, “Captain Atom Versus the French Canadian Separatists” seems a little weak) and sets up some stuff for later.  Plastique returns to plague Cap, as well as Firestorm.  Eventually he meets Batman, Superman, and Blue Beetle (Beetle has a major role in Captain Atom #20 and other later issues).  This issue is also well drawn.  I like Pat Broderick’s take on Firestorm in particular.  I give this issue an A.

Space Adventures #38 (February 1961)

Tags

Captain Atom, Gunner, Joe Gill, Silver Age Captain Atom, Steve Ditko

“One Second of War”

• Writer: Joe Gill
• Artist: Steve Ditko

This story opens with Captain Adam meeting with the President of the United States.  At this point in American history, the president is John F. Kennedy.  Now, I’ve seen pictures of Jack Kennedy.  I’ve seen film of Jack Kennedy.  This man is no Jack Kennedy.  What was the deal with comics in the old days not showing the president?  Was it something dictated by the Comics Code Authority?  The 1954 code criteria did state “Policemen, judges, government officials, and respected institutions shall never be presented in such a way as to create disrespect for established authority.”   Perhaps Ditko and Gill were just playing it safe.

Anyway, President No Name tells Cap about a uranium mine operating in an African jungle.  Of course, there’s no way we could stand to have another country with access to this.  So Captain Atom flies off to deal with this threat personally.  He flies faster than the speed of light (new power!) to Somaliland, near a mysterious structure with armed guards.

Evil Dr. Claudius Jaynes is overseeing the construction of missiles in this facility.  From outside the facility, Captain Atom can hear machinery inside.  A guard fires at Cap, who zaps his gun.  When the other men and Dr. Jaynes swarm the area, Cap has become invisible.  Jaynes offers a $10,000 reward for whomever brings in the man “Roberto” fired at.

Jaynes readies his missiles and orders them all launched.  He intends to destroy “half the world,” so the other half will be his.  Rockets are fired at Washington, Tokyo, New York and London.  Cap follows them, thinking “If they were destroyed even one hundred miles up… they would kill millions!  They must leave the universe!”

Um, Captain Atom, do you have any concept of how impossible that is?  Leave the universe?  The infinite universe?  Were you planning on sending them to an alternate universe?

Each of the rockets is labeled (in English) with their destination.  Cap moves among the rockets, directing them out into infinity.  But one rocket didn’t launch.  Apparently, it detonated in Somaliland.  Cap goes back, only to find, “Nothing there!  Not a blade of grass for a hundred miles! Jaynes’ nightmare died with him! Now, to report to Washington… mission completed… danger past!”  Again with the exclamation points!

I love it when Cap turns invisible.  I wonder how Joe Gill’s stories would be if he had more than just a few pages?  Like if Captain Atom had his own full-length comic series.  Ditko’s art is as great as ever.  I really liked seeing Cap straddling a rocket. C for story, A for art. A “B” story.

“Backfire”

• Writer: Joe Gill
• Artist: Steve Ditko

Captain Adam arrives at the White House, where President No Name warns him, “Gustav Borlin is mad, and Dr. Skafic, his chief scientist, is equally insane!  They have the power, between them, to destroy the world!”  With that very limited intel, Captain Adam becomes Caption Atom and flies off to Europe to deal with the menace.

Atom speaks to himself en route, explaining that Borlin is a dictator in his country and CIA reports state he is crazy.  Dr. Skafic has a grudge against America and is one of the best missile experts in the world.

Cap lands and changes into his Air Force uniform.  He gets a ride to the U.S. embassy, passing Borlin’s missile pads on the way.  At the embassy (who have gotten notice he was coming to deal with Borlin),  Adam admits he has no plan, but must see the demonstration Borlin is staging for that morning.  An Air Force General  takes Adam to Borlin’s compound (the General was invited and Borlin allows the General’s “underling” [Adam] to tag along).  Big words from the General as he threatens the dictator not to do anything stupid like piss off the U.S.

Dr. Skafic has a bone to pick with the U.S. and says he will launch the missiles.  Adam runs out onto the launchpad, taking off his clothes as he runs.  He changes to Captain Atom just as the countdown reaches zero.  Atom nudges each of the twenty missiles off-course, diverting them to “waste places on the Earth.”  So… landfills?  Garbage dumps?  What are “waste places?”

