• About
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  • Captain Atom in Who’s Who
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    • 1985 – Crisis on Infinite Earths
    • 1988 – Millennium
    • 1989 – Invasion!
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    • 1991 – Armageddon 2001
    • 1991 – War of the Gods
    • 1994 – Zero Hour
    • 1995 – Underworld Unleashed
    • 1996 – Final Night
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Monthly Archives: March 2015

The Multiversity: Pax Americana #1 (January 2015)

16 Monday Mar 2015

Posted by FKAjason in Earth-4, The Multiversity

≈ 2 Comments

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Blue Beetle, Bronze Age Captain Atom, Captain Atom, Frank Quitely, Grant Morrison, Iron Arms, Jae Lee, L.A.W., Nathan Fairbairn, Nightshade, Patrick Gleason, Peacemaker, Rob Leigh, Sarge Steel, Sentinels of Justice, Silver Age Captain Atom, The Question, Tiger, Vincent Deighan

“In Which We Burn”
  • Writer:  Grant Morrison
  • Pencils & Inks: Frank Quitely
  • Colors:  Nathan Fairbairn
  • Letters:  Rob Leigh

Yes, I am a fan of Grant Morrison.  Yes, I am a fan of Frank Quitely.  I mean, I have EYES, don’t I?

The concept of DC Universe’s “multiverse” was scrapped as a result of the 1985 maxi-series Crisis on Infinite Earths.  But, as with all things in comics, it was not to stay dead.  After the events of Infinite Crisis there was another maxi-series entitled 52.  It was in the pages of 52 that DC revealed that the multiverse still existed.  The Multiversity was a limited series of one-shots set in the DC Multiverse in The New 52. The one-shots in the series are written by Grant Morrison, each with a different artist. The Multiversity began in August 2014.  This issue was published November 19, 2014.

This issue takes place on Earth-4 (The Charlton Universe) and opens with the rather gruesome assassination of the President of the United States by Peacemaker (aka Christopher Smith).  Chris has been captured and is being questioned by government suits.  But the Peacemaker isn’t talking.

As Chris is lead out of the interrogation room, he passes Senator Warren Eden, who is discussing this turn of events with his daughter Eve (Nightshade).  Eden tells his daughter that Peacemaker’s actions have essentially killed the idea of a “super hero” and made the term a dirty word.  Warren advises his daughter to savor her time as a super hero, as he is putting certain plans into motion.  The government had two super heroes on the payroll, but Peacemaker has killed the President and Captain Atom is missing in action.  The government needs a convincing exit strategy to distance itself from the heroes.

Elsewhere, Blue Beetle has been tracking the Question with his Bug.  The Question is trying to run from the Bug, but Beetle points out that is impossible.  The Question tells Beetle he’s barking up the wrong tree by chasing him, that he is trying to find the murderer of Nora O’Rourke and solve the mystery of “algorithm B.”  He refers to this as “The Yellowjacket Case” (four unsolved murders of four prominent scientists).  Beetle tells him there is no Yellowjacket case and for Question to be reasonable.  “His people” are all over the Question.

Blue Beetle says he made peace with the government but the Question contends that Beetle is going about crime-fighting all wrong.  The Question pulls a device out of his coat and activates a crane that Beetle has conveniently parked the Bug under.  The Questions tells Beetle he should never rely on technology and takes off.  He ducks into a subway station where he is then confronted by Nightshade.

The Question quickly overpowers Nightshade and hops onto a passing train.  But before he does so, he tosses her one of his calling cards.  It bears a question mark that has been augmented to resemble the symbol for infinity.

The Question then goes to the crime scene where Nora O’Rourke was murdered.  She was apparently Chris Smith’s girlfriend.  He had left early that day when someone crept into his apartment, picked up a heavy statue, and crushed Nora’s head with it.  That killer may look familiar to fans of Charlton comics.  He appears to be Captain Atom’s old enemy Iron Arms.

This is when Captain Atom enters the story (the same Captain Atom that Warren Eden said was missing in action).  He is at some science facility working on a particle accelerator, apparently some time prior to the president’s assassination.  The scientists are working in the control room as Cap is reading a comic book.  He is commenting on how he can read the story any way he chooses, flipping through it backwards or starting in the middle, and there is nothing that the characters in the story can do about it.  He can perceive time any way he wishes but they are limited in their perceptions.  The characters are unaware of his scrutiny.  It is hard to tell if he is talking about the comic book, the scientists he is with, or even us as the readers.  The scientists switch on their device (just as Cap says he can “read” their “thought balloons” and knows what they are planning.  Once the device is activated, Cap vanishes, the comic books bursts into flames,  and one of the scientists announces that Captain Atom has left the universe.

