25 Thursday Feb 2021
Posted in Cameo, Captain Atom in Outer Space, Extreme Justice
Tags
So, Steel has an adventure in space! And the newly-formed EXTREME Justice team is on hand. Again, it’s just a little cameo for Captain Atom. He really needed his own solo title again at this point.
Now, I like Steel as a character. There still aren’t enough heroes of color in comics. But, can we all agree as a society that comics in the mid 1990s kind of really sucked?
24 Wednesday Feb 2021
Back when these would crop up, I used to wonder why they ever put Captain Atom on the team if they just didn’t know what to do with him.
Justice League International #20-21 (Dec 1988-Jan 1989)
Justice League International #24 (February 1989)
Justice League America #32 (November 1989)
Justice League America #53 (August 1991)
Justice League America #54 (September 1991)
Justice League Unlimited #7 (May 2005)
Justice League Unlimited #8 (June 2005)
Justice League Unlimited #9 (July 2005)
Justice League Unlimited #13 (November 2005)
Justice League Unlimited #20 (June 2006)
Justice League Unlimited #21 (July 2006)
Justice League Unlimited #22 (August 2006)
21 Thursday Apr 2016
It is Throwback Thursday again with FKAjason and Vance discussing “The Little Wanderer,” a story by Joe Gill and Steve Ditko that first appeared in Space Adventures #35 (1960, Charlton Comics). Captain Atom helps (sort of) his friend Gunner and his narcoleptic son. Cap flies around, blasts space birds, and generally confounds the readers with questions like, “Why?” or “How?” and “Did somebody say donuts?”
Music
Heart of Gold – The Roy Clark Method
Speak to Me/Breath – Pink Floyd
The Wanderer – Dion
17 Thursday Mar 2016
Tags
Captain Atom, Joe Gill, Silver & Gold, Silver Age Captain Atom, Space Adventures, Steve Ditko, Throwback Thursday
Throwback Thursday returns and this time out, FKAjason and Vance review the Space Adventures #34 Captain Atom story “The Second Man in Space” (written by Joe Gill with artwork by Steve Ditko). We discuss the laziness of “space vaccines” and the general cheesyness of silver age comics. Vance can barely stay awake for this one, so you know you’re in for a real treat!
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Music
Heart of Gold – The Roy Clark Method
Silver and Gold – U2
19 Sunday Apr 2015
Tags
Al Gordon, Batman, Big Barda, Blue Beetle, Bob Lappan, Booster Gold, Captain Atom, Fire, Gene D'Angelo, Green Lantern (G'Nort), Green Lantern (Guy Gardner), Ice, J. M. DeMatteis, Keith Giffen, L-Ron, Manga Khan, Martian Manhunter, Max Lord, Mister Miracle, Modern Age Captain Atom, Oberon, Rocket Red, Ronald Reagan, Steve Leialoha
“Shop… Or Die”
Despite being featured prominently on the cover of this issue, Captain Atom has only a cameo appearance. He shows up in two panels and has no dialogue. A new “villain” is introduced in the form of Lord Manga Khan. The DC wiki description of Manga Khan: “The self-ascribed lord is an intergalactic broker with connections throughout several galaxies. He is more or less considered the used car salesman of the galaxy. Manga Khan leads the bartering firm known as the Cluster and is willing to trade in any commodity of reputable value. Assisting Khan is his robotic major domo L-Ron, who is reportedly Manga Khan’s only real friend, and often serves as the sounding board to his employer’s often long-winded rants.” When he is introduced, he has just harvested the last of the resources from an unnamed planet. L-Ron tells Khan that he has discovered a new planet with even more resources – Earth. Manga sends drone ships to the planet.
On the planet Khan has just drained, a pod crashes and G’Nort steps out. His ring tells him this world is Yecktamecktokovia and until recently it was “pretty civilized” and not the wasteland it is now. G’Nort encounters a native who presumably tells him of what Lord Manga Khan has done and the fact he is headed for Earth because G’Nort himself flies to Earth.