Cap disables the firing mechanisms so they won’t poison the planet with their nuclear crap.  As a result of the failed attempt, Borlin’s people revolt.  Captain Adam earns a handshake from the President.

I expected more from these Cold War era stories.  I guess to kids in the Sixties, this kind of stuff was really scary.  Now it just seems ridiculous.  C for story, B for art.  Let’s see some real super-heroics from Captain Atom!

“The Force Beyond”

• Writer: Joe Gill
• Artist: Steve Ditko

Our story opens with Captain Atom out in space doing God Knows What (looks like he is stopping some missiles that must have been fired at the U.S.) when he is “attacked” by meteors and knocked out.  Cape Canaveral tries to reach him on the radio, saying they will arm the satellite weapons in five seconds.  Cap comes to just in  time.  Apparently, “arming the satellite weapons” mean a nuclear first strike (probably against Russia), which will result in instant retaliation and nuclear war.

Cap orders them to stop the launch, then hurries to deal with the rockets he was after in the beginning of the story.  He takes out all the missiles and Russian satellites and potential Russian spy gear, then goes home and meets up with Gunner.  Gunner had been worried Cap had gotten blasted for good when he didn’t respond.  Cap tells him the meteor strike was a deliberate attack by an intelligent force.

Captain Atom briefs the Generals and the President, then addresses all the nations’ leaders.  An unidentified hostile force had caused the missiles to launch and tried to take Cap out.  He says he is going to go out and try to find their enemy, and begs the world leaders that if he fails, please don’t make war with each other.

I like that.  Captain Atom is treating world leaders like children.  Cause he can crush them all so he’s the only thing keeping us from the brink of war.  And he knows if he dies, nothing with stop World War III.  I remember the Cold War.  We really did feel like WW3 was right around the corner.

Captain Atom flies up into space and sees a ghostly spaceship.  Rather than investigate, Captain Atom disintegrates the thing.

This is the problem.  This story had great potential, then falls apart at the end.  Was Joe Gill overworked?  Was he told to keep the stories short?  I just don’t get it.  Instead of adding a third mediocre story, they could have fleshed out one of the other two.

C for Joe, A for Steve.  This is a “B” at best.

This “universe” was absorbed into DC Comics’ Multiverse when the Charlton characters were purchased by DC.  This universe became Earth-4.

Space Adventures #37 (December 1960)

Tags

Aliens, Captain Atom, Gunner, Joe Gill, Silver Age Captain Atom, Steve Ditko, Venus

“The Space Prowlers”

• Writer: Joe Gill
• Artist: Steve Ditko

“Who were they? The eerie intruders with lashed lightning in their fists were a menace to every nation, to all men, to the entire world!  Captain Adam, U.S. Air Force, was helpless to solve the global riddle… so he used his ability to become Captain Atom… the human atom bomb-missile who was impervious to all weapons!”

So begins “The Space Prowlers.”  Captain Adam is strolling by a “concrete blockhouse” in which top secret documents are stored when he notices the guard, Corporal Blackmer, is dead.  He is then set upon and zapped by a weird alien in red goggles and a tank top.  The alien books it to a space craft leaving Cap to be surprised that the zap gun almost killed him.

Adam switches to Captain Atom and blasts the fleeing craft with just enough power to bring it down without harming the occupant.  When he reaches out to touch the alien, it dissolves into corrosive and poisonous gas (in a panel in which Gill refers to Cap as “the molecular man.” Nice!).

Cap flies up into space to see if the alien had friends and he does!  Cap is attacked and blasts back.

The space prowlers pour on the laser fire, so intense that even indestructible Captain Atom’s life is in danger.  So, Cap does the most logical thing and destroys himself with the force of a 100 megaton nuclear bomb.  As established in Space Adventures #33, reintigrating his disentigrated atoms is the first trick he learned as Captain Atom.  Unfortunately, this trick takes out thousands of the attacking aliens.

