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
22 Friday Apr 2016
Posted in "The Lie", Captain Atom: Healer, Origin Stories, Podcast
Tags
Alan Weiss, Babylon, Buddy Larson, Captain Atom, Cary Bates, Dr. Megala, General Datko, General Eiling, Green Lantern (G'Nort), Greg Theakston, Greg Weisman, Harry Denison, Helen Vesik, Jerry Ordway, Joe Rubinstein, Matilda Denison, Modern Age Captain Atom, Rocket Red #4, Silver Age Captain Atom, Stove Datko, Theresa Delgado, Ty Templeton, Uri Voskof
“Yesterdays Once More”
Writers: Cary Bates & Greg Weisman
Pencils: Alan Weiss
Inks: Joe Rubinstein
Cover Artists: Jerry Ordway & Ty Templeton
Colors: Greg Theakston
Letters: Helen Vesik
Editor: Mark Waid
Executive Editor: Dick Giordano
Secret Origins was an ongoing comic book series published by DC Comics from 1986 to 1990. It spanned a total of fifty individual issues as well as three annuals and one special. Unlike Secret Origins (Volume 1), this series did not rely on reprinted material, but provided new and sometimes updated origin stories based on the framework provided by their original authors. The initial format of the series focused on the history of a single character, alternating issues between Golden Age characters and Modern Age characters. Beginning with issue #6, the title changed to a double-sized format and featured at least two character stories per issue, one Golden Age tale, and one modern tale. Occasionally, the series would alter its format to accommodate multi-title tie-in stories including the Legends crossover event and the Millennium crossover event. With the exception of issues #32-35, each issue of Secret Origins was a self-contained comic with no lead-ins to previous or later issues. Secret Origins #32-35 was a multi-issue event chronicling the entire career of the Justice League of America and its various members. This issue featured the Modern Age Captain Atom, Rocket Red #4, and Green Lantern Gnort.
The cover art of this issue was fine. I found it nothing special. Jerry Ordway and Ty Templeton did a good job and I have nothing to complain about. It isn’t spectacular but it is by no means bad. I like the red eyes and the yellow energy aura surrounding Cap. I thought they were a nice touch. As far as action shots go, it isn’t astounding. Just three super-heroes flying out of a building.
The big payoff is inside!
The opening splash page of the Silver Age Captain Atom is beautiful. Alan Weiss really seems to have captured Steve Ditko’s essence. Cap even has the little stars following him! Unfortunately, there are places later in the story where the art was less than stellar.
I have one complaint about this page. Why is Pat Masulli given creator credit for Captain Atom? I’ve never seen him credited before. He was Executive Editor of Charlton Comics when Captain Atom first appeared in Space Adventures #33, so I suppose a case could be made. I’ve just never seen him credited as a creator. Oh, well. On with the story.
A group of people have gathered in a Las Vegas hotel conference room to discuss Captain Atom. They are calling themselves “Friends of the Captain,” and appear to be a support group for people who have interacted with Captain Atom in some way. They’re a fan club of super-hero groupies. They’re discussing their thoughts on Captain Atom’s “classic” costume when the youngest among them, Theresa Delgado, calls the “meeting” to order. Theresa, regular Captain Atom readers will know, is part of the Air Force’s “Captain Atom Project” PR team.
Theresa asks General Datko, an aging soldier, to share his story. His name being “Datko” was not lost on me, and I had to wonder if his first name was “Stove.” Datko holds up a screwdriver and says his Captain Atom story is probably the oldest one, as it is the origin story. He tells the story (sort of ripped from the pages of Space Adventures #33) of the young Air Force man trapped in an Atlas rocket after dropping a screwdriver inside minutes before the launch.
The fact that the airman got stuck in the rocket seconds before launch always seemed a bit hokey to me, but in this telling of the origin, it seems a bit more believable. The screwdriver bounces further into the rocket and he scrambles in deeper to recover it, becoming horribly stuck. He thought the ground crew knew he was still inside and wouldn’t launch. But, as in the original Gill/Ditko story, the ground crew realizes he’s still inside when it is too late and the rocket launches. Of course, the rocket detonates in the upper atmosphere and the airman is vaporized.
“Even though my head is smaller than my hand, I still love Captain Atom!”