Meanwhile, back on Earth, Ice Maiden and Green Flame are trying to join the Justice League but Martian Manhunter isn’t interested. In the home of Scott Free and Big Barda, Mister Miracle, Booster Gold and Blue Beetle are watching a football game when the program is suddenly pre-empted by an alien broadcast about interstellar barter. L-Ron informs the people of Earth that if they do not enter into trade negotiations with Khan’s Cluster, they will simply take what they want and leave Earth an empty husk. He warns them to shop or die. 
On the moon, G’Nort sees the Cluster preparing for invasion. He attacks. The story is to be continued in the next issue.
“Gnort and South”
Picking up where the last issue left off, Justice League International #15 features Captain Atom more prominently. On sale March 15, 1988 and cover-dated July 1988, this issue opens with Manga Khan’s Cluster being attacked by Green Lantern G’Nort. L-Ron informs his master that the Green Lantern attacking isn’t even assigned to this sector, leading Khan to believe G’Nort is a rogue Lantern (“or an idiot,” L-Ron points out).
L-Ron informs Manga Khan that any damage G’Nort could do would be negligible, which makes me wonder just how powerful the Cluster is. I mean, the Green Lantern rings are supposed to be the most powerful weapon in the universe. This is probably the first hint that G’Nort isn’t exactly what he seems to be (but that is a story for another time). Despite this, G’Nort somehow takes out the Cluster’s main power unit and their cloaking shield goes down. 
At the JLI’s New York embassy, Oberon sees the Cluster suddenly appear on his screens along with a power surge in Australia. The surge blows out his monitor so Oberon hits the big “alert” button to warn the Justice League. The surge also shorts out Mr. Miracle’s “arm unit” (his interface with his mother box) on board the JLI shuttle (where he is accompanied by Blue Beetle, Booster Gold, Green Flame, and Ice Maiden). In the last issue, Martian Manhunter had not signed Green Flame and Ice Maiden on with the JLI. Booster is lamenting the absence of Guy Gardner but Green Flame tells him that she and Ice Maiden are the two heaviest hitters on the Global Guardians team (she also mentions that they are probationary members of the JLI). The shuttle flies on toward Australia.
In orbit around Earth, Captain Atom, Martian Manhunter, and Rocket Red #4 have hitched a ride on a S.T.A.R. Labs space shuttle. Martian Manhunter and Cap are wearing space suits. I kind of have an issue with this. Didn’t the Millennium mini-series establish that Cap could survive the vacuum of space without a space suit? The Bronze and Silver Age Captain Atoms could. See, look at this panel…
From Justice League International #10
I suppose it is possible that the heroes who were in space were only surviving because of a spell Dr. Fate cast or something. Martian Manhunter tells his team that all they have to do is prevent Manga Khan’s fleet from reaching Earth. 
The trio exits the shuttle and approach the Cluster. At first the ships do nothing, but then they send out fighter. It dawns on Cap that he can’t use his powers because if he does, he ruptures his suit. If he ruptures his suit, he dies. Approaching a giant structure in Australia, the JLI shuttle is attacked by Manga Khan’s men. Ice Maiden quickly proves her value by blasting a soldier off the shuttle with an ice blast. Mr. Miracle and Booster leave the shuttle to fight while Blue Beetle sets her down. In space, Cap watches as Rocket Red and Martian Manhunter tear into the Cluster’s ships. He informs J’onn that he has a plan to hold the Cluster’s forces at bay until the “powerhouses like Superman can get in on this.”
L-Ron informs Khan that G’Nort has broken off his attack on the Cluster and is instead going after the fighters. Manga Khan is pleased, as this will save them a considerable amount in comparative damages.