Cap flies to Washington, DC, where the president has seen the whole thing with his giant White House Telescope (Did Eisenhower have a giant White House Telescope? Joe Gill and Steve Ditko say he did.  Good enough for me.).  The president warns that there is a whole fleet of these small ships and one giant mothership in orbit around Earth.  Using Eisenhower’s Presidential Telescope, Cap sends a powerful beam to the mothership, slicing it in half.  The president thanks him, but Cap is worried he’s going to get court-martialed for going AWOL.  So Captain Atom flies home.

Who were the space prowlers?  What were they stealing?  Were they all destroyed?  It seems like sloppy storytelling.  But I love to see Cap blasting space aliens.  I give Joe an F for this story but Steve an A for art, which gives “The Space Prowlers” an overall score of B on the FKAjason Meaningless Rating System.

“A Victory for Venus”

• Writer: Joe Gill
• Artist: Steve Ditko

Our story opens with the Atlas-Thor-Able XIV launching.  It is supposed to orbit Venus and send back some nice color photos of the planet.  Cap is being a bit of a show-off and standing on the launchpad as it lifts off.  Observing this, a General Nicholas is first worried Adam will be killed, then pissed off that he wasn’t.  He threatens to court-martial Adam for endangering his own life (he doesn’t know about Captain Atom).  Adam tells Nicholas to chill; he’s been sent by the president. Somehow this shuts General Nicholas up.

A few hours later, Gunner calls Adam into the control room, as pictures of Venus are about to come in (What the… how fast is this rocket?!?!?!).  Cap watches the screen as Gunner runs off on some errand and then the first images come in.  There are chicks in space orbiting Venus!  The screen goes black, so naturally Adam thinks the space ladies have sabotaged the cameras.  He changes into Captain Atom and flies off to either kick some alien ass or get some alien tail (he kind of indicates both.).

Traveling at speeds in excess of 100,000 mph, Captain Atom arrives on the scene and the space ladies speak to him via telepathy.  They know who he is, having seen him fly around the neighborhood.  Cap says he intends to repair the camera, but the space ladies say no way.  Cap threatens them, but hesitates too long and the space ladies blast him with their ray guns.  He is knocked out and the space ladies use their own tech to send him back to Earth.  They tell him soon he will return to them as a friend.

Cap comes to on Earth with Gunner running up to him.  The space ladies are on the screen and looking for him.  One of the Venutians tells him, “This is farewell, Captain!  Your mechanism will be totally destroyed… but it served the purpose of bringing you to us!  Come once more… all of us will be waiting!”

For the first time in Captain Atom’s (short) history, we get some foreshadowing of things to come.  Great story, great Ditko art.  A’s all around.

This “universe” was absorbed into DC Comics’ Multiverse when the Charlton characters were purchased by DC.  This universe became Earth-4.

Peter Cannon… Thunderbolt #53 (August 1966)

Tags

Captain Atom, Frank McLaughlin, Peter Cannon, Silver Age Captain Atom, Thunderbolt

“Captain Atom’s Secret”

• Writer: ??? (possibly Pete Morisi)
• Pencils/Inks: Frank McLaughlin

Thunderbolt was another of Charlton’s heroes from the 1960s.  This two-page story appeared in the back.  Despite the intriguing title, the story is basically a science lesson.  Cap tells us about Einstein’s theory that mass is a form of energy and energy cannot be created or destroyed. He tells us that Enrico Fermi bombarded uranium with neutrons to produce an atomic reaction.  He tells us about the first atomic bomb used in warfare in Hiroshima and that atomic energy was used to power submarines and merchant ships.  Not to mention, of course, the first nuclear-powered man, Captain Atom, “performing mightily in his Charlton comic… now on sale at your newsstand!”

McLaughlin’s take on the Captain is nice (he missed Cap’s chest symbol in the first panel).  There really wasn’t anything for Cap to do in this issue. I’d like to think Captain Atom’s inclusion in this book was to help boost Thunderbolt’s sales or something, but they made no mention of his appearance on the cover.

The story is what it is — just facts — so I give it a D.  The art was pretty good but nothing fantastic, maybe a C+.  Overall, “Captain Atom’s Secret” is a C.

This “universe” was absorbed into DC Comics’ Multiverse when the Charlton characters were purchased by DC (including Peter Cannon).  This universe became Earth-4.