Later, while glumly sitting in the dark, Stove Datko is contacted by the airman, who was able to survive the blast and return to Earth. “Maybe it was something in the mix of the atomic radiation and the cosmic rays… or maybe it was some unknown ‘X-factor’ that will never be found for sure. I didn’t know or care about the explanation,” finishes Datko. “All I knew was my friend was alive and back on the base that very night.”
Miss Delgado then introduces Buddy Larson, a folksy country boy. He says he owes his life to Captain Atom, and begins to share his story.
As a boy, Buddy was very sick. Doctors didn’t know exactly what he had, but knew he’d be dead within a week. Buddy mentions that his father was a n Air Force mechanic, and that is presumably how Captain Atom found out about his sickness. Cap shows up in Buddy’s hospital room, takes the boy by the hand, and abducts him.
The two fly off into space. Luckily, Buddy has a child-sized astronaut suit to wear as he rides Captain Atom’s back into outer space. They land on an asteroid and begin to play tag. What the kid didn’t know, but Captain Atom did, was that the asteroid’s radiation had healing properties that completely cured the boy.
This story was lifted from Space Adventures #40, and was titled “The Boy and the Stars.”
Theresa Delgado next gives the floor to Matilda and Harry Denison. Matilda tells a tale of she and her then-new husband Harry being lost at sea on the other side of the world in a life raft after their boat capsized. They drifted into a Naval atomic testing area and were in danger of being vaporized by a hydrogen bomb when Captain Atom appeared out of nowhere. They watched him come in as the bomb detonated. He scooped up their raft and flew them to the safety of a nearby resort island. He swore the Denisons to secrecy, promising that they would be able to tell their story one day.
The last speaker introduced is a Russian cosmonaut named Uri Voskoff. Twenty-five years earlier, the guidance system on his orbiting spacecraft failed and he began to spiral towards the planet’s surface. Out of his window, he sees Captain Atom grab hold of the craft and guide it safely to the spot where it was intended to splash down.
Uri says that Captain Atom revealed himself to the Soviets only because he knew they’d never admit their cosmonaut was rescued by an American super-hero. This part of the story is a paraphrased version of “The Second Man in Space,” which appeared in Space Adventures #34.
Miss Delgado excuses herself and goes into an adjoining room, where General Eiling and Dr. Megala were watching the meeting through a two-way mirror. The two are not happy with the performance they just witnessed. Of course, the story of Captain Atom gaining his powers in a NASA mishap and being a super-hero in secret for years was a lie. All of the speakers at the Friends of Captain Atom meeting are paid actors. And the General and Megala found inconsistencies in their stories.
Eiling suggests changing Buddy’s story from being flown to the asteroid belt to being flown to the Arctic, where he was exposed to healing radiation. He suggests changing the Denison’s story and having Cap approach from a different direction, as they would have been blinded if they watched him come from the direction of the blast. Eiling also suggests they change Uri’s story so that Captain Atom releases the capsule’s parachute and can remain unseen by everyone except Uri. Lastly, he orders “Datko” to lose the screwdriver prop.
“But, General! It distracts people from my disproportionately small head!”
Dr. Megala finds the whole charade distasteful, prompting General Eiling to very breifly sum up Captain Atom’s “real” origin story (from Captain Atom #1).
Nathaniel Adam, an Air Force Captain, was a condemned traitor who volunteered to be the test subject in a government experiment. Megala and Eiling detonated an atom bomb under him to see if an alien metal would protect him. The metal not only protected Nate, but bonded with him and transported him 18 years into the future and endowed him with amazing powers.
Megala leaves in a huff. Miss Delgado hands the actors their new scripts and they run through their parts again.
Now, knowing what I know about Wade Eiling, after all these actors get their parts right and have them recorded for posterity, they are all going to be killed. With the possible exception of Theresa Delgado, these peoples’ days are numbered. Eiling does not like loose ends.
I give this story an A. Bates and Weismann were writing the regular Captain Atom series at the time, so this fits right in within the continuity. And I definitely liked all the nods to Steve Ditko’s original stories. And it was great to see Cap back in his yellow suit. The art, however, was not the best. After a really promising start, things went a bit “Liefeld.” Alan Weiss did some work for DC Comics and Marvel in the 70s-80s, but not a long run on any one book. Joe Rubinstein, who inked this issue, said of Alan Weiss, he was “the most difficult guy in the business to ink, without exception.” He went on to say he really liked inking Weiss’ pencils. I guess you had to be there. It isn’t the worst I’ve ever seen and perhaps Weiss was under some pressure to meet a deadline. I give the art a D, making this adventure of Captain Atom a C.