There is another man in the control room; a man whose face we do not see but can assume is Sarge Steel because he has a metal hand.  He pulls a gun on the scientists, who argue they did everything he asked.  They opened a black hole inside Allen Adam’s skull.  This does not sway Steel, who shoots them all dead.

We then cut to Nightshade visiting her mother.  Mom seems a little on the senile side and bitter about her ex-husband.  Nightshade tells her mom that Allen Adam is helping her dad to harness the power of a black hole so the empire will no longer rely on oil.

The scene switches to Chris and Nora having a discussion about someone named Harley (the President’s father and comic book writer) as Sarge Steel beats the living hell out of someone.  The story is kind of hard to follow as it isn’t presented as a linear path.  It is as if we are reading the comic the way Captain Atom sees the world.  The scene does reveal that Peacemaker had plans to run away with Nora after he did “what had to be done.”

The next scene is night on a rooftop.  The Question is standing over a man who is pinned under a fallen sign.  The Question reveals this man is not the high-level mob fixer he pretended to be but an undercover dirty cop on the payroll of the Vice President.  He lays a revolver on the floor in front of the prone man and begins to drone on about an eight-stage color coded system of development that all societies must pass through.  The cop begs the Question let him go (an exposed wire from the sign is sparking nearby and the cop is in a puddle – he fears he will be electrocuted).  The cop tells him that his orders come from the Sarge and that he really doesn’t know anything.  All he knows are rumors – about Captain Atom being killed and something about a secret formula.  The Question leaves the man to die on the rooftop.

Cut to the past, and Nightshade, Peacemaker, Tiger, Blue Beetle, and the Question are meeting with a government official.  They are sporting new “uniforms” and Tiger is unhappy about the changes.  Peacemaker welcomes them all to the Justice League of America (which prompts Blue Beetle to ask, “How about the Sentinels?”).  President Harley then enters the room and tells them their trademarks and code names belong to the U.S. government now.  When the Question complains, the President leans in and asks, “Are you in the box or out of the box, Mr. Sage?”  This reveals that the government knows the Question’s alter ego, but the comment about the box implies that Vic Sage is gay, I guess.

Later, when President Harley reveals the team at a press conference, he announces that their leader is Captain Atom.

Captain Atom has trouble focusing on the task at hand because he is being distracted by a conversation he will have in the future (this is some trippy Dr. Manhattan level stuff – which makes perfect sense when you think about it).

The conversation is actually in the past. Cap is in a park interacting with a dog.  He’s surrounded by strange statues of people in distress and is talking to the dog.  Governor (not-yet-President) Harley is about to meet with him but Cap’s handlers warn him that Cap has been heavily sedated since “the U-235 incident.”  The scientist tells Harley that the statues were once people and he should warn them immediately if Cap’s speech becomes disorganized, anxious, or aggressive.  Another of Cap’s handlers thought it would do him good to be reunited with his pet dog.

Cap disassembles the dog, thinking the “pieces would explain the whole.”  When he realizes he has just killed his pet Butch, Cap begins to cry.  He asks for more sedatives and asks when he will go back to normal.  He then wonders aloud what it would be like if Butch was both alive and dead and suddenly there is a brand new Butch standing next to the old, dead one.  He then says it isn’t the same.  Harley introduces himself to Allen Adam.  Cap says it must be hard work being the president, to which Harley responds he is not.  Harley brushes it off and asks Cap to walk the gardens with him.  Harley says they are a world famous masterpiece of design and organization.

So it was Harley that “inspired” Allen Adam to use his powers as Captain Atom.

Cut to some 2005. A terrorist has crashed his plane on the White House lawn and taken President George W. Bush hostage.  He plans to kill the president.  He stomps and spits on the American flag.  Governor Harley is also present, confident, and a little cocky.  Peacemaker and his drones show up and take out the terrorist’s men.  Harley warns the terrorist that this is just the beginning.  Some day there will be more Peacemakers.

On the streets, the Question and Blue Beetle are confronting a heroin dealer and arguing.  The Question tells Beetle he could use his money to build homeless shelters and try to cure society’s ills rather than constructing a giant flying Beetle.  He force-feeds the dealer a substantial amount of heroin and leaves him tied to a light post.  The Question brings up Yellowjacket (America’s first superhero) and his fate. Yellowjacket has vanished and no one knows what became of him.

We then see a young man (clad in a yellow jacket) visiting the grave of Governor Harley’s father.  He sits and waits for a considerable amount of time.  Captain Atom appears and tells him, “The door has one side and opens both ways.  Let me show you.”

The man in the yellow jacket is then forced to confront a memory.  He was young, snooping in his father’s studio late one night.  He found a scrapbook of newspaper articles about Yellowjacket and a revolver.  Then Yellowjacket himself comes through the window and the boy shoots him dead.  It was his father, and the little boy was future-president Harley.