Captain Atom #1 (March 1987)

Tags

Angela Eiling, Babylon, Bob Smith, Captain Atom, Carl Gafford, Cary Bates, Dr. Megala, General Eiling, Harry Hadley, Jeffrey "Goz" Goslin, John Costanza, Margaret Eiling/Peggy Adam, Martin Allard, Modern Age Captain Atom, Pat Broderick, Randall Eiling/Randy Adam, Ronald Reagan

“Point of Origin”

• Writer: Cary Bates
• Pencils: Pat Broderick
• Inks: Bob Smith
• Colors: Carl Gafford
• Letters: John Costanza

This is the first appearance of Captain Atom in the post-Crisis on Infinite Earths continuity.  Every appearance of him prior to this point never happened as all the parallel Earths in the multiverse merged into one.

Cary Bates was a bit of a prodigy.  Bates began submitting ideas for comic book covers to DC Comics at the age of 13, and a number of them were bought and published, the first as the cover to Superman #167.  Thank you, Wikipedia.  He was 39 years old when he was tapped to write the new ongoing Captain Atom series for DC.

Pat Broderick was 34 and already had worked for both DC and Marvel.  During his time at DC, Broderick worked on Firestorm, Captain Atom, Batman: Year Three, Swamp Thing, and Green Lantern.

So what was our world like in March 1987?  In January, New York mafiosi Anthony “Fat Tony” Salerno and Carmine Peruccia were sentenced to 100 years in prison for racketeering.  Nine days later, Pennsylvania Treasurer Budd Dwyer shot and killed himself with a revolver during a televised press conference after being found guilty on charges of bribery, fraud, conspiracy, and racketeering (It was tragic and sad and Bud was later found to be innocent.  The video can be found online, but I strongly advise against anyone seeking it out.).  The same month this comic came out, the Irish pop band U2 released The Joshua Tree (in my opinion, their finest album).

This issue opens in a control room with a sign over a huge TV screen that reads “Captain Atom Project, Docket #788 UR9544, -Countdown in Progress-.” On the screen we see a young man in his underpants sitting in what looks like a metal Terry’s Chocolate Orange.  He’s cracking jokes but looking nervous.  Observing this, a scientist on crutches who we learn is Dr. Heinrich Megala, says, “I take it you are not amused by our subject’s attempt at bravado, Colonel Eiling.”  To which his partner replies, “Nathaniel Adam was found guilty of treason and sentenced to die.  If he survives this experiment, the government has agreed to commute his sentence and make him a free man.  That prospect does not ‘amuse’ me, Dr. Megala.  Not in the least.”

Already there are a lot differences.  Charlton’s Allen Adam was a super genius.  DC’s Nathaniel Adam is a crook or killer or something.  Treason could be anything.  We’ll find out more about that later.

The egg closes up and lowers down underground.  Adam mentions what a dumb name “Project Captain Atom” is.  Shut up, Nate.  I like it.  He reminds Colonel Eiling to deliver a letter to “Angela and the kids” in case things go South for him.  Eiling rips the letter up, showing us just what kind of a douchebag he is.  Wait, kids, he gets even douchey-er.

There is an explosion.  A nuclear bomb has been detonated under the egg. The egg melts itself onto Captain Adam.  He stands up, still telling his awful jokes.  He’s cut off mid-sentence as he vanishes.

We cut to a tranquil park.  Angela Adam is there with her kids, Peggy and Randy.  Randy is riding the shoulder of Jeff Goslin, an airman who is apparently Nate’s friend.  This is a call-back to the old series, where Captain Atom had a friend and confidant name Jeff “Gunner” Goslin.  Jeff tells Angela that a spaceship crashed in Nevada a year before that had a hull made of an impregnable metal alloy.  Nate is going to help them find out if it can be destroyed or not.  That is the extent of his knowledge of what is going down.

So that’s what the chocolate egg is made of.  Nate is a crash-test dummy.  Seems really implausible that they’d use a human being, even a criminal.

Jeff assures Angela that Nate will be okay.  “Lissen up,” he says, “this is the same Cap’n Adam who went down with his plane 30 miles inside Cambodia and managed to walk out again a week later.  The man’s a natural-born survivor, Ange.  He’s got a knack for it.”