Captain Atom next appears in Justice League International #20.
I discussed this issue of Secret Origins on Ryan Daly’s Secret Origins Podcast on 4/18/2016. Although I was a bit hard on Alan Weiss, Ryan did open my eyes to how good Weiss could be with inanimate objects. Check out this image below as an example:
The tubes and wires and whatnot of the rocket really do look great and adds to the whole claustrophobic nature of the scene.
(All characters and images belong to DC Comics and I am not making any profit off this blog.)
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
02 Wednesday Mar 2016
Posted in "The Lie", Captain Atom's Family, Origin Stories, Podcast, Silver and Gold
Tags
Augustin Mas, Blackguard, Booster Gold, Bronze Age Captain Atom, Captain Atom, Dan Jurgens, Dirk Davis, Dr. Megala, General Eiling, Jeffrey "Goz" Goslin, Margaret Eiling/Peggy Adam, Mike DeCarlo, Mindancer, Modern Age Captain Atom, Nansi Hoolahan, Silver Age Captain Atom, Skeets, The Director, The Love Boat, Thorn, Trixie Collins
In episode 05 of the Silver & Gold Podcast, we discuss Booster Gold (Vol 1) #3, The Night Has Two-Thousand Eyes (by Dan Jurgens, Mike DeCarlo, Nansi Hoolahan, and Augustin Mas), and Captain Atom (DC Vol 1) #3, Blast from the Past (by Cary Bates, Pat Broderick, Bob Smith, Carl Gafford, and John Costanza). 
Also, FKAjason and Charlemagne’s secret origins are revealed, that’s what friends are for, Booster in peril, Thorn’s fashion choices, The Love Boat, Booster Gold looks like an idiot, typical Eddie, a wall of balls, Mindancer’s brain bolt, Firestorm as the star of the book, Captain Atom’s creepy meeting with his daughter, and Nate going critical.
Remember to use the hashtag #SNGPOD when commenting on social media!
Follow us on Twitter! (@SNGPOD4779)
Music
Heart of Gold – The Roy Clark Method
Gold – Spandau Ballet
Also available on iTunes and Stitcher!
Check out our tumblr page for images from this episode.
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.
24 Monday Aug 2015
Posted in Sketches & Portraits
Loston Wallace, a graduate of the Kubert School, is a freelance comic book artist from North Carolina. He has published work for both DC and Marvel Comics, as well as illustrations for FASA games. Of the Charlton super heroes, he say this:
“I grew up reading CHARLTON COMICS in the 1970s. I loved Charlton’s ghost story comics like HAUNTED, GHOST MANOR, GHOSTLY TALES, SCARY TALES, and war comics like FIGHTIN’ ARMY and FIGHTIN’ MARINES and so forth, but I discovered that a decade earlier, Charlton had published superhero titles too. CAPTAIN ATOM, THE BLUE BEETLE, THE QUESTION, and NIGHTSHADE all made appearances in Charlton mags. Back in the early 2000s I decided to draw my four favorite Charlton superheroes in THE BATMAN ANIMATED SERIES style…”
You can check out Wallace’s other great works on his deviantart page or his official website.
(All characters and images belong to DC Comics/Loston Wallace and I am not making any profit off this blog.)
16 Monday Mar 2015
Posted in Earth-4, The Multiversity
Tags
Blue Beetle, Bronze Age Captain Atom, Captain Atom, Frank Quitely, Grant Morrison, Iron Arms, Jae Lee, L.A.W., Nathan Fairbairn, Nightshade, Patrick Gleason, Peacemaker, Rob Leigh, Sarge Steel, Sentinels of Justice, Silver Age Captain Atom, The Question, Tiger, Vincent Deighan
“In Which We Burn”Yes, I am a fan of Grant Morrison. Yes, I am a fan of Frank Quitely. I mean, I have EYES, don’t I?
