Captain Atom #85 (March 1967)

Tags

Abby Ladd, Alec Rois, Blue Beetle, Bronze Age Captain Atom, David Kaler, Gary Friedrich, Herb Field, Jewlee, Lewis Coll, Nightshade, Punch, Rocke Mastroserio, Steve Ditko

“Strings of Punch and Jewlee”

• Writer: David Kaler
• Pencils: Steve Ditko
• Inks: Rocke Mastroserio
• Letters: Herb Field

This issue marks Captain Atom’s seventh birthday and his twenty-seventh published adventure (including his story in Peter Cannon… Thunderbolt #53 and excluding the reprints in Strange Suspense Stories).

It begins on a golf course.  Two men come upon a pretty blond woman teeing off.  She knocks her ball into the rough, and the older of the two men (identified as “Professor Bolt”) goes in after the ball.  Next to the ball he finds a ruby.  As he picks it up to examine it, a wire shoots out of the trees and ties itself around his wrist.  An electrical charge shoots down the wire and stuns Professor Bolt.

The wire is being manipulated by a flying man dressed as a jester.  The woman calls him “Punch” and uses the ruby to hypnotise Professor Bolt into submission.  As Punch takes the professor to his car, the woman sets off to hypnotize the other man.

Later that day, in Washington, news reaches Captain Allen Adam of the missing scientists.  He is at Alec Rois’ house, enjoying the pool with Eve Eden (Nightshade).  Neither of them is aware that their friend Alec is actually the Ghost (from Captain Atom #82).  Adam is trying to get Eve to reveal more of herself to him when a massive gem appears out of nowhere and encloses Rois within it.  It explodes and appears to vanish, knocking the heroes out cold.

Apropos of nothing, there’s a cool ad for Charlton comics on the next page.

Upon recovering, Captain Atom and Nightshade report to the Pentagon.  Their chief believes they were hypnotized.  Although he wants to send them both looking for Rois, Captain Atom has to report in for some tests.  Nightshade is sent to the Long Island golf course where Bolt was taken.

Meanwhile, in their secret lair (on Coney Island), Punch and Jewlee reveal how they came about their powers in a sloppy bit of exposition.

They were “cheap carny crooks” who came across a mysterious chest on the beach.  In the chest they found pixie boots that gave the wearer the ability to fly (which Punch wears) and special “hypno-gems,” complete with a mind-recording device that explained how they are used.  They use their newfound powers to purchase an old carnival and build a cool lab within it.  They have been kidnapping scientists and recording their “brains” for unknown reasons.  They set out for upstate New York in search of another scientist, Lewis Coll.

Coincidentally, Professor Coll has been running a barrage of tests on Captain Atom all day.  Feeling weak from the workout, Cap drinks a tranquilizing draught that will make it easier for Coll to measure the radiation he emits.  Unfortunately, it is while Atom is in his weakened state that Punch and Jewlee burst into the lab.  Punch gets Cap with the electric cables while his partner puts Coll under her spell.

I would like to point out that in this panel the spelling of Jewlee’s name is different.  I know it is a nitpicky little detail, but it stood out. When the characters appear in later comics the spelling is “Jewelee.”

Cap tries to use his communicator belt but Punch stops him.  Punch and Jewlee steal Coll’s helicopter and fly away with Coll and Captain Atom under their influence.  Cap was able to send a repeating signal from his belt which directs Nightshade to Coney Island.

When Captain Atom regains some strength and takes a swing at Punch, Punch hits him with a burst of electricity.  Cap is thrown in with Rois, who is now only feigning the symptoms of being under Jewlee’s spell.  Alec isn’t happy to see the meddling Captain Atom.  It is because of Cap that the Ghost’s teleportation circuitry on Alec’s arm can no longer be removed.  Captain Atom begins to come around.

Skulking around the old carnival on Coney Island, Nightshade sees Punch and follows him.  Her super power is finally revealed – she can become a shadow.

Punch and Jewlee have Captain Atom hooked up to the brain recording device.  They reveal that their plan is to sell all the scientific secrets they have stolen to the highest bidder.  Nightshade steps out of her shadow and attacks Jewlee.  Cap bursts out of the machine and goes after Punch.  Rois takes advantage of the distraction to teleport some of the duo’s equipment to his own lab.

Steve Ditko at his finest

Captain Atom gets the upperhand and yanks away Punch’s electric lines.  Cap follows Punch into one of the carnival rides (the Tunnel of Love), punches him again, and takes the villain back to his lair.  Nightshade, who has beaten Jewlee, is busying herself restoring the memories of the kidnapped scientists.  But Jewlee regains consciousness and makes a break for it.  Alec Rois realizes he can stop her but does not.  Jewlee escapes.

In the last panel, Punch is plotting revenge on Captain Atom and Nightshade from his prison cell, as are Jewlee (on the lam), the Ghost (Alec Rois), and Abby Ladd, the reporter who wants to expose Captain Atom as a fraud.

The letters page of this issue mostly applauds Steve Ditko, his work on Captain Atom, and especially the backup Blue Beetle stories.  However, John Angell of Winston-Salem, NC (hey I used to live there!) thinks the new Captain Atom is a stinker, unoriginal and stupid.  He challenges Charlton to rise above the sort of storytelling DC Comics resorts to (funny, considering where Captain Atom ended up after Charlton).

This issue also includes another Blue Beetle backup by Gary Friedrich and Steve Ditko.  At this point I think the character deserves his own title, but that’s still a few years down the road for him (there was a brief Blue Beetle series from Charlton but it only ran five issues).