So Nate was in Cambodia.  He’s in the military.  That puts this in the 1960s.

Cut to an airstrip at night.  A fighter is coming in for a landing (the pilot’s name is Maverick – Top Gun reference) when a glowing ball of energy appears on the strip.  A humanoid shape emerges and blasts the plane with some sort of energy.  The plane skids to a stop and we see a sign that reads “Winslow Air Force Base. Restricted.”

Now we cut to the interior of an office.  The man at the desk is on the phone with his daughter, Margaret Eiling.  Ah, so this is Colonel Eiling.  His aide (Martin Allard) bursts in and says there’s an infiltrator on the base. “The infiltrator doesn’t appear to be human, General,” he says.

Back on the field, soldiers have opened fire on the creature.  The bullets bounce off, but a rocket knocks it down.  The creature, a glowing red molten lava creature, collapses and delivers the punchline to the joke Nathaniel Adam was telling when he vanished.  The Sergeant in charge (Goslin, naturally) is about to open up with another volley when the creature glows and layers of its mass disappear.  It passes out and is brought into a lab and strapped to a table.

The head scientist, Harry Hadley, reports to Allard that the creature appears to be taking on a more human form (heart beats at 72 bpm, temp is 98.7 degrees Fahrenheit, and breathes oxygen).  Allard loses his shit because he thinks it is an indestructible alien come to do horrible things.  The General comes in in time to see that – apart from silver metallic skin – the creature appears completely human.

Everyone is shocked when the creature speaks English.  It looks at the General and says, “Eiling! What happened to you. You look so… old!”

General Eiling clears the room.  He recognizes that the creature is Nathaniel Adam. Nate is as surprised as Eiling that he survived the Captain Atom project.  He tells Nate that in the short time (in Nate’s perspective) that he was gone, John Wayne has died, as have Martin Luther King (which Nate remembers) and Robert Kennedy.  That makes Nate lose his shit and break free of the straps holding him down.  Eiling goes on to tell him Lyndon Johnson, Hubert Humphrey, Jack Benny, Anwar Sadat, Indira Ghandi and John Lennon are all dead.  Nate sees himself and freaks out.  Eiling has him gassed and he passes out again.

Then Dr. Megala pays General Eiling a visit.  He is in a wheelchair and appears to be a quadriplegic.  He has robot arms attached to his chair that he must control with his mind.  Megala realizes that the creature was Captain Adam, bumped ahead in time from 1968 to 1986 by Project Captain Atom.  He has merged with the alien alloy and traveled in time 18 years.

Eiling leaves Megala, then orders Allard to have Megala killed.  Eiling has the still-unconscious Adam loaded into a rocket and blasted into space.  (See, I told you ripping up the letter was the tip of the General’s douchebaggery.)  Meanwhile, Allard’s assassin is stopped by Megala’s bodyguard Babylon.

Cap comes to on the rocket.  He realizes where he is and what is happening.  He blows up the rocket with his energy blasts, surprising himself.  As he plummets to the Earth’s surface, he is struck by lightning but is unharmed.  Still, he’s pretty sure he’s going to die when he hits the ground.  But when he relaxes and accepts his fate, he finds he can fly.  So he flies home.

But a new family is in his home.  It still hasn’t sunk in for Nate.  Megala and Babylon  show up, the doctor having anticipated Adam would go to his old home.  Megala tells Adam it is 1986.  He then brings the Captain to his estate.  Megala explains to Adam: “Ancient Chinese masters called it ch’i — the invisible, intangible form of matter which is present throughout the cosmos.  Modern physics concurs.  But we call it the quantum field.  It is the underlying essence of all matter and all energy.  You, Nathaniel Adam, have experienced what science has only been able to observe on the subatomic level.  You have passed through the ch’i — the field — from one place in space/time to another without travelling in between.  You made the damndest quantum leap in history.”  Megala speculates that the metal alloy attunes itself to Adam’s ch’i and draws power from the quantum field.

Eiling has spies watching Megala’s house and recording everything.  They report to him everything they’ve learned.  Megala and Adam discover that the metal alloy skin absorbs all kinds of energy and that Adam is now super-strong.