The concept of DC Universe’s “multiverse” was scrapped as a result of the 1985 maxi-series Crisis on Infinite Earths. But, as with all things in comics, it was not to stay dead. After the events of Infinite Crisis there was another maxi-series entitled 52. It was in the pages of 52 that DC revealed that the multiverse still existed. The Multiversity was a limited series of one-shots set in the DC Multiverse in The New 52. The one-shots in the series are written by Grant Morrison, each with a different artist. The Multiversity began in August 2014. This issue was published November 19, 2014.
This issue takes place on Earth-4 (The Charlton Universe) and opens with the rather gruesome assassination of the President of the United States by Peacemaker (aka Christopher Smith). Chris has been captured and is being questioned by government suits. But the Peacemaker isn’t talking.
As Chris is lead out of the interrogation room, he passes Senator Warren Eden, who is discussing this turn of events with his daughter Eve (Nightshade). Eden tells his daughter that Peacemaker’s actions have essentially killed the idea of a “super hero” and made the term a dirty word. Warren advises his daughter to savor her time as a super hero, as he is putting certain plans into motion. The government had two super heroes on the payroll, but Peacemaker has killed the President and Captain Atom is missing in action. The government needs a convincing exit strategy to distance itself from the heroes.
Elsewhere, Blue Beetle has been tracking the Question with his Bug. The Question is trying to run from the Bug, but Beetle points out that is impossible. The Question tells Beetle he’s barking up the wrong tree by chasing him, that he is trying to find the murderer of Nora O’Rourke and solve the mystery of “algorithm B.” He refers to this as “The Yellowjacket Case” (four unsolved murders of four prominent scientists). Beetle tells him there is no Yellowjacket case and for Question to be reasonable. “His people” are all over the Question.
Blue Beetle says he made peace with the government but the Question contends that Beetle is going about crime-fighting all wrong. The Question pulls a device out of his coat and activates a crane that Beetle has conveniently parked the Bug under. The Questions tells Beetle he should never rely on technology and takes off. He ducks into a subway station where he is then confronted by Nightshade.
The Question quickly overpowers Nightshade and hops onto a passing train. But before he does so, he tosses her one of his calling cards. It bears a question mark that has been augmented to resemble the symbol for infinity.
The Question then goes to the crime scene where Nora O’Rourke was murdered. She was apparently Chris Smith’s girlfriend. He had left early that day when someone crept into his apartment, picked up a heavy statue, and crushed Nora’s head with it. That killer may look familiar to fans of Charlton comics. He appears to be Captain Atom’s old enemy Iron Arms.
This is when Captain Atom enters the story (the same Captain Atom that Warren Eden said was missing in action). He is at some science facility working on a particle accelerator, apparently some time prior to the president’s assassination. The scientists are working in the control room as Cap is reading a comic book. He is commenting on how he can read the story any way he chooses, flipping through it backwards or starting in the middle, and there is nothing that the characters in the story can do about it. He can perceive time any way he wishes but they are limited in their perceptions. The characters are unaware of his scrutiny. It is hard to tell if he is talking about the comic book, the scientists he is with, or even us as the readers. The scientists switch on their device (just as Cap says he can “read” their “thought balloons” and knows what they are planning. Once the device is activated, Cap vanishes, the comic books bursts into flames, and one of the scientists announces that Captain Atom has left the universe.
There is another man in the control room; a man whose face we do not see but can assume is Sarge Steel because he has a metal hand. He pulls a gun on the scientists, who argue they did everything he asked. They opened a black hole inside Allen Adam’s skull. This does not sway Steel, who shoots them all dead.
We then cut to Nightshade visiting her mother. Mom seems a little on the senile side and bitter about her ex-husband. Nightshade tells her mom that Allen Adam is helping her dad to harness the power of a black hole so the empire will no longer rely on oil.
The scene switches to Chris and Nora having a discussion about someone named Harley (the President’s father and comic book writer) as Sarge Steel beats the living hell out of someone. The story is kind of hard to follow as it isn’t presented as a linear path. It is as if we are reading the comic the way Captain Atom sees the world. The scene does reveal that Peacemaker had plans to run away with Nora after he did “what had to be done.”
