21 Thursday Jul 2016
Posted in Podcast, Silver and Gold, Throwback Thursday
In this Throwback Thursday episode of Silver and Gold, Vance is back with FKAjason to talk about “Captain Atom on Planet X” from Space Adventures #36 (Charlton Comics, 1960) by Joe Gill and Steve Ditko.
Music
Heart of Gold – The Roy Clark Method
Russians – Sting
Also available on iTunes and Stitcher.
Check out our tumblr for images from this issue.
02 Thursday Jun 2016
Posted in Espionage, Podcast, Silver and Gold, Throwback Thursday
This Throwback Thursday, Vance and Jay discuss “The Wreck of X-44” from Space Adventures #36 by Joe Gill and Steve Ditko. We also touch on DC Universe: Rebirth and the possibility that Captain Atom might be God.
Music
Heart of Gold – The Roy Clark Method
Flying for Me – John Denver
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!
Remember to use the hashtag #SNGPOD when commenting on social media!
Follow us on Twitter! (@SNGPOD4779)
Music
Heart of Gold – The Roy Clark Method
Silver and Gold – U2
04 Thursday Feb 2016
Posted in Origin Stories, Podcast, Silver and Gold, Throwback Thursday
Wait, haven’t we already introduced Captain Atom. Well, yes and no. Call this episode of SNGPOD our “throwback Thursday” episode. I have a special guest on and we talk about the origin of the “original” Silver Age Captain Atom from Space Adventures #33. The story (written by Joe Gill with art by the legendary Steve Ditko) is titled “Introducing Captain Atom,” and it, well, introduces Captain Atom.
Remember to use the hashtag #SNGPOD when commenting on social media!
Music
Heart of Gold – The Roy Clark Method
Silver – Echo and the Bunnymen
Download this episode now on iTunes!
Check out our tumblr page for images from this episode.
05 Wednesday Jun 2013
Posted in Captain Atom Versus Super-Villains, Earth-4
Tags
Captain Atom, Doctor Spectro, Gunner, Joe Gill, Rocke Mastroserio, Silver Age Captain Atom, Steve Ditko
“The Five Faces of Doctor Spectro”
The story opens “somewhere on the outskirts of a major city.” Captain Adam and Gunner are sifting through the equipment left behind by Doctor Spectro. Cap hopes to find something that will benefit man, as Spectro had been working on a new way to fight diseases before he became a side-show performer and later criminal. After feeling the effects of Spectro’s light beams, Cap is convinced the doctor was on to something.
Meanwhile, the disembodied spirit of Doctor Spectro positions itself just right in the atmosphere and is hit by five simultaneous bolts of lighting. The result is the birth of five mini-Spectros, each sporting a different colored costume. They quickly learn that each one of them has a single light power. The tiny Spectros begin collecting satellites and space junk to form a secret orbital headquarters.
Back on the surface, Captain Atom is beating down some neo-Nazis who want to rule the world. Afterwards, while on a coffee-and-doughnut break (no kidding), Adam gets a call from his bosses. There have been reports of “little men” raiding defense stations and stealing valuable equipment. The little men fit Cap’s description of Doctor Spectro. Adam puts the coffee and doughnuts down and flies back to the base to check in with Gunner.
I love the way Steve Ditko draws Captain Atom flying. The movement of his body is very Spider-Man-esque. Ditko has a talent for drawing people doing these fantastic things but making it look natural.
A nearby radio operator informs Cap and Gunner that the imps were spotted at the science center at Cape May. I’m guessing this is Cape May, New Jersey. Wherever it is, Cap wings it there in a hurry. The mini Spectros are in a lab looking for a safe, which they find hidden within a desk. Red Spectro heats up the door of the metal safe with his red beam after which Blue Spectro freezes it with his blue beam, making the door brittle, and it crumbles away. They are carrying off a box marked “SECRET DANGER” when Captain Atom bursts in.
The two Spectros combine their heat and ice powers, which knocks out Cap. They grab the box and run off. When Cap comes to, he realizes the two Spectros were aspects of the original man.
The next night, the Green, Yellow, and Purple Spectros leave the space station on a foraging mission. They hope to encounter Captain Atom to give him a taste of their powers. While the other two are foraging (on a military base maybe?) the Purple Spectro stands watch at the gate. He is approached by a little girl on crutches who mistakes him for a magical elf. Purple Spectro pities the girl and uses his power (an orange beam?) to heal her. He echoes what Captain Atom said earlier about his powers being used to heal the sick. He says he is still an enemy of mankind “because of the rest of me.”