Cap’s plan is to use the surround debris to batter the fighters and give them something to run from. J’onn is less than thrilled with the plan but goes along with it as it is as good a plan as any. Just when they are about to be toasted by an incoming fighter, G’Nort shows up and rescues them. Cap believes G’Nort is just the advantage they’re looking for.
Back on Earth, the rest of the League is having troubles besting the Cluster’s ground troops. Green Flame and Ice Maiden actually prove their worth, much to Mr. Miracle’s surprise. He flies into the Cluster building while Booster and Beetle take refuge with Green Flame and Ice Maiden under Booster’s force field.
Back in space, G’Nort proves his worth by taking out some drones with wreckage from the debris field. To the League’s surprise, the Cluster ships begin to withdraw. On the flagship, L-Ron explains to Manga that they are reaching a point where the taking of Earth is no longer profitable (due to the Justice League’s intervention).
Back on Earth, the Cluster is also retreating. However, Mr. Miracle is still inside one of the ships as it leaves the planet. Before he can escape, he is grabbed by one of Manga’s men.
Rocket Red, Martian Manhunter, and G’Nort break the news of Scott’s abduction to his wife, Big Barda. She suits up and insists on going after him.
The issue closes with a cute exchange between Batman and Guy Gardner in which Guy is trying to convince the dark knight into returning to the JLI. This sets up the next issue, which does not feature Captain Atom so I won’t be reviewing it for this blog (but it was a really good issue and you should check it out).
This story was cute, but there still isn’t a lot for Cap to do in the Justice League. His role increases when Justice League Europe hits the stands, but that’s still to come. I’m not crazy about Steve Leialoha’s work on these issues, but I think it was a step in the right direction. I give Justice League International #14 & 15 a B-.
17 Wednesday Apr 2013
“Death Knell of the World!”
“What happens ‘when worlds collide?’ It looked like all of the people of Earth would soon know, for a mysterious planetoid from the interstellar regions beyond our solar system was bearing down on Earth… on a collision course. Captain Adam, U.S. Air Force knew that the planetoid must be stopped… or a world would die! He also knew that one man could possibly hope to save Earth from a horrible fate… Captain Atom, atom-powered super being. But the task seemed impossible even for Captain Atom’s awesome powers…”
And with that, the bar is set pretty high with Captain Atom #80.
This story opens with a space capsule returning to Earth but something has gone wrong. The fuel system is jammed and the astronaut is trapped in orbit. Back in the control room on Earth, the crew is panicking. One of them is, of course, Captain Adam. He leaves the control room and transforms into Captain Atom.
Cap quickly flies up to the failing spacecraft. The control room folks urge the astronaut to “give her one more try.” Cap grabs the ship and steadies it. The ground crew cheer and the astronaut is left thinking he saw something out the window. So Cap is still working in secret? Didn’t the last issue establish him as a well-known hero? Why is he still keeping a low profile?
Upon landing back at Cape Kennedy, Gunner tells Adam that General “Eining” is looking for him. This is a character we’ve not yet seen but it is probably no accident that in the 1980s Captain Atom series for DC, there is a very prominent character named General “Eiling.”
The general tells Adam that the president wants an account of how he became Captain Atom. So what do we get? Yet another retelling of Cap’s origin. I guess Gill thought folks forgot it in the four months since the last retelling. Perhaps he just had space to fill. He does state that “the existence of Captain Atom is one of the nation’s most closely kept secrets! Only a few of the key men are aware of the fact that America has a top-secret weapon in a man called Captain Atom.” This really bugs me. I realize that continuity wasn’t always a big deal in comic books of the 60s but come on! Enough with the secret-not-secret super hero thing already.
Gunner barges in on Adam as he is dictating his report and tells him the president needs Captain Atom at the observatory at Mount Palomar. The Palomar Observatory is located in north San Diego County, California. According to their website, it is “a world-class center of astronomical research that is owned and operated by the California Institute of Technology. The observatory is home to five telescopes that are nightly used for a wide variety of astronomical research programs.”