The next scene is night on a rooftop. The Question is standing over a man who is pinned under a fallen sign. The Question reveals this man is not the high-level mob fixer he pretended to be but an undercover dirty cop on the payroll of the Vice President. He lays a revolver on the floor in front of the prone man and begins to drone on about an eight-stage color coded system of development that all societies must pass through. The cop begs the Question let him go (an exposed wire from the sign is sparking nearby and the cop is in a puddle – he fears he will be electrocuted). The cop tells him that his orders come from the Sarge and that he really doesn’t know anything. All he knows are rumors – about Captain Atom being killed and something about a secret formula. The Question leaves the man to die on the rooftop.
Cut to the past, and Nightshade, Peacemaker, Tiger, Blue Beetle, and the Question are meeting with a government official. They are sporting new “uniforms” and Tiger is unhappy about the changes. Peacemaker welcomes them all to the Justice League of America (which prompts Blue Beetle to ask, “How about the Sentinels?”). President Harley then enters the room and tells them their trademarks and code names belong to the U.S. government now. When the Question complains, the President leans in and asks, “Are you in the box or out of the box, Mr. Sage?” This reveals that the government knows the Question’s alter ego, but the comment about the box implies that Vic Sage is gay, I guess.
Later, when President Harley reveals the team at a press conference, he announces that their leader is Captain Atom.
Captain Atom has trouble focusing on the task at hand because he is being distracted by a conversation he will have in the future (this is some trippy Dr. Manhattan level stuff – which makes perfect sense when you think about it).
The conversation is actually in the past. Cap is in a park interacting with a dog. He’s surrounded by strange statues of people in distress and is talking to the dog. Governor (not-yet-President) Harley is about to meet with him but Cap’s handlers warn him that Cap has been heavily sedated since “the U-235 incident.” The scientist tells Harley that the statues were once people and he should warn them immediately if Cap’s speech becomes disorganized, anxious, or aggressive. Another of Cap’s handlers thought it would do him good to be reunited with his pet dog.
Cap disassembles the dog, thinking the “pieces would explain the whole.” When he realizes he has just killed his pet Butch, Cap begins to cry. He asks for more sedatives and asks when he will go back to normal. He then wonders aloud what it would be like if Butch was both alive and dead and suddenly there is a brand new Butch standing next to the old, dead one. He then says it isn’t the same. Harley introduces himself to Allen Adam. Cap says it must be hard work being the president, to which Harley responds he is not. Harley brushes it off and asks Cap to walk the gardens with him. Harley says they are a world famous masterpiece of design and organization.
So it was Harley that “inspired” Allen Adam to use his powers as Captain Atom.
Cut to some 2005. A terrorist has crashed his plane on the White House lawn and taken President George W. Bush hostage. He plans to kill the president. He stomps and spits on the American flag. Governor Harley is also present, confident, and a little cocky. Peacemaker and his drones show up and take out the terrorist’s men. Harley warns the terrorist that this is just the beginning. Some day there will be more Peacemakers.
On the streets, the Question and Blue Beetle are confronting a heroin dealer and arguing. The Question tells Beetle he could use his money to build homeless shelters and try to cure society’s ills rather than constructing a giant flying Beetle. He force-feeds the dealer a substantial amount of heroin and leaves him tied to a light post. The Question brings up Yellowjacket (America’s first superhero) and his fate. Yellowjacket has vanished and no one knows what became of him.
We then see a young man (clad in a yellow jacket) visiting the grave of Governor Harley’s father. He sits and waits for a considerable amount of time. Captain Atom appears and tells him, “The door has one side and opens both ways. Let me show you.”
The man in the yellow jacket is then forced to confront a memory. He was young, snooping in his father’s studio late one night. He found a scrapbook of newspaper articles about Yellowjacket and a revolver. Then Yellowjacket himself comes through the window and the boy shoots him dead. It was his father, and the little boy was future-president Harley.
This was pretty awesome. It gives us an idea of what Watchmen might have been like if Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons had been allowed to use the Charlton characters. While visually beautiful, it doesn’t really compare to Watchmen, though. I love Frank Quitely but I love Dave Gibbons style even more. Also, I always thought the name “Frank Quitely” was a crazy coincidental name (Quite Frankly, Frank Quitely) but never gave it much thought. I did not realize it was a pseudonym used by Vincent Deighan. I give the art an A and the story an A. I am a sucker for Grant Morrison.
