The Fall and Rise of Captain Atom #1 (March 2017)

Tags

Captain Atom, Cary Bates, Cyborg, Dr. Megala, Gabriel Hardman, General Eiling, Green Lantern (Hal Jordan), Greg Weisman, Ivan Nunes, Jason Badower, Jim Chadwick, Jordan Boyd, Kristy Quinn, New 52 Captain Atom, Saida Temofonte, Superman, Will Conrad

“Blowback”

• Writer: Cary Bates
• Co-Plotter: Greg Weisman
• Pencils/Inks: Will Conrad
• Colors: Ivan Nunes
• Letters: Saida Temofonte
• Cover Artist: Jason Badower
• Variant Cover Artists: Gabriel Hardman & Jordan Boyd
• Editor: Kristy Quinn
• Group Editor: Jim Chadwick

This issue opens at the Continuum, beneath Kansas City, on December 19, 2012 at 8:38 central time. The New 52 Captain Atom is seated on a chair inside a dome, demanding that Dr. Megala tell him how many people he killed today. Megala, speaking via intercom from a control room, tells Nathaniel that they don’t yet know how many casualties there were. The destructive power of Atom’s quantum flare-ups exceeded Megala’s projections. Even the intervention of the Justice League couldn’t control the damage. General Eiling, standing in the control room with Megala, says that he can spin the story so the Justice League takes part of the blame.

Captain Atom is being held in what Eiling refers to as a subterranean suppression dome, which Megala says should be equipped to handle whatever comes next. Nate worries what will happen to the world around him when he can no longer control the power him. Eiling tells Cap to stow the stinkin-thinkin and pull himself together. Atom doesn’t pay Eiling any mind as he goes on to say that he knows he cannot hold on to his last shreds of humanity. He says his good-byes to Megala, saying he’ll miss the doctor. But Eiling? Not so much.

Captain Atom begins to surge with energy. He tells Megala he’ll see him on the other side, and he explodes with energy.

Wow. Right out of the gate some powerful stuff. Something has obviously gone down and Nathaniel Adam has lost all hope. He has basically committed suicide in front of Megala and Eiling. And although this is clearly the New 52 Captain Atom, these aren’t the New 52 Megala and Eiling. Megala is in a wheelchair, but his body isn’t bent and he doesn’t have the Popeye look. It is unclear if this is supposed to be the Megala who went crazy and took over Firestorm’s body but he doesn’t look like him. Nor does he look like the post-Crisis Megala either. That Megala could not use his arms or legs and his chair served as a life-support system, kind of like Davros from Doctor Who.

This could possibly be the New 52 Eiling, though. He is an African-American again, but seems much younger. And slightly less douchey. The post-Crisis Eiling raised Nate’s kids as his own, but it seems as if this Cap has no kids. If he did, he probably wouldn’t have killed himself.

Twenty three minutes prior to Nate’s meltdown, Captain Atom is flying over the Pacific Ocean, heading back to the Continuum. He is speaking to Megala via an internal nano-com array that has been injected into Nate’s body. Megala tells him he’s detected a minor glitch in the last nano-diagnostic. The rate at which Cap’s atoms are splitting and reforming has elevated slightly. Megala tells him to hurry back so they can assess this new development, but Atom refuses. He’s spotted a cruise ship that’s about to be capsized by a mega wave. Megala sends for Eiling as Cap attempts to change the water around the ship into a jello-like mass. However, Captain Atom’s powers appear to be fizzling out. Cap compensates by pouring on more power.

His efforts pay off and as soon as the gelatinous mass steadies the ship Atom flies away quickly. As Eiling bitches about Nate’s inability to follow orders, there is a spike in Cap’s “quantum fever.” There is a flare-up, similar to the one he killed himself with a few pages back, and Eiling tells Nate to get back to the Continuum as quickly as possible. He wants Captain Atom contained in the suppression dome. Nate tries to make it back, but the increasing flare-ups slow him down.

Just then, three Justice Leaguers show up on the scene, drawn to Cap’s flare-ups that they detected from their Watchtower. Cap explains to Superman, Green Lantern Hal Jordan, and Cyborg that he urgently needs to get to Kansas, but the Leaguers won’t let him fly over populated areas. Megala taps into Cyborg’s tech and transmits a hologram of himself explaining the situation.