Inside, Captain Atom shows up to take down the Green and Yellow Spectros. They also shoot orange beams, which incapacitate the “man of molecular mastery.”
Captain Atom isn’t out for long. He puts up a shield to protect himself from the radiation Spectro is flinging about (but, earlier issues established Cap could withstand this sort of attack… here he says that without the shield he would melt). Yellow and Green lead Cap outside where they will outnumber him 3 to 1.
Outside, Purple Spectro is worried his cohorts will use the little girl (Kathy) as a hostage. He leads her away to safety and then takes on Captain Atom. His inner monologue indicates he wants to merge all the Spectros back into one with Purple in control. He uses his beam (now blue) on Cap, which takes away the hero’s anger temporarily, making him not want to fight. Purple Spectro escapes (presumably with Yellow and Green close behind).
Once Cap breaks the “spell” Purple Spectro put on him, he talks to Kathy. She tells him how the dwarf cured her. Cap realizes there is some good in Spectro, but he still has to take the evil genius down.
After taking Kathy home, Cap’s commanding officer tells him to put the Spectro case on hold. Turns out several satellites have stopped operating and he needs Captain Atom to investigate.
Up in the space station, the Spectros have constructed a machine that should merge them back into one. The other Spectros look forward to fighting Captain Atom once they are whole, but the Purple Spectro is hoping that his “evil side will vanish like Hyde did.”
Back on the surface, Kathy’s parents are having her checked out by a doctor. The doctor says he has reconstructed Spectro’s machine but doesn’t know how to make it work.
In the upper atmosphere, Captain Atom comes across an unusual cloud formation. He finds it is concealing Spectro’s space station. The Spectros spot him before he spots them. Yellow wants to use his heat beam (so the Spectros do each have multiple beams). Purple convinces him to use his anger beam while Purple uses his happiness beam to confuse Cap. When they strike, Captain Atom sees it coming and erects a screen (an emotion screen? New power!).
Cap punches Red and Yellow out. The remaining Spectros overpower him and knock him to the ground. Purple hits him with a sickness beam hoping Cap will pass out from the pain. The Purple Spectro (mis-colored orange in the panel to the right) believes that once they are merged together, he can turn himself over to Cap and begin working on his theories and help people.
Captain Atom breaks free but is overpowered by the imps. Purple Spectro manages to knock Cap out cold. While he is out, the Spectros activate their machine and begin to merge together. Cap awakens and tries to stop the machine by hurling a fireball at it (new power!) The fireball actually seems to help the process and the one true Doctor Spectro is flung from the resulting explosion.
Cap turns Spectro over to the police, but it seems there is a lingering effect of the whole fiasco. Doctor Spectro appears to have five separate personalities and doesn’t seem to realize he has been reformed into one person.
This issue also includes a short comic about UFOs and one about jiu jitsu as well as a strange editorial article entitled “The Strong Man.” It is nice to see Captain Atom doing traditional super-hero stuff and fighting a recurring villain. Doctor Spectro would be seen only one more time, in Crisis on Infinite Earths #10 before the character was revised in the 1987 Captain Atom series. The art in this issue is beautiful, Ditko was a master. The story was pretty good if hoaky in places. Definitely an A. I love Captain Adam relaxing over coffee and doughnuts.
This “universe” was absorbed into DC Comics’ Multiverse when the Charlton characters were purchased by DC. This universe became Earth-4.
Note: Throughout this review, I have used the words “dwarf” and “imp” and the like. I realize, as a fairly well-educated 21st century man, that these terms can be offensive to little people. I only used them in the context that this comic book from 1966 used them. I do not condone the use of the words, which some may find offensive. They are used to point out how preposterous comic book dialogue could be (and sometimes still is). I am a firm believer in equal rights and suggest all Splitting Atoms readers check out the Coalition for Dwarf Advocacy, a non-profit charity formed in 2006 to advocate for the full rights and benefits of individuals with short stature (dwarfs), and their families within the public and private sectors of society.
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.