It takes Cap six minutes to fly from Florida to San Diego, where he meets up with a scientist fellow. The scientist has Adam look through a telescope, where he sees a rogue moon out past Pluto that will crash into Earth in exactly two days. Seconds later, Captain Atom is in outer space, flying towards the rogue moon. His plan is to land on the surface and detonate himself like an atomic warhead. However, he quickly learns that the moon is artificial. Within it is a “vast alien civilization.”
The first person Cap comes upon – humanoid in appearance – is Celest. Cap quickly says he means no harm, but Celest’s bodyguard – an elderly fellow named Valdar – runs to her aid brandishing some sort of gun. Captain Atom becomes cocky and quite rude, calling Valdar “Santa Claus” before disintegrating his gun. He asks to see their leader, who happens to walk into the room at that moment, and he is Celest’s father.
The leader is Drako, and is well aware that his world is going to collide with Earth, but tells Cap they don’t have the power to stop it. Atom says he’ll use his own power, but Drako warns that “the pressure of stopping our world, or even shifting its course, would upset the entire gravitational compensation apparatus of our manufactured planet! In short , all of my people would be crushed to death!”
Drako says he can build a gravitational motivator but he lacks the materials to build it. Captain Atom offers to gather the materials. Before he sets off, Valdar warns Cap that Drako is a despot, but a capable scientist. Valdar says the motivator will most likely work, but warns Cap not to trust the leader.
Cap sets out to gather the things Drako needs. Meanwhile, word has gotten out on Earth about their predicament. Gunner looks to the heavens and says Captain Atom is their only hope.
Just before Cap heads out for the final piece for Drako’s motivator, a tearful Celest stops him and warns him not to trust her father.
Once the motivator is complete, Cap steps inside to power it up. It does stop the rogue world, resulting in parties in the streets back on Earth. But it turns out the motivator doubles as a holding cell. Cap can’t leave and he can’t use his full power (as it will kill the people on the rogue world).
Celest jumps into the motivator, which kills her but frees Captain Atom. Drako is distraught over being the creator of the thing that killed his daughter. Valdar steps in as the new leader. Cap heads back to Earth, saying to himself, “Only if men abandon selfish personal desires and work for the common good can there be peace on Earth and goodwill toward men.”
Not bad. Ditko and Mastroserio’s art is beautiful and we gets lots of space scenes. The story is pretty good, but I could’ve done without the retelling of Cap’s origin. Still, I give Captain Atom #80 an A.
This “universe” was absorbed into DC Comics’ Multiverse when the Charlton characters were purchased by DC. This universe became Earth-4.
22 Friday Feb 2013
Tags
Captain Atom, Gunner, Joe Gill, Rocke Mastroserio, Silver Age Captain Atom, Silver Lady from Venus, Steve Ditko
After his initial run in Space Adventures from March 1960 to October 1961, Captain Atom was MIA. He resurfaced four years later in October 1965. But it was not entirely new adventures we got. Strange Suspense Stories (Charlton Comics) reprinted stories from Space Adventures.
Strange Suspense Stories #75 (June 1965)
Strange Suspense Stories #76 (August 1965)
Strange Suspense Stories #77 (October 1965)
.
With the next issue of Strange Suspense Stories, the comic was retitled Captain Atom and featured all-new stories. This “universe” was absorbed into DC Comics’ Multiverse when the Charlton characters were purchased by DC. This universe became Earth-4.
01 Friday Feb 2013
Posted in Captain Atom in Outer Space, Captain Atom: Healer, Earth-4, Espionage
“The Crisis”
Although these stories were probably written by Joe Gill, he is not credited. In the first story, Captain Atom has learned that a plane transporting a U.S. diplomat has been sabotaged to crash somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean. Cap comes upon the plane just as it is about to crash, and rescues the plane off-panel.