Captain Atom tells Superman he can get him to the Continuum quickly and Green Lantern and Cyborg say they can help contain Cap in the meantime. Just as Nate begins to flare up again, Superman grabs him and heads for Kansas. Green Lantern encloses Atom in a protective bubble while Cyborg just says encouraging things like, “Your ring’s kicking quantum ass!”

Just as they are over Kansas, Hal apologizes as he loses control of his construct. Captain Atom flares again, and the Leaguers do what they can to protect the innocent lives down below. However, as we see the scale of the destruction, it seems unlikely that many lives were saved.

Captain Atom staggers into the dome, crawls to the chair, and demands that Megala tell him how many people he killed. This is where we came in.

Nate appears to be dead. His chair was melted and there is no sign of him. Megala says that even though he isn’t a religious man, he hopes Nathaniel Adam will find peace in the afterlife. Eiling can’t get past the loss of a military asset long enough to consider the passing of the human inside. But, as we see up on the surface in the ruins of Kansas City, our hero may not be dead after all.

A naked man lies in the rubble with no blue skin. A newspaper nearby indicates the current year is 1994. To be continued…

This was awesome. Will Conrad’s art is beautiful. Of course I’m going to love Bates and Weisman, and I’m super excited about what comes next. If it goes the way I think it is going to go, I’m going to be a very happy Nathaniel Adam fan. This is the best Captain Atom I’ve seen in recent memory. A for story and A for art. I’m hoping this is the beginning of something big and long-lasting for Captain Atom.

Justice League: Futures End #1 (November 2014)

Tags

Captain Atom, Cyborg, Dawnstar, Equinox, Gabriel A. Eltaeb, Grodd, Jed Dougherty, Jeff Lemire, Killer Frost, Martian Manhunter, Mechaneer, Mike McKone, Mongul, New 52 Captain Atom, Stormguard, Taylor Esposito, The Flash, Vostok, Wildfire

“HomeWorld Part 2 of 2”

• Writer:  Jeff Lemire
• Pencils & Inks:  Jed Dougherty
• Colors:  Gabriel A. Eltaeb
• Letters:  Taylor Esposito
• Cover Art:  Gabriel A. Eltaeb & Mike McKone

In the interest of remaining spoiler-free (and because I still haven’t caught up on Futures End), I’m just going to be posting some images from the book for now.  Captain Atom is still out there and still doing the super hero thing (or possibly the super villain thing, depending on your perspective).  I like Jed Dougherty’s Captain Atom, but I’m not super crazy about his Captain Adam.  Weird, I know.

The New 52 Captain Atom (at his most Dr. Manhattan-like) leaves the DCU (again) in a blaze of glory.  We thought he had died in the pages of The Fury of Firestorm: The Nuclear Man, but five years down the road he’s back in Futures End and not taking any crap.

Unable to best his foes (and proving he has lost touch with his own humanity), Cap decides his only option is to destroy himself.

Equinox (or is it Martian Manhunter?) stops Cap in his tracks and saves the day.  She (he?) sets Nathaniel Adam free.

It was Martian Manhunter, of course, using his telepathic powers to give Captain Atom inner peace.  This may be (at last) the end of the New 52 Captain Atom.  The upcoming Convergence series may make the New 52 Captain Atom a thing that never even existed.  Time will tell.

Captain Atom #1 (November 2011)

Tags

Captain Atom, Dr. Megala, Freddie E. Williams II, J. T. Krul, José Villarrubia, New 52 Captain Atom, Ranita Carter, Rob Leigh, Stanley Lau

“Evolution of the Species”

• Writer:  J. T. Krul
• Pencils & Inks:  Freddie E. Williams II
• Colors:  José Villarrubia
• Letters:  Rob Leigh
• Cover Artist:  Stanley Lau

And then there was the New 52.  In September, 2011, DC Comics consolidated and relaunched their comic lines, discontinuing some series, and introducing yet other series, resulting in 52 titles, each with a new #1. That consolidation included the incorporation of both WildStorm Productions and the reincorporation of certain Vertigo properties into the mainstream DC Universe.  One of the characters given another shot at a series was Captain Atom (the New 52 also saw the return of Firestorm, the Nuclear Man – one of Cap’s old buddies).  Captain Atom (volume 3) #1 was available for sale on September 21, 2011.  It did not feature an origin story (that was to come a year later in Captain Atom #0), but did again establish that Nathaniel Adam was an Air Force pilot who somehow gained super powers.