Eiling leads a team into Megala’s home and demands to see Captain Adam.  But Adam is in the room, having learned he can “turn off” his metal skin to blend in with the normies.  Eiling says he can lead Adam to his wife, Angela.  Cap picks him up and flies off, demanding to see her now.  Eiling leads him to a cemetery.

Angela died in 1982.  Eiling says she mourned Adam for three years before (weird plat twist) falling in love with and marrying General Eiling!  I told you he was a bad dude.  He knew damn well when he tore up that letter, he was going to woo Adam’s widow.  But why? Just to be a dick, I think.

The General presents Cap with a Presidential order calling on Adam to provide service to his government as a secret operative.  Eiling says Adam will have plenty of time to pursue clearing his name (Adam insists he is innocent of treason).  A costume of sorts is fashioned for Captain Atom with a nuclear symbol on the chest, gloves and boots.  How they etched these things on the metal is a mystery, as they have established earlier in this issue that lasers have no effect on the alloy.

The issue closes with Eiling in the White House with President Reagan, discussing Phase Two of Project Captain Atom.

So that’s it.  Pretty well-executed for an origin story.  Vastly different and more complex than Ditko’s Captain Atom.  I like Eiling as a foil for the Captain.  I like that they brought Goslin into the story.  Some of Cary Bates’ stories on the Captain Atom series were wonky at times, but I think he kind of knocked this one out of the park (I know I nit-picked a little, but it was overall a great story).  The art was pretty good.  Sometimes, Broderick’s faces seem kind of the same.  Allard looks like Hadley, Adam looks like Allard, and later in the series sometimes Gos looks like Babylon.  But honestly, that’s the extent of my criticism.  I love the way Pat Broderick draws Captain Atom.

So… Story: A, Art: A.  Captain Atom #1 is definitely “A” material.  I look forward to rereading the entire series.

Space Adventures #36 (October 1960)

Tags

Captain Atom, Joe Gill, Silver Age Captain Atom, Steve Ditko

“The Wreck of X-44”

• Artist: Steve Ditko
• Writer: Joe Gill

This story opens with Captain Adam, now an Air Force test pilot, taking off in the X-44, the “newest, fastest space-traveling rocket-powered plane in the world!”  It goes from 0 to 1,000 mph in three seconds. But the plane has been sabotaged.  Once the plane has left Earth’s atmosphere, there is an explosion on board.  The X-44 breaks apart, but Adam isn’t hurt because he is the (new power!) “indestructible” Captain Atom.

Cap thinks to himself that he smelled nitroglycerin as the explosion occurred.  He gathers the wreckage of the plane and molds and bends it back into shape.  The text says, “Captain Atom had strange and great powers… to arrow through space at 25,000 mph… to subsist without air to breathe or food to eat… and to hurl fiery rays great enough to melt any metal known to man!”  So, last issue we saw his atomic blasts.  In this issue he uses fiery rays to weld the ship together (New power! As is the not needing to eat.).

Cap guides the plane back to Space Control, who has been trying to reach him on the radio.  Space Control has a guard placed on the ship, who quickly unloads his machine gun on Cap.  Cap flies off while the guard is distracted and returns in his human clothes.  He reveals that the nitro was planted behind the instrument panel, which was last checked by a Gerald Mudge.  And guess who is hoofing it towards the parking lot?

Cap chases Mudge down, picks up his car (Super strength? New power!).  Off-panel, Mudge confesses  and “others in his spy apparatus had been taken!”  Gunner tells Cap the mechanics can’t cut the metal of the X-44 to take it apart. Cap speculates he used too much heat rewelding the ship.  The end.

Who was Mudge working for?  The Soviets?  We may never know.  One extra page would have wrapped the story up better, but I guess Gill and Ditko didn’t have that luxury.  I give this story a D and the art a B.  C effort at best, guys.

“Captain Atom on Planet X”

• Artist: Steve Ditko
• Writer: Joe Gill

Our story opens with Captain “Adams” (sigh) meeting with a scientist about a U.S.A.F. defense satellite code-named “Planet X.”  The scientist says the satellite won’t be in orbit for long, because “they” have a rocket equipped to nullify the satellite’s energizer.  Otherwise, Planet X would stay in orbit forever.  Now, I’m no scientist like this guy (he smokes a pipe so you know he’s smart), but don’t the orbits of ALL man-made satellites eventually decay?  Nothing stays up there forever, does it?