02 Tuesday Apr 2013
Posted in Captain Atom Versus Super-Villains, Earth-4, Espionage
Tags
Captain Atom, Doctor Spectro, Gunner, Joe Gill, Jon D'Agostino, Pat Masulli, Rocke Mastroserio, Silver Age Captain Atom, Steve Ditko
“Captain Atom Faces Doctor Spectro: Master of Moods”
This issue marks the beginning of some major changes for Captain Atom. Over the span of issues 79-84, he becomes more of a traditional superhero. Spectro is Captain Atom’s first “real” supervillain. The character resurfaces and is even included in the 1980s reboot by DC. Over the next five issues of the series, Cap will start fighting supervillains, he’ll begin doing so openly instead of being a secret government agent, he’ll begin working with other superheroes, and in issue 84 he gets a major costume change. But all these changes begin here in issue #79 with Doctor Spectro.
Now it wouldn’t be a 1960s Charlton book without at least one thing thrown in there to confuse me. In the box on the first page that credits the creative team, the first line is “created by Pat Masulli.” It only confused me for a second because I quickly realized it was Dr. Spectro that Pat Masulli created and not our dear Captain Atom (a Ditko/Gill joint). Pat Masulli was the executive editor of Charlton at the time, and was an accomplished artist himself. He was the creator of Sarge Steel (although sometimes that credit is given to the great Dick Giordano, who did work on the series with none other than Joe Gill – who himself spun quite a few plates at Charlton in the sixties), as well as Son of Vulcan. Masulli retired from comics (or withdrew from comics depending on who is telling the story) in 1967. He died in 1998 at the age of 67.
This story begins with some thugs knocking over an Air Force transport truck loaded with “highly classified and expensive equipment.” Through some heavy-handed exposition, we learn they are working for a fellow called “Rodent.” At the same time, “many miles away,” Captain Atom bursts into Rodent’s lair. His thugs recognize Cap, so I’m guessing Gill and Ditko have decided at this point Captain Atom is no longer working in secret. Rodent has elaborate traps set for Cap, but they prove no challenge for our hero.
Cap declares, “I’m going to smash you and your racket, Rodent.” Oy, the dialogue… like something from the Adam West Batman TV series (which premiered the month before this issue hit the stands, by the way). Rodent starts burning his records while his henchmen keep Captain Atom busy. They don’t keep him busy for long, and Cap manages to grab a document while knocking out Rodent. It is a list of gangs Rodent works with – only one name on the list is obscured. Atom uses his belt radio (new – er – gadget?) to pass the info to Washington.
Captain Atom is informed of the truck hijacking, and that two of the names on the list are people who are in Cap’s area. He is told to go undercover and track them down.
Days later, Captain Adam is at a local circus. He is supposed to meet Gunner there to exchange information (so Goslin is now in the spy business with Cap). The meet-up is to take place at Dr. Spectro’s side-show. While Cap is waiting, the show begins. Billing himself as “Master of Moods,” Spectro claims to have control over light and color, which can alter moods. Cap is impressed, but another patron is not – he heckles Spectro.
Now, I have to point out that on page 5, Captain Adam is in his civilian clothes in one panel, then inexplicably in his Air Force uniform in the next one. 
The heckler sends Spectro into a flashback, where he recalls “the authorities” scoffing at his belief that he could cure the sick with color. He was fired from wherever he worked, but didn’t give up on his work. Every time he presented his idea to others, he was openly mocked. So he became a circus performer so he could continue his experiments and test his theories on people. And Spectro was right. When he blasted the crowd with a red ray, everyone (including Adam) become depressed.
Spectro uses a blue ray on the heckler, who is overcome with fear and runs off. Captain Adam is alarmed and decides he needs to talk to Spectro after the show. What he doesn’t realize is that the gang leader whose name was burned off the list is also in the audience. He wants to use Dr. Spectro to cause a distraction in town while he knocks over a local bank.
Adam meets up with Gunner, who has no new info. Meanwhile, the gang leader is trying to get Spectro to go along with his “joke.” Spectro says he’s fed up with jokes so the gang leader socks him in the jaw. Dr. Spectro falls backward into his light and color machine and he absorbs all the refracted energy. The resulting power he now has twists his mind and he vows to teach everyone who ever mocked him a lesson. He blasts the gang leader and his henchmen with a green ray that makes them feel sick. They run off.
Gunner catches a smoke while Adam goes to speak with Spectro. The crooks pass him, blabbing about their upcoming bank robbery. They realize Gunner has overheard them, so they pull a gun on him. Meanwhile, Adam is trying to convince Spectro to use his discoveries to benefit mankind. Spectro says he’s already tried that and was laughed at. He blasts Adam with the green ray and Adam rabbits out of his tent.