This was pretty awesome.  It gives us an idea of what Watchmen might have been like if Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons had been allowed to use the Charlton characters.  While visually beautiful, it doesn’t really compare to Watchmen, though.  I love Frank Quitely but I love Dave Gibbons style even more.  Also, I always thought the name “Frank Quitely” was a crazy coincidental name (Quite Frankly, Frank Quitely) but never gave it much thought.  I did not realize it was a pseudonym used by Vincent Deighan.  I give the art an A and the story an A.  I am a sucker for Grant Morrison.

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Captain Atom #17 (July 1988)

08 Sunday Mar 2015

Posted by FKAjason in "The Lie", Captain Atom Versus Nature, Captain Atom Versus Super-Heroes, Elementals, Justice League

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Angela Adam, Black Canary, Black Racer, Blue Beetle, Bob Smith, Booster Gold, Brainwave Jr., Captain Atom, Cary Bates, Firestorm, Greg Weisman, Helen Vesik, Mister Miracle, Modern Age Captain Atom, Pat Broderick, Red Tornado, Shelley Eiber, Swamp Thing

“Battle Beyond the Green”

  • Writers:  Cary Bates & Greg Weisman
  • Pencils:  Pat Broderick
  • Inks:  Bob Smith
  • Colors:  Shelley Eiber
  • Letters:  Helen Vesik

This is a continuation of the story from Captain Atom #16 in which the Justice League was facing off against an angry Red Tornado (in hurricane form) and called Cap in for support.  Available for sale April 5, 1988, this story featured Cap’s first real brush with elementals (at this point Firestorm was not yet solidly established as the fire elemental), and his introduction to the Black Racer.  This book opens with what I feel is one of the greatest renderings of Cap ever to appear in print.  Broderick, Smith, and Eiber did not fool around with this one.  It is the Modern Age Captain Atom at his absolute best.

Absolutely beautiful artwork.  Art like this is a big reason I loved Captain Atom in the 1980s.  The only beef I have with the artwork is a minor one (Cap’s bruises from the fight with Major Force have miraculously faded away).  I truly love the artwork of The One and Only Pat Broderick.  Not sure I can get behind his dislike of cosplayers.

The storm declares Captain Atom is “less than nothing” to an elemental like him, and knocks Cap to the ground.  Red Tornado threatens to scatter Cap’s atoms into the stratosphere.  Cap warns him (with the Captain-Atom-is-mad-eye-flare) of the kind of damage he can do when he is angry.  It is at this point that the swamp declares it has had enough. Vines creep up from the ground and pull Cap down.  His Justice League team-mates Black Canary, Blue Beetle, Mr. Miracle, and Booster Gold find Captain Atom tangled up in the vines, unconscious.

Nate suddenly finds himself out of his metal skin (completely naked) in a grassy field with his deceased wife Angela.  Angela is pulled away from him by an angry windstorm (Red Tornado) and Nate switches to his Captain Atom persona.  In reality, Cap is on board the JLI shuttle, unresponsive.  Beetle and Booster are trying to fly out of the storm while complaining about the rest of the League failing to show up.

Checking Cap’s vitals, Mr. Miracle makes a huge discovery.  He learns that the metal exo-shell Cap wears is alien in origin.  This contradicts the origin story Cap fed the media (“the lie”).

Back in Nate’s mind, Red Tornado and Captain Atom continue to battle.  Tornado muses over Cap’s refusal to just die.  Cap gives a sarcastic non-answer about the quantum field, and the two find themselves engulfed in a huge explosion.  The turmoil around them suddenly dies down and they find themselves floating in non-space next to each other.  Tornado has a fuzzy recollection of the two of them fighting.

Then their host shows himself.

It is Swamp Thing, the Earth elemental, who has brought the two together through the Green.

Booster Gold instructs Beetle to fly the shuttle to California.  The JLI realizes no doctor can help Cap and they can’t stand idly by.  They need a psychic, and since Martian Manhunter was a no-show, they’re paying a visit to Infinity Incorporated and Brainwave.

Back in Cap’s head (or whatever existential plane they are on), Swamp Thing explains they will not be able to return to their physical bodies until the three of them exist in total harmony.  Meanwhile, a fourth entity makes an appearance in their crazy mindscape: an ominous aerial skier.  Swamp Thing says this means they are running out of time.