The Captain tells the scientist that we have a weapon that “they” don’t know anything about.  In the next panel, Captain Adam (but, on just the last page he was… oh, forget it) removes his hat and becomes Captain Atom, the “indestructible, super-sonic human with and atomic punch in each fist!”

Cap flies off, buzzing a jet and scaring the pilot half to death.  He arrives at Planet X to find it still intact.  He lands on top of it and begins his vigil.  Now, is it just me, or does Planet X look kind of like Darth Vader’s torture droid?  You know, the one in the first Star Wars movie that he threatens Princess Leia with?

He’s just in time, too, because “they” launch some missiles.  Oh, looks like “they” are those dirty Commies again.  But Cap sees the missiles coming because he has (new power!) really good eyesight.  He uses atomic blasts to divert the courses of the missiles, but these missiles are smart and aren’t easily moved.  So he does what any red-blooded American super hero would do in that situation… he punches the missiles!

Of course, it works.  And Cap flies back to Earth, smugly thinking, “They’ll never know what happened… they’ll only know they failed!  And they’ll be very agreeable at the summit conferences for a long time time to come with Planet X floating up there for emergency!”  And, no, that isn’t a typo on my part. The word “time” appears twice.

Sorry, Joe, but I give this story a D as well.  But Steve, you get and A for that panel of Cap punching a rocket.  Overall, C+.

This “universe” was absorbed into DC Comics’ Multiverse when the Charlton characters were purchased by DC.  This universe became Earth-4.

Space Adventures #35 (August 1960)

Tags

Captain Atom, Gunner, Joe Gill, Silver Age Captain Atom, Steve Ditko

“The Little Wanderer”

• Artist: Steve Ditko
• Writer: Joe Gill

In the intro paragraph, Captain Allen Adam is referred to as “Captain Adams” again (I found a reprint from the 1970s that corrected the name).  It sets up the issue nicely.  “Captain Adams, USAF, nuclear genius, celestial authority, an expert in the art of atomic war, had a problem… one that began in Smeedville, Georgia, and had it’s conclusion in a galaxy beyond the borders of man’s celestial charts!  Out where a small boy rode on the wings of a nightmarish creature — that could not exist — and did!”

Well, Smeedville doesn’t exist. But that’s a petty thing to bring up.  The issue opens with Captain “Adams” visiting the Georgia home of his buddy, Sergeant Jeff “Gunner” Goslin.  Gunner’s wife is worried because their boy Billy has been having imaginative dreams (the horror!) and has been asleep for two days!

Billy’s parents are worried because he sleeps so long and when he awakens, he tells stories of riding a bird through outer space.  He described the dark side of the moon, something only ever seen by Captain Atom, and he described it accurately.  So Cap thinks maybe Billy is both in his bed and swimming in space.  He assures Gunner that Billy will be alright, and jumps out the window.

Cap flies off into outer space at 24,000 mph.  There is a great panel of him flying upside down. Ditko at his finest.

Cap flies out farther than man has charted and stumbles upon a giant space bird.  It attacks so Cap fights back with (new power!) an atomic blast.  The bird is stunned.  From a distance, Billy is watching the “fight” from the back of another space bird.  He recognizes Cap as a fellow human being and flies over.  How Billy can be there and in his bed is not explained.  How Billy can survive in space is not explained.

And check out this drawing! I guess Ditko had a problem drawing kids. Billy’s mouth is about the size of his whole head!  Oh, I love Steve Ditko’s art.  He’s brought us some great stuff over the years (he helped The Great One – Stan Lee – develop Spider-Man, created Doctor Strange, the Creeper, Hawk and Dove, Shade the Changing Man, and Starman (Prince Gavyn) to name a few).  Any great artist can have an off day.  Except maybe Dan Jurgens.

Did somebody say doughnuts?

So Cap tells Billy he’s been “in the dream” too long and his folks are worried about him.  Back on Earth, Billy wakes up and Cap flies in (looking like he’s in desperate need of a visit to the gym.  Oh, Ditko…) and tells Gunner his kid isn’t a liar.  Billy promises not to take such long “trips” in the future. The end.

