Captain Atom #82 (September 1966)

Tags

Captain Atom, David Kaler, Frank McLaughlin, Jon D'Agostino, Judomaster, Nightshade, Rocke Mastroserio, Silver Age Captain Atom, Steve Ditko, The Ghost

“Captain Atom Vs. the Ghost”

• Writer: David Kaler
• Pencils: Steve Ditko
• Inks: Rocke Mastroserio
• Letterer: Jon D’Agostino

The security of the whole free world was at stake!  Every agent of the United States was put on extra alert!  That’s how Captain Atom came to be allied with Nightshade, one of the most attractive spy smashers that our country has ever had!  Together this powerful pair find themselves confronting an almost impossible task of capturing a man who could disappear at will.  But how do you catch a ghost?

And so begins a new chapter in Captain Atom’s life.  He gains a new nemesis and a new friend in this issue.  Both of which would follow him into his new life at DC Comics twenty-one years down the road.

Captain Atom is called to the Pentagon, where he is briefed on the Ghost, a criminal that has been “causing havoc for private industry.”  They believe he will soon strike the government but don’t know where.  As “ghosts have no use for industrial secrets or classified information,” Cap suspects it is “an outer space being or a very clever man.”

Cap is informed he’ll be working with a female agent named Nightshade (that darling of darkness).  This will be her first mission.  She arrives, her black ponytail bouncing.  She wears a mini-skirt over black tights and a mask – clearly she is a super-hero – but her powers are not yet revealed.  She and Cap are given tickets to a party being held that night by “Alec Nois.”  The military believes a few of the Ghost’s agents will be there.

Meanwhile, “in another part of Washington,” the Ghost arrives in a darkened office and removes his mask.  Through flashbacks we learn his name is Alec and that he suffered hardships when he was growing up (girls didn’t like him because he was poor and boys didn’t like him because he was studious).  He built a teleportation device and used it to rob banks and the like.  His goal is “Operation Golden Ghost,” which he will execute once he has stolen the floor plans for Fort Knox.

Meanwhile, Allen Adam is readying himself for the party, thinking to himself that Nightshade will be more of a burden than on asset.  As Eve Eden (Nightshade) prepares herself for the party, she is thinking how great it will be to be teamed up with that hunky Captain Atom (1960s comic stories at their best here, folks).

Later, at the Alec Nois party, Adam is having trouble figuring out which of the guests could be the Ghost.  He is impressed by Nois’ wealth, though, wondering how Nois made his first million.  Then all heads turn to see Eve Eden arrive (she is a “jet-set” leader and a Senator’s daughter).

Alec flirts with Eve. Adam takes notice of how hot she is.  Cap doesn’t know Eve is Nightshade, Eve doesn’t know Adam is Captain Atom, and nobody suspects Alec is the Ghost.

Adam sees a waiter pass a message to a dude.  He follows the dude to another room, where he is on the phone arranging Ghost stuff.  Eve also saw the exchange and makes an excuse to break away from Alec, who also wanted to break away from Eve to do more Ghost stuff.

Eve follows the dude outside.  She changes into her Nightshade costume instantly (that must be her super power – super clothes changing).  She flips the guy and demands to know what the message said.  Just then, the Ghost materializes before her.  When she takes a swing at him, he vanishes and reappears a few feet away.  This is when Captain Atom joins the fight.  With the wave of his hand, the Ghost teleports Nightshade and Cap to another dimension.

Before long, the two are teleported back where they came from, but the Ghost is long gone.  Cap remembers overhearing the Ghost’s flunky mentioning “section 18.”  Nightshade tells him section 18 is a secret file and map room at the Pentagon.  Cap picks her up and they fly off.

The two heroes burst in on the Ghost in section 18 just as he has located the plans to Fort Knox.  He teleports the blueprints away, makes a stupid Beatles reference, and vanishes before Cap can get him.  He reappears before Nightshade and taunts her.  This goes on for a little bit.  The heroes can’t catch him.  Before he teleports out for good, he says, “I’m going to do what Goldfinger failed to do!  I’m going to steal the gold in Fort Knox!”  Man, this guy loves his pop culture references.

The two heroes return to the Nois house and change into their civvies.  Adam is shocked to learn Eve Eden is Nightshade.  Eve thinks Allen Adam is a hottie.  When Adam asks her why she does the super-hero thing, Eve dodges the question.  They return to the party.

The next morning, they make their report to their C.O.  The next morning?  What if the Ghost’s plan was to go straight from the Pentagon to Fort Knox?  Was it really necessary to return to that party and then report their findings the next day?  It was okay, though, because the Ghost didn’t act that night.

Back home, Alec “Ghost” Nois studies the blueprints.  He talks about getting a crew together for the job.

Adam and Eve (yes, I know) opt to drive to Fort Knox in their civvies, afraid their super-identities would draw too much attention (but Cap can turn invisible and really doesn’t even need Nightshade!).  They pass a suspicious truck on the road and think it might be tied in to the Ghost’s heist.

The Ghost receives word that everything is nearly in place for the heist.  He collects a “machine” that will help him with his heist, makes a Lincoln reference (sheesh), and teleports away.

Fort Knox is on high alert.  For some reason, Cap and Nightshade dropped their plans to approach stealthily.  They are in an Air Force helicopter in full costume when the Ghost arrives.  Cap jumps out and flies down.  Nightshade waits for the helicopter to land and then takes out four armed thugs in hand-to-hand combat.  So she’s a scrapper.

Inside, Cap uses is invisibility power to freak the Ghost out.  He snatches the Ghost’s machine out of his hands.  Still invisible, Cap socks the Ghost in the face and the Ghost goes down.  Figuring his teleportation power comes from his gloves, Cap sets out to remove them.  But the Ghost was only feigning unconsciousness.  He kicks Cap in the face.

As Cap is going down, he rips the glove he has clenched in his hand.  The exposed circuitry goes haywire and the Ghost is enveloped in a mass of orange energy.  Cap believes the Ghost is defeated for good, but Cap doesn’t realize he is in a comic book and nobody stays dead.

This issue also includes an article about Sumo wrestlers and a short two-page “educational” comic featuring Judomaster’s “favorite throws” by Frank McLaughlin.  Also a special announcement from Charlton that soon they will start printing fan letters in the pages of Captain Atom.

This one is pretty good.  I would have liked to have learned more about Nightshade.  When I was introduced to the character years later, she had the power to travel long distances quickly via black portals she generated and could cross dimensions.  Perhaps some of that will come into play here in the Charlton universe later on.  A solid effort by Ditko and Mastroserio; these guys make a great team.  I like the Ghost in spite of his weird references.  David Kaler told spun a fairly good yarn.  A well-done book but nothing too spectacular.  I give Captain Atom #82 a B+.

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 #79 (February 1966)

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”

• Writer: Joe Gill
• Pencils: Steve Ditko
• Inks: Rocke Mastroserio
• Letterer: Jon D’Agostino

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.

Captain Atom #78 (December 1965)

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”

• Writer: Joe Gill
• Pencils: Steve Ditko
• Inks: Rocke Mastroserio
• Letterer: Jon D’Agostino

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.