Gunner, who had been knocked out by the crooks, comes to in a storage room behind an iron door. He uses a secret radio hidden in his dogtags to contact Adam. As Captain Atom, he homes in on the signal and rips open the iron door. Cap quickly realizes these are the jokers who hijacked the Air Force truck. Gunner clues Cap in on the bank job.
Cap catches up with the crooks at the banks, where they are hard at work on the vault. He uses his heat blast to make one of the hood’s guns sizzling hot. But the boss criminal (and they really call him the “boss criminal”) refuses to give up. He flings sand from an ashtray at Cap, which momentarily blinds him. It doesn’t slow Captain Atom down, who takes out the goons and gives the boss criminal an atomic punch.
Just as the cops arrive to mop things up, Doctor Spectro makes his move. Out in the street, he’s shooting colors left and right. People run away in terror, and even Captain Atom and the cops succumb to the fear ray’s power. Captain Atom generates tremendous body heat which deflects the fear ray’s power.
Doctor Spectro converts all his light and color into pure power rays, knocking Captain Atom back. He then uses blue light to cause the bystanders to hate Cap. Realizing the crowd in being manipulated, Cap leaps beyond their reach and creates an atomic fireball in his hand. He flings the ball at Spectro, who absorbs the power, and stores it so he can use it for himself.
Spectro blasts Atom with Cap’s own power, knocking Captain Atom to the ground. But Spectro’s second blast misses Captain Atom, and Cap gest a punch in. Spectro punches back (Captain Atom remarks, “He’s got a wallop too!”). Dr. Spectro’s color ray blasts Captain Atom off his feet, but he suffers no real ill effects. It basically comes down to Atom and Spectro trading blows.
Spectro blasts a nearby car’s gas tank. The car explodes, and Spectro absorbs the power of the explosion. He hits Captain Atom with a a ray “more brilliant that the sun, with more power than an atomic blast.” With a “last desperate lunge,” Atom smashes Spectro into nearby power lines. Spectro begins to absorb the energy of the power lines. Cap tries to cut off the power before Spectro can take in more than he can control.
Supercharged with “more energy than any man had ever held before,” Dr. Spectro hurtles after Captain Atom. Spectro continues to blast Atom, eventually burning out like a light bulb that has received too much voltage. Doctor Spectro simply fades away. When the police ask what became of the evil doctor, Cap says he feels Spectro is still up there somewhere.
Overall, I really liked this issue. It is obvious they are taking Captain Atom in a new direction. This is Joe Gill and Steve Ditko at their best (so far). Captain Atom #79 is definitely an A. Venturing close to A+ (the ham-handed exposition in the first few panels bring it down).
This “universe” was absorbed into DC Comics’ Multiverse when the Charlton characters were purchased by DC. This universe became Earth-4.
15 Friday Mar 2013
Posted in Captain Atom Versus Aliens, Earth-4, Origin Stories
Tags
Colonel Sandoval, David Morse, Don Bullard, General Brill, Joe Gill, Jon D'Agostino, Leah Jupe, Lt. Colonel Morse, Mike Crandall, Professor Arnold Jupe, Rocke Mastroserio, Silver Age Captain Atom, Steve Ditko
“The Gremlins from Planet Blue”
Starting with this issue, Strange Suspense Stories was retitled Captain Atom. Prior to this issue, there had been no new adventures of Captain Atom published since October 1961, four years earlier. This is also the first time since Space Adventures #33 that he pretty much carried an entire comic himself. So when he came back, he came back in a big bad way.
So let’s look back at December 1965 and see what our world was like back then. It was a turbulent time, particularly in the United States. President John Fitzgerald Kennedy had been assassinated two years prior and Lyndon Johnson was the sitting U.S. President. Sir Winston Churchill died in January of that year. On March 7, “Bloody Sunday,” some 200 Alabama State Troopers clashed with 525 civil rights demonstrators in Selma, Alabama. On March 18, Cosmonaut Aleksei Leonov became the first person to walk in space. On August 11, the Watts riots began in Los Angeles, CA.
This issue opens with some aliens watching Captain Atom’s exploits on a video monitor. Cap is rescuing disabled astronaut Mike Crandall while the aliens are bitching about him constantly ruining their plans. Professor Arnold Jupe says (to no one in particular) that all the recent problems NASA has been facing have actually been sabotage. Jupe and his “brilliant and beautiful” daughter Leah are civilians working for NASA’s Gemini program. Captain Adam has been assigned as their liaison officer.