It was a short and sweet story.  Not all super-heroey, more science-fictiony.  Not a lot happened.  The focus of this issue was more on the “Spies from Another World” story than the Cap adventure.  Still, I give Joe Gill a B for this one.  Ditko, you could’ve got an A, but I had to dock points for Bigmouth Billy and Fat Cap. B for art.

This “universe” was absorbed into DC Comics’ Multiverse when the Charlton characters were purchased by DC.  This universe became Earth-4.

Space Adventures #34 (June 1960)

Tags

Captain Atom, Gunner, Joe Gill, Silver Age Captain Atom, Steve Ditko

“The Second Man in Space”

• Artist: Steve Ditko
• Writer: Joe Gill

This issue of Space Adventures correctly predicts that the first man in space will be a Russian.  Though it is not Yuri Gagarin, but an un-named cosmonaut who has ridden a rocket to the stars and lost contact with the surface.  A bunch of physicists in Cape Canaveral are meeting to evaluate available information.  The Americans don’t even know if there is anyone aboard the satellite.  One of those present is Captain Allen Adam (he gets a first name!), a brown-haired USAF officer.  He is incorrectly referred to as “Captain Adams.”

Captain Adam asks if a photograph of the satellite would help the scientists with their little espionage project.  He then tells Gunner that he is heading into space to help the “scientists and generals.”  Adam dons his now-yellow costume and his hair becomes white (the actual color of Captain Atom’s hair has never been consistent, even in the late 80s when he was a DC property).  Gunner is left to hold Cap’s regular clothes while he blasts into space to save the day.

As established in the previous issue, Captain Atom can survive in space.  Cap finds the satellite, which he discovers is manned.  New power alert! Cap is super-sensitive to heat.  He “feels” the cosmonaut through the satellite’s walls.  The cosmonaut is unconscious and his life is “ebbing.”  He was injured in the launch, internally.  Cap thinks to himself, “I’ve got to help him… but if I interfere with their program, it could mean war!”  Remember, kids, 1960 is during the Cold War.

New power!  Well, old power.  His first power actually.  Cap has the ability to re-integrate his atoms after disintegrating them.  This allows him to enter the craft.  He quickly assesses the cosmonaut and realizes their is a cure for what ails him.  He flies to a hospital in New York and demands of a random doctor that he gives him “1,000 units of space vaccine.”

Can I just say that “space vaccine” is just plain lazy?  I suppose Joe Gill could have come up with something better if he had the internet at his fingertips.  I suppose it was good enough for 1960s kids.

The Soviet ground control is getting angry with Igor for not responding.  Accusing the poor bastard of being a traitor.  And his name really is Igor.  Cap comes aboard and injects the vaccine.  The Soviet comes to, surprised to find himself in space, but more surprised to find a stupid American has beaten him there.

Cap guides the capsule back to mother Russia, turning himself invisible (new power!) as he does so.  The Russians rejoice as they have won the space race.  But their happiness is short-lived as Igor tells them that the Americans already have a man up there (Captain Atom).

Now, come on.  If this was reality, the Soviets would have shut Igor up or killed him so he wouldn’t spread talk of their failure.  But it isn’t reality, so Igor blabs away to the entire world, leaving even the Americans to scratch their heads.  In the final panel, one rocket scientist says to another, “We must have rockets at some other pad better than the ones we’ve got here!  Imagine!  We’ve had a man in space all this time and didn’t know about him! We kept that secret well!”  Stupid scientists.  And again with the exclamation points.

Gunner and an again-brown-haired Captain Atom wink at the reader.

Overall, I give the story a C.  I think even by 1960s standards it was a little far-fetched that Igor’s story would have become public knowledge.  And the space vaccine is just dumb.  I do give Joe Gill kudos for making the Soviets win the space race.  I think that took guts.  An A+ for Ditko’s art (I love the little stars that follow Cap wherever he flies) give the issue a solid B.

There are three other stories in this issue worth a look, but for the purposes of this blog I am skipping them.

This “universe” was absorbed into DC Comics’ Multiverse when the Charlton characters were purchased by DC.  This universe became Earth-4.