08 Sunday Dec 2013
Tags
Bob Smith, Captain Atom, Cary Bates, Duncan Andrews, Firestorm, General Eiling, Greg Weisman, Harry Hadley, Jerry Bingham, Modern Age Captain Atom, Nansi Hoolahan, Pat Broderick, Silver Age Captain Atom
“A Matter of Choice”
This issue came out October 6, 1987 and was a tie-in with the Millennium crossover event. Since Cap was seen (briefly) in Justice League International #9, he appeared in Secret Origins #22, Blue Beetle #20, Millennium #3 & 4, Teen Titans Spotlight #18, and Action Comics #596. Suicide Squad #9 leads into this issue and it is followed by Firestorm #68, both of which also feature Captain Atom.
Four of the books tied in with week four of Millennium had covers that combined (not perfectly) to form one complete picture. They were Captain Atom #11, Spectre #10, Detective Comics #582, and Suicide Squad #9.
At this point in the Millennium story, Firestorm is working with the Manhunters, having been convinced they are his creators. Captain Atom has been sent by General Eiling to butt heads with Firestorm in the swamps of Belle Reve, Louisiana. He’s unhappy that Eiling has given him this assignment and he’s super unhappy that he has to deal with that “most immature hotheaded superhero on Earth” again. But Cap is unaware of the changes Firestorm has recently undergone.
In the apex of a nuclear explosion were Ronnie Raymond, Martin Stein (the two people who make up Firestorm) and Mikhail Arkadin (a Soviet super-hero with nuclear powers of his own that went by the code-name “Pozhar”). The result was that a new Firestorm emerged with a body created by Martin Stein but a consciousness that held both Arkadin and Raymond (neither of which had control over Firestorm at this point). This change began in Firestorm: The Nuclear Man Annual #5 (which hit the shelves in July 1987, three months prior to Captain Atom #11). Firestorm is still trying to figure himself out (FIRESTORM FAN calls him the “blank slate Firestorm.” Captain Atom also refers to Firestorm’s “blank slate” in this very issue).
The first part of this book is narrated by Firestorm. And when he first shows up on page 2, the artwork is just fantastic. Pat Broderick actually drew Firestorm regularly from June 1982 to November 1983. I don’t know if he had any great love for the character, but I certainly like his take on this version of the Nuclear Man.
Firestorm has thrown up a wall of flame to stop Captain Atom. He is protecting a Manhunter stronghold. Of course, Cap blasts right through this wall. He flies toward Firestorm, who calmly asks Cap to “please disengage.” Captain Atom keeps coming, and knocks Firestorm into the trees. I think this proves who the hot-head really is.
Firestorm tells Cap that he has given his last warning. He means to stop Cap from waging war on his creators. Firestorm referring to the Manhunters as such leaves Cap somewhat taken off guard. Firestorm whips up a pink “molecular storm” within a metal sphere to hold Cap. Atom begins to suspect the nuclear man might be brain-damaged. When he tried to blast his way out of the sphere, Cap finds his powers useless. And Firestorm has locked himself in with Captain Atom. He can regenerate the sphere’s shell as quickly as Cap can disintegrate it. Checking his watch, Nate realizes he only has 55 minutes until the explosive (brought into the swamp by the Suicide Squad) detonates. He decides to relax and have a chat with Firestorm.
Realizing that this new Firestorm has a very simplistic world view, Captain Atom attempts to explain why the Manhunters are a threat via a story. He tells of a young boy with a love of airplanes and a gift for aeronautical design. This boy, however, had an intense fear of flying. Determined to rid the boy of his fear, his father took him to an airfield owned by a friend. Explaining that he was a pilot himself, the father strapped the boy into a crop duster and took to the skies.
As they flew, the father talked to the boy, calming him and reassuring him. Soon, the boy grew to love flying as much as he loved planes. When he grew up, he joined the Air Force. As a result, he one day became Captain Atom. Firestorm says he realizes, thanks to the story, that it would be bad if the Manhunters prevented mankind from realizing their true potential. But they have never given Firestorm a reason to distrust them (indeed, he is still convinced they created him). Captain Atom realizes he’ll need another story.