The storytelling of “Strings of Punch and Jewlee” leave much to be desired.  The clumsy exposition only served to make the two major villains more two-dimensional.  I like that Alec is Allen and Eve’s friend while neither the heroes nor the villain are aware of their enemy’s secret identity.  But one thing I hate is sloppy continuity (Alec Rois was Alec Nois when we first met him).  The artwork is superb, Ditko and Mastroserio are a good team.  It is this issue’s saving grace.  I give Captain Atom #85 a C+.

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

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Captain Atom #84 (January 1967)

Tags

Abby Ladd, Bronze Age Captain Atom, Captain Atom, David Kaler, Gunner, Herb Field, Iron Arms, Professor Koste, Rocke Mastroserio, Silver Age Captain Atom, Steve Ditko

“After the Fall, a New Beginning”

• Writer:  David Kaler
• Pencils: Steve Ditko
• Inks:  Rocke Mastroserio
• Letterer:  Herb Field

Picking up where Captain Atom#83 left off, Professor Koste takes Cap to his secret mountain lair.  Restraining Captain Atom, Koste breaks into worldwide television signals and unmasks the hero on air.  Koste demands a ten million dollar ransom for Cap, whom he does not recognize as Allen Adam because of Cap’s white hair.

The public is split on the issue, with some saying Cap isn’t worth the ten million dollars worth of gold that Koste has demanded.  The government decides to pay, though, saying that “project rebirth” is worth the cost.  The folks running Project Rebirth say the “formula” is ready and they are just waiting for “his return.”  Jesus?  No, most likely Captain Atom, whom Koste has locked in a cell he can’t escape without his powers.

Cap discovers that some of his power has returned.  He is super-strong again, so he throws open the cell door.  He fiddles with the lock so his captors will think he picked it and is still powerless, and takes off down a corridor.  He doesn’t get far before he is set upon by Iron Arms, a bald dude with “power-pack generated arms.”

Cap plays weak and Iron Arms returns him to his captors.  Iron Arms refers to Cap as “the famous Captain A.” This, coupled with the public’s reaction to Cap being unmasked, seems to clear up once and for all the question of Cap’s anonymity.  Clearly he is a public super-hero.

Koste locks Cap in a cage suspended over a pit before leaving with Iron Arms.  Cap escapes down the pit to the water below.  He swims through the underground waterway and surfaces at a nearby lake.  Returning to his base, an airman (Gunner?  hard to tell) informs him the ransom has been paid.

Frustrated, Captain Atom flies off to intercept the payment, but Koste has already collected.  He is planning to destroy the remotely-operated helicopter that delivered the money.  Koste learns that Cap has escaped and figures he’s dead at the bottom of the pit.  They see him approach the helicopter on a monitor and detonate the chopper when he gets close.  Koste and Iron Arms realize that Cap has his powers and knows where they are and will come for the ransom gold.  They plan to use it to buy equipment to make more power packs like the one Iron Arms sports.

Back at the base, Cap is accosted by Abby Ladd, a reporter with a Washington newspaper.  Cap tells Gunner he has no time for reporters and Abby gives the Captain a tongue-lashing.  Basically she calls him out for being a big heap of failure.

Atom and Gunner head into a lab where they’ve been working on a liquid metal formula.  Cap hopes that by using it he can lead a normal life (“I can go to the beach and not be a menace to everyone there,” he thinks).  Gunner says it will be sprayed on to Cap’s body, is invisible, and absolutely radiation-proof.  Captain Allen Adam strips to his undies and gets sprayed.  The metal (which they just said was invisible) comes in different colors, specified by Adam.  They even spray his logo on his chest.

Heaps of time pass and there is no change in his radiation output.  Adam figures it is just another failure, and with his dwindling powers and bad public image, he figures he’s done being Captain Atom.  Abby shows up and reminds him of what a failure he is.  Cap decides that, failure or not, he’s still obligated to bring Koste and Iron Arms to justice.  When he grabs his old uniform and begins to make the change into Captain Atom, he finds that his new uniform emerges on his body.  The power he expended to change is what finally charged up the new suit.
He discovers he emits no radiation, even when he switches back to his “regular” clothes.  He kisses Abby for prompting him to make the change, which angers her even more.  This lady really hates Captain Atom.  Cap then heads back to Koste’s secret base.

The idiots are still there.  Captain Atom starts socking bad guys left and right.  He knocks Iron Arms down with one punch.  Koste uses a special power-draining weapon in Cap, who destroys it but as a result suffers a great loss of power.  Iron Arms takes advantage of this and begins pummeling Cap with his iron arms.  The two fight to a near standstill before Cap, severely weakened, gets in one last good punch that puts Iron Arms down for good.

With all the baddies out cold (Koste was knocked out when Cap took out his power draining machine), Atom radios the base to send an extraction team.  He disarms Iron Arms.

Adam finds that the public has more or less forgiven his failures after he brought in Koste and Iron Arms.  Abby Ladd, seen at some swanky function, is still pissed off at the good Captain for all his failures and stealing a kiss from her.  She says that Captain Adam, at the same function, is “a much better man” than Captain Atom.

This issue also features the “Captain’s Column” letter page (mostly folks gushing over the new Blue Beetle) and a Blue Beetle backup story by Dick Giordano, Steve Ditko, and Gary Friedrich but I won’t be reviewing it for this Captain Atom blog.

Captain Atom #84 is great.  One of my favorites.  Finally Cap is feeling more like a legitimate super-hero rather than a super-powered spy.  The costume is colorful and nice, but I think I preferred the original yellow one with the cowl.  This issue was well-written (if you overlook Abby’s truly puzzling hatred for Cap [she’s like Captain Atom’s own personal J. Jonah Jameson] and the ridiculously-named “Iron Arms”) and beautifully drawn to boot.  It looks like Ditko and Mastroserio poured a lot of love into this one.  I give it an A.

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