Captain Adam meets the diplomat on the ground, who tells Cap about the mysterious engine trouble that they had and his confusion on how they landed safely with no operable engines, even though he knows about Captain Atom.
At the embassy, Cap does a little make-up work and assumes the identity of the diplomat (Mr. Haynes). He believes that “the enemy” plans to kidnap Haynes. Ten minutes later, he is proven right when a man posing as his chauffeur abducts the disguised Captain Adam. The kidnappers promise to get him to the conference, but that he’ll be delivering words they provide.
At the conference, another diplomat (Malnov) accuses the U.S. of lying. He says they want an atomic war. When “Haynes” gets up to speak, he tells the other diplomats that he was kidnapped by Malnov’s men. The men open fire on Cap, but to no avail. Haynes excuses himself for a moment (so Cap can switch back with the real Haynes), and when the true diplomat returns, he begins to discuss disarmament.
Cap meets with Odeva, a double agent who tells him “they” have got a hundred atomic missiles ready to be fired (“they” must be the Russians). Captain Atom finds the missiles, prepping for launch. When they spot Captain Atom flying in, they launch the missiles, which Cap easily smashes.
Returning to the summit meeting, Adam whispers to Haynes what has transpired. When Malnov gets up to speak and threaten to launch his missiles, Haynes gets up and says, “Baloney!”
Again, this could have been a better story if it were longer. It is good for what it is, a B in my book. Ditko’s art is A material again, even though in the second panel it looks like Captain Atom is wearing an adult diaper under his costume.
“The Boy and the Stars”
In this story we meet Master Sergeant Wilkie Scott, a man who was once an invaluable officer but has of late been making stupid mistakes. One of these mistakes was to launch nuclear missiles over major U.S. cities. Captain Atom is disarming one over Manhattan in the opening panel. He rides the rocket out into space, saving millions of New Yorkers.
Back at the base, we learn that Scott has been so distracted because his son is dying of gamma ray poison. Funny, gamma rays didn’t kill Bruce Banner. Adam approaches Wilkie. The two of them get in a jet and fly to Wilkie’s home on the West coast. They visit Wilkie’s son in the hospital.
Adam asks the boy, Buddy, if he’d like to go into space. He becomes Captain Atom, who Buddy instantly recognizes and calls by name. So, like in Space Adventures #39, Captain Atom is again a well-known superhero and not just working in secret for the Air Force.
Captain Atom flies into space with Buddy, who the hospital staff think Captain Adam kidnapped. Of course, Wilkie Scott doesn’t panic, so he must know Adam is Captain Atom. Somehow, Buddy is not instantly killed when in the vacuum of space. Also, Ditko again displays his on-again off-again inability to draw realistic-looking children. The kid’s body is way too small and his mouth is way too big. I love Steve Ditko’s superhero art but he was hit-or-miss with kids.
Captain Atom flies Buddy into “a lovely star that emanates a ray” that Cap has found useful in curing gamma ray poisoning. The two walk around inside the star for a bit. The Captain Atom takes Buddy on a sight-seeing tour of the Milky Way. Then Cap returns Buddy to the hospital, where he reveals he is completely cured.
Later, we see a general chewing Captain Adam out for not dealing with finding out why the rockets misfired. Adam replies that he found out the cause and it won’t happen again.
A cute story, but the science is weird. It is revealed that Buddy absorbed the deadly gamma radiation through his telescope. If that’s the case, why doesn’t this happen to people around the world all the time? And why didn’t Buddy’s head pop in space? A C story with C art (cause Buddy looks less like a little boy and more like a chimpanzee).
This “universe” was absorbed into DC Comics’ Multiverse when the Charlton characters were purchased by DC. This universe became Earth-4.
30 Wednesday Jan 2013
“Test-Pilot’s Nightmare”
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”
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”
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.
21 Monday Jan 2013
Posted in Captain Atom in Outer Space, Earth-4
“The Space Prowlers”
“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”
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.
Splitting Atoms 