So Cap makes a colossal mistake and shares with Firestorm a story from his “early” super-hero days when he was still “working in secret.” He tells of a time when he was called upon by his superiors to assist in a search for two career military men who had stolen a van full of top secret government equipment and fled. Cap was ordered to bring back the equipment and kill the two deserters. Not liking the order, yet reluctant to disobey his C.O., Cap discovered the van and realized his intel was wrong. It was a communications van and the two men were on death’s door with radiation sickness. They had been exposed to radiation in atomic warfare tests in the desert. They stole the van to take their story to the public, hoping the end result would be compensation to insure the welfare of their families when they succumbed to the sickness and died. As they explained this to Cap, the Air Force fired an air-to-ground rocket at the men.
Captain Atom intercepted the rocket. When the smoke cleared, he, the men, and the van were nowhere to be found. Captain Atom had moved them to a new location and allowed them to broadcast their story. His C.O. was furious, but Cap said he would not follow orders that he felt were unjust, choosing instead to follow the dictates of his own conscience. The two men did receive compensation and all charges against them were dropped.
Firestorm darkens and says he understands. He understands that Captain Atom is a liar. The Manhunters had revealed to Firestorm the true story of how he became a super-hero. He knows Cap’s story is a lie. He leaves the sphere, leaving Cap still trapped within. Firestorm fills the sphere with “toxic gas” and taunts Captain Atom’s attempts to blast his way out. Old flame-top turns out to be a bit of a bad-ass in this one. I’ve certainly learned a lesson here – don’t EFF with the Nuclear Man!
At that moment, “a thousand miles to the northeast,” Captain Atom is missing an interview on WGTV. G. Gordon Liddy is preparing to go on in his stead, but Harry Hadley is waiting in the wings. He thinks he will go on instead of Liddy, and plans to expose the Captain Atom Project’s “Big Lie.” A stage hand directs him to the alleyway outside the studio when Hadley begins to light a cigarette. Outside, he is confronted by General Eiling.
Eiling reminds Hadley that no one from the Captain Atom Project is ever to appear in public anywhere near Captain Atom. Hadley showing up at the studio at a time when Cap is supposed to appear is tantamount to treason. When Hadley pulls a high-tech-looking gun, a sniper takes him down. Eiling remarks that he had suspicions about Hadley all along.
Back in the swamp, Captain Atom is paralyzed in the sphere while Firestorm chides him. Cap keeps thinking to himself, “Damn the lie.” He’s beating himself up for lying to Firestorm. He should have known that the Manhunters, with all their knowledge, would have briefed Firestorm on his true background. He doesn’t blame Firestorm for not believing him.
Cap confesses that he lied. He admits it was wrong. He tries to point out that the Manhunters also lied to Firestorm. Their plans to conquer the human race are the truth. Firestorm angrily exclaims, “The truth? Someone who has been living a lie still dares to talk to me of truth?” Cap responds by telling Firestorm the whole truth about his past.
Captain Atom tells Firestorm that he was a convicted murderer. He says that he was part of a secret government project in 1968. Yadda yadda yadda, he recounts his origin. We all know it. He goes on to say that he wants to clear his name and reconnect with the children he left behind. Firestorm says, “Enough!” and dissolves the sphere. He tells Cap he is going with his instinct and following his conscience. He realizes he’s been duped by the Manhunters and wants to help Cap now.
Explaining the bomb the Suicide Squad placed, Cap flies off with Firestorm. The Squad won’t be able to evacuate from the blast radius in time. They have less than a minute to act. Firestorm says he knows what to do.
The bomb detonates. Captain Atom absorbs as much of the blast as he can without bumping himself into the future again. That which he cannot absorb is transmuted by Firestorm… into snow. He says he saw the Suicide Squad escaping to the west; all of them are safe. The target – the Manhunter base – was decimated.
Firestorm explains that he changed his mind about Cap when he heard him talk about his kids. His intuition told him Captain Atom was being honest. The two walk off together with Firestorm full of questions and Captain Atom declaring, “Super-hero school is now back in session.”
Generally I don’t like issues of comics that tie in with big crossover events, but I really dug this one. It helped that at the time I was reading Firestorm and was invested in both he and Captain Atom. It also helped that it was a good story. Cap’s doubt and Firestorm’s ire were compelling. I always like it when those two butt heads. The art is great except for one little thing. Pat Broderick’s style of drawing children is a little weird. Like Steve Ditko, his kids seem really cartoony. Other than that, great great work. A for art and A for story.
Splitting Atoms 