Captain Atom #24 (January 1989)

Tags

Amanda Waller, Black Canary, Blue Beetle, Booster Gold, Carrie Spiegle, Cary Bates, Dan Raspler, Dennis O'Neill, General Eiling, Green Lantern (Hal Jordan), Greg Weisman, Max Lord, Modern Age Captain Atom, Mr. Miracle, Pat Broderick, Romeo Tanghal, Shelley Eiber, Steve Trevor, The Flash

“War-Day”

Written by Cary Bates & Greg Weisman
Pencils by Pat Broderick
Inks by Romeo Tanghal
Colors by Shelley Eiber
Letters by Carrie Spiegle
Edited by Dan Raspler & Denny O’Neil

This story is an Invasion: First Strike! crossover. Invasion! was a three issue limited series published in late 1988-early 1989 by DC Comics. It was plotted by Keith Giffen, and ties up a great many plot lines from various Giffen-created DC series, including Omega Men, Justice League International, and Legion of Super-Heroes.  In this crossover event, the Dominators have put together an alliance to invade Earth and eliminate the threat posed by their unpredictable “metahumans” (secretly, the Dominators wish to harness this and breed their own army of metahumans, but this goal is kept from the rest of the Alliance, and from some of their own race). After assassinating many former members of the disbanded Green Lantern Corps, and attacking the Omega Men, the Alliance launches a massive attack on Earth, overrunning Australia and establishing there a base from which to conquer the rest of the planet.

This tale begins with Maxwell Lord being piggy-backed by Captain Atom to the super-hero HQ. Nate isn’t sure he’s the man for the job, but he’s been unanimously chosen as the Commander in Chief of all Earth’s super-heroes. The aliens are spying on him and will be able to hear and see everything that goes on in the command center. Nate learns from Max that Amanda Waller (of the Suicide Squad) will be in charge of Earth’s super-villains and is dismayed to find out the military will be overseen by General Wade Eiling.

Nate and Wade immediately lock horns when they are in the room together. Eiling does not like Captain Atom’s choice for a pilot on a covert mission they are cooking up. Apparently he had planned to be the pilot himself. He is overruled by Waller and Eiling and has to choose a suitable replacement. They want to present him with a list of candidates but Nate says if it can’t be him, it has to be Steve Trevor, who has re-enlisted in this time of war.

Colonel Trevor arrives at the HQ. Atom takes him straight to the briefing room. He learns that there is a New Genesis satellite in orbit around Earth with immense firepower and destructive capability that the Alien Alliance has overlooked. Steve is to pilot a special shuttle to the satellite and realign it so it is facing the enemy fleet in space rather than Earth itself. Steve’s only question is, “Where’s the shuttle?”

At a briefing the next morning, it is revealed that the alien forces are spread out on the surface of the planet and unprepared for a space-bound attack on their fleet. Max is surprised by how well Nate and Wade are actually getting along. The next day, the two men meet in the coffee room and Eiling tells Nate they need to do something to prevent Peggy and Goz from getting married. Wade wants to transfer Gunner and get him away from her, but Nate reminds him how stubborn his daughter is. That has to be put on a back burner, though, as there is trouble with Colonel Trevor.

steve was found that morning, unconscious and surrounded by a mysterious energy. They don’t know what the energy field is and cannot punch through it without endangering the Colonel’s life. Eiling wants to scrub the op, but Captain Atom insists he be the pilot. Odds are whatever the aliens did to Trevor won’t work on him. Of course, Eiling objects, but is overruled by Waller. The mission must go on.

Eiling has to get a last word in with Nate, giving him no-brainer instructions on how to do his job. After Captain Atom takes off in the shuttle (why he needs a shuttle is a mystery), Eiling is talking to an ensign in the control room who reveals that Trevor and Atom took the shuttle out the night before. Wade was unaware of this.

As Captain Atom progresses out of Earth’s upper atmosphere, he and his team on the surface are still totally unaware that their every move is being monitored by the aliens. They don’t know exactly what the humans are up to, but they know it is something. Apparently, the Durlans have a man on the inside down on the surface. Their secret objective is to capture Captain Atom.

Back on Earth, the energy aura around Trevor vanishes and he wakes up. However, back in the shuttle, Nate’s helmet fills with knockout gas. I made this observation in my coverage of the second Captain Atom annual, but I will point it out again. Captain Atom has super-breath-holding. He doesn’t even need a space-suit. Every time he is taken out by “knockout gas,” it is utterly ridiculous. And I will never not point it out.

Back at HQ, Eiling approaches Trevor with his gun drawn. However, it isn’t Steve on the table but his doctor. Colonel Trevor, it turns out, is a shape-shifting Durlan. It was his unauthorized visit to the hangar the night before that gave the spy away. Trevor didn’t have the necessary key-card to get in, but a Durlan could mimic one. The enemy alien flips off the lights and Wade opens fire in the dark.

Back in the shuttle, Nate blasts his helmet visor with his angry eyes and ignites the knockout gas. The shuttle is destroyed, leaving Captain Atom floating in space.

Back on the surface, Eiling gets the lights back on but the Durlan has shifted into a research skeleton. It gets Eiling from behind and begins to choke him but Captain Atom bursts in and blows the skeleton apart. He chases the skull down the hallway, but it makes it to the hangar where they lose track of it.

Noticing an extra fuel tank on a chopper that is lifting off, Atom grabs the tank and flings it into the helicopter blades, slicing the Durlan into several pieces. Ew.

General Eiling is a little chagrined as this is the second time Captain Atom has saved his life. Waller and Max enter the hangar just n time to see the two shaking hands, much to their shock.

Later, as Earth’s super-heroes begin to converge on the command center, Eiling is dismayed to learn their commander isn’t even there. He’s on his way to Metropolis to personally recruit Superman. So that cover image, cool as it is, never happened.

Story-wise, I give this issue a B. I’m never super crazy about the crossover issues. They rarely advance the ongoing plot of the hero we’ve been following. I like that Captain Atom is in charge of Earth’s heroes, but I honestly feel there were better choices. Just because he has a military background he was chosen? Wasn’t Hal Jordan once in the Air Force, too? And a space-cop? For that matter, isn’t this version of Hawkman a space-cop?

The artwork is good but nothing jumps out at me. That panel with the Durlan getting sliced is memorable, though. I give it a B for art as well. Overall, not too shabby.

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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.