The story opens (after a brief interlude in San Francisco with a rat rummaging around a sleeping homeless guy) in Chicago with Captain Atom blasting a robot dude on the streets.  He chides his enemy, telling him that “firing energy cannons at the guy who absorbs energy – not the smartest strategy.”  Preparing to punch the guy and “crack his eggshell,” Cap pauses as he notices something on a microscopic level.  He evaporates the man’s robot armor – turning it to dust – then gazes at his hand (which appears to begin dissipating), thinking he is losing his control over his body at the molecular level.

Cap returns to his home base, the Continuum (located “somewhere in Kansas”).  He briefly flirts with Dr. Ranita Carter before she is dismissed by Dr. Megala.  The New 52 Megala is even more crippled than the Modern Age Megala.  Megala asks Cap what went wrong with robot guy.  Cap sums up the exchange.

Dr. Megala explains that Captain Atom’s powers are nuclear in nature; that he taps into the SNF (Strong Nuclear Force – the energy that binds protons and neutrons in the nucleus).  His body seems to split atoms repeatedly, giving him incredible energy.  His hand became unstable because it did not reform the atoms as quickly as it split them.  Megala explains to Nathaniel that he was lucky it was his hand and not his brain.  He would cease to exist.  In simple terms, using his powers could kill Captain Atom.

Ranita interrupts the two with information that there is significant seismic activity detected in New York City.  As a result, the nuclear reactors at Indian Point are critical and a breach is iminent.  It is not the result of an earthquake, but a volcano in Manhattan.  Captain Atom doesn’t hesitate, flying for New York.

Cap makes it to Indian point from Kansas in about an hour (the original Captain Atom could also fly at super speeds).  Cap absorbs the leaked radiation while Megala’s words haunt him (“Using your powers could kill you.”).  That part of the crisis averted, he moves his attention to the volcano.  Realizing there are too many people in harm’s way to effectively move them all to safety, he transmutes to lava into snow (“the opposite of lava,” he thinks).

Meanwhile, on the streets of San Francisco, a homeless man is chasing a rat.  His homeless pals thinks he plans to eat it, but the rat (with ominous glowing red eyes) has been stealing his food and he wants to break it’s neck.  But before he can get his hands on it, the rat transforms into a multi-limbed, multi-mouthed monster.  Interesting interlude that I’m sure will pay off later.  Back in New York, Captain Atom is determined to stop the volcanic threat at the source.  The heat is producing too much energy for him to absorb (it isn’t yet established whether or not the New 52 Cap will “time bump” when absorbing too much energy [as he predecessor, the Modern Age Cap, did], but clearly there are limits to how much he can take in before harming himself).  He jumps into the volcano, trying to neutralize it at the source.  Although he does manage to “put out” the volcano, the heat begins to tear him apart and he can feel himself losing control.

As he melts down, he thinks to himself, “If this is the end, at least I died doing some good for once.”  Meaning what exactly?  Is this Nate also a war criminal?  Has he hurt people?  When the New 52 was introduced, the readers were tossed into the new books with their stories already in progress (for the most part).  After a year, DC launched a “zero month” with special issues that featured the character’s origin stories (although this wasn’t the case for Firestorm and some others, it was for Captain Atom).  This means we are fed little bits and pieces of Captain Atom’s history and abilities as the series progressed.  Of course, he didn’t die in this issue because there was a #2.  As well as 3-12 and #0.

I have to be honest.  This is not my favorite version of Captain Atom.  I don’t hate it.  Just not entirely in love with it.  I think he’s too much like Dr. Manhattan.  The original Cap was a brilliant scientist as well as an Air Force Captain.  He was almost omnipotent.  So was Dr. Manhattan.  The Modern Age Cap was just a soldier who gained powers.  And he had some serious limitations.  It is hard to get excited about a guy who can do practically anything.  That’s why I lost interest in Superman.  No real challenges for the heroes.  Also, at first, I was not super crazy about Freddie Williams artwork.  I thought it looked kind of sloppy.  It has since grown on me and I now think it is quite good.  It has a certain dark and ominous tone.  And J. T. Krull certainly had me hooked with the story.  I wanted to know more about Nate, more about Ranita, and was extremely curious to find out whether General Eiling or Major Force would return.  Or perhaps someone from Cap’s Silver or Bronze Age days.  Nightshade?  The Ghost?  Dare we hope, the Fiery Icer or Iron Arms?  One can dream.  I give this issue an A-.