Red Tornado explains that he does not think he can exist in harmony with Captain Atom as Cap is “one of them.”  He says “they” are “polluters of the bio-sphere.”  He goes on to explain that he once fought alongside humans (he was a member of the Justice League alongside Cap’s frenemy Firestom), even giving his life to them when the Justice League space station was destroyed (this was in Justice League of America (vol 1) Annual #3 [1985] – this actually marks Red Tornado’s return to the post-Crisis mainstream DCU).  Rather than kill him, the explosion transformed Red into a being of wind.  He watched man destroying Earth (abusing the bio-sphere) until he decided he’d seen enough and felt totally justified trying to destroy humanity.

Swamp Thing tells Red they are brothers.  He quickly recounts his own origin story and how he became the Earth elemental.

Meanwhile, Captain Atom’s body has been taken to the headquarters of Infinity, Inc.  where Brainwave, Jr. announces Cap is not in an ordinary coma.  His “silver cord” is dangerously “over-extended.” Brainwave says he cannot help Cap unless he goes to him and promptly passes out.  Mr. Miracle explains that Brainwave has used astral projection to enter Captain Atom’s mind.

Back in the astral world or whatever, Swamp Thing admits that he, too, once lost patience with humanity.  He tells Red that he can learn to temper his fury with mankind as he did himself.  Cap sees the skier in the skies again and decides to go and confront it but Swamp Thing erects a barrier and tells Cap not to go.  Swamp Thing explains it is the Black Racer, a “pure elemental force who deals a fatal touch to his chosen victims with a single stroke.”  And he’s gunning for Nathaniel Adam.

Like Red Tornado, this is the Black Racer’s first post-Crisis appearance.  Created by Jack Kirby in 1971, the Black Racer’s corporeal form is that of bedridden Sgt. Willie Walker, who was paralyzed during the Vietnam War.  Walker was contacted by the Source when Darkseid first brought the war of the gods to Earth, and told it was his responsibility to take on the role. The Racer makes use of what appear to be skis as his means of transport, much like how the Silver Surfer, another Kirby creation, uses a surfboard. New Gods are collected by the Racer at the moment of their deaths, and taken to Hadis (the Fourth World version of Hades).  Thanks, Wikipedia.

Assuming they can not be harmed by the Racer’s touch (Red Tornado and Swamp Thing’s human bodies are dead), Red goes after the Black Racer.  Swamp Thing leads Cap to a strange swirly mass that he senses is sanctuary, with Red not far behind.  However, the Black Racer can not follow them in, leading Swamp Thing to believe the danger has passed for Nate.

Within the sanctuary, they come across Brainwave.  Brainwave explains he is there to lead Nate back to Earth.  Red Tornado leaves them, saying he has some deep thinking to do.  Before Swamp Thing can leave, Cap poses a question to him: If the Earth elemental was born out of a violent explosion that killed Alec Holland, and the Wind elemental was born out of a violent explosion that killed John “Reddy” Smith, then what elemental was born out of the violent explosion that killed Nathaniel Adam?  Swamp Thing tells Cap he’ll have to work that one out for himself.

The Black Racer makes one last grab for Captain Atom, but misses his mark when Cap and Brainwave find themselves in reality once again, surrounded by the Justice League.  Captain Atom thanks Brainwave and leaves, much to Blue Beetle’s chagrin.

This is not the end of Captain Atom’s brushes with the Black Racer or Red Tornado.  He and Red end up as allies and the Black Racer never gives up on catching Nathaniel Adam.  The art of this issue is superb, truly Pat Broderick did not phone this one in.  The story was pretty good as well, raising some really important questions about exactly WHAT Captain Atom really is.  I give this issue an A.

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Categories

  • "The Lie"
  • Cameo
  • Captain Atom Fights Crime
  • Captain Atom in Outer Space
  • Captain Atom Loses His Powers
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Recent Posts

  • Captain Atom #24 (January 1989) July 14, 2021
  • Captain Atom #23 (December 1988) July 7, 2021
  • Captain Atom Annual #2 (1988/1989) June 30, 2021
  • Captain Atom #22 (December 1988) March 17, 2021
  • The Fall and Rise of Captain Atom #6 (August 2017) March 10, 2021

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  • About
  • Cameo Appearances
  • Captain Atom Brigade
  • Captain Atom in Who’s Who
  • Captain Atom’s Amazing Friends
  • Captain Atom’s Powers
  • Captain Atom’s Rogues
  • Captain Atom’s Secret Identity
  • Crossover Events
    • 1985 – Crisis on Infinite Earths
    • 1988 – Millennium
    • 1989 – Invasion!
    • 1989 – The Janus Directive
    • 1991 – Armageddon 2001
    • 1991 – War of the Gods
    • 1994 – Zero Hour
    • 1995 – Underworld Unleashed
    • 1996 – Final Night
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    • 2014 – Futures End
    • 2015 – Convergence
  • Every Appearance of Captain Atom
  • Know Your Captain Atom
    • Breach
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    • Golden Age Captain Atom
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