Leah shares her father’s conspiracy theory with Captain Adam, who thinks Jupe may be correct. He excuses himself, then transforms into Captain Atom to monitor the latest launch. We get a quick three-panel retelling of his origin (no changes).
Your guess is as good as mine who it is Captain Atom is battling in the third panel. He looks like a super-villain but not one we’ve seen. Mostly Cap has fought spies and aliens. The closest thing to a super-villain we’ve gotten so far was the Silver Lady from Venus.
Cap discovers there is a malfunction in the rocket and uses his powers to reach inside and correct it. He changes back to Captain Adam and rejoins Jupe just in time to be chewed out by a General Brill for leaving the Jupes alone. Brill says to stay with the Jupes every moment, which is okay by Cap because he respects and admires the professor and has a crush on Leah.
Cap and Leah are hanging around outside the Jupe house, about to get freaky, when Professor Jupe sticks his head out and says there is an “ominous presence” in the house. He has a feeling the saboteurs are nearby (and he’s right because one of the aliens is listening outside the window). Adam tells the Professor he has nothing to worry about and he should hit the sheets. As Jupe sleeps, the creepy alien outside watches him.
As the creepy alien uses some sort of mind control device on the Professor, Cap and Leah note a drop in temperature in the house. When Cap and Leah check on him, Jupe is acting weird. He’s getting dressed to leave. Adam phones General Brill, who tells him to stop imagining things and get some sleep. Meanwhile, Jupe and Leah have left.
The Jupes board a yacht and elude Captain Atom. He gives up the search and returns to base to report to Brill. The General says they’ll search for the missing scientists later because Adam is part of the ground control communications team at the next Gemini launch. Don Bullard and David Morse, friends of Adam, are the two astronauts scheduled to go up.
Shortly after the launch, ground control loses contact with the rocket. Readings indicate an open hatch. Adam races out of the control room, angering Brill again. As Captain Atom, he flies to the disabled capsule only to find the two astronauts missing. The creepy aliens watch this on a monitor and say they have to get rid of “that creature.”
The Planet Blue aliens (Planet Bluians?) fire a ray at Cap which immobilizes them. They use it as a tractor beam to draw Atom to their world. Once there, one of the astronauts complains that the planet is too cold, so Cap increases his radiation to provide heat (new power!) which freaks out the aliens. Captain Atom starts hurling fireballs at the aliens and leads the astronauts to the Planet Blue Space Port.
Bullard, Morse, and Captain Atom board an alien spaceship and manage to get it going by pushing random buttons. Cap puts them on a course for Earth and then takes off. He has to face Brill and a possible reprimand or court martial. Adam doesn’t get in trouble, though, and is instead sent back out to find the Jupes.
Atom searches the one island off the Florida coast that the other searchers missed because it is uninhabited. Of course, he finds Leah sitting on the beach… brushing her hair? (Oh, right, 1965. That’s the only thing silly girls did back then.) It turns out she was just there to lure Captain Adam in. He is blasted by another Bluian Blue Ray. One blast turns him into a “stumbling hulk.”
Leah leads Adam to a huge complex built by Professor Jupe and the aliens. Jupe is designing rockets for his alien “friends.” Adam points out that Professor Jupe is actually a slave to the blue men, under the influence of the blue ray. The Bluoids fire another ray at Adam, who feigns unconsciousness. Adam and Leah are led to the complex below, and as soon as Leah has her back to him, Adam slips out and becomes Captain Atom.
Jupe launches a “killer missile.” Atom shows up and blasts the missile. He starts wailing on aliens while being careful not to harm the human slaves. Captain Atom uses heat to un-brainwash Jupe (what the?). The aliens escape, but Atom says they won’t bother Earth again.
Captain Adam reports back to General Brill, who “talked for an hour straight without repeating himself once or saying anything nice.” What a weird bit of text. Adam is dismissed and he thanks General Brill.
Now this is more like it. The story is 19 pages long. There is a backup story, but it does not feature Captain Atom. Ditko and Gill did not let us down after the four year hiatus. With few exceptions, Ditko’s art is beautiful. And I like the new characters introduced. Will Leah Jupe be Captain Atom’s Lois Lane? Time will tell. I’m anxious to read the next issue. I give this one 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.
Splitting Atoms 