Captain Atom
Captain Atom is the title of a series of comic publications that has been published by the US publishers Charlton Comics and DC Comics (since 1982) since 1960 .
The Captain Atom Comics is about the adventure of a fictional soldier who, through radiation with nuclear energy, has come into possession of various superhuman abilities on a nuclear basis ("superpowers"), which he uses for all kinds of adventures. The publications in the series are within the genre of " superhero comics ", a subgenre of science fiction comics, and go to the author Joe Gill and the author and illustrator Steve Ditko - who also includes the characters Spider-Man , Creeper and Blue Beetle created - back.
Release dates
The character of Captain Atom was first featured in a story in the March 1960 comic book Space Adventures # 33. After this issue and several other issues of Space Adventures (# 34-40 and 42) - a science fiction anthology with changing content - achieved satisfactory sales with Captain Atom Stories, Charlton Comics, the publisher of Space Adventures , started in December 1965 an independent series about the character that bore not only his name but also him - unlike the Space Adventures books - presented as the only main character in the center of the action.
The Captain Atom series began its numbering with issue # 78, which was due to the fact that it took up the numbering of the series Strange Suspense Stories , in which some of the old Captain Atom stories from Space Adventures were previously in issues # 75 to # 77 had been reprinted. Unlike the Space Adventures stories, which were designed as short stories of 10 pages, the stories in Captain Atom took up the size of a standard American story of 22 pages. The series was designed by author Joe Gill and draftsman Steve Ditko, who had already designed the stories for Space Adventures. Second stories about the superhero Blue Beetle appeared in the first Captain Atom issues , which were later replaced by adventures by the adventurer Nightshade. Captain Atom was eventually discontinued after twelve issues with the number # 89 from December 1967.
In 1975 the previously unpublished story, which was originally scheduled for publication in Captain Atom # 90, was reprinted in the first two issues of the Charlton Bullseye fanzine . For this purpose, Ditko's drawings - which had remained "unrevised" - were inked by John Byrne . Roger Stern was one of the authors involved. In May 1982, another story about Captain Atom was published in issue # 7 of the Charlton Bullseye series (named but not identical to the fanzine). This story came from the pen of Benjamin Smith and was visually implemented by the illustrator Dan Reed.
In the early 1980s, the New York publisher DC Comics acquired the rights to Captain Atom, as well as many other characters from Charlton Comics, after Charlton had to cease operations due to financial difficulties. First, Captain Atom was used in a visually significantly changed, but almost identical in character, under the name "Doctor Manhattan", as one of several main characters in the award-winning miniseries Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons , which focuses on some old Charlton characters an anti-utopian science fiction saga.
In the mid-1980s, DC commissioned the author Cary Bates to overhaul the Captain Atom material and adapt it to the "modern times of the 1980s". With the support of the draftsman Pat Broderick , Bates finally presented a significantly different interpretation, which, however, remained true to Ditko's basic ideas in substance. In March 1987, DC began releasing a new series on the character, again titled Captain Atom , which ran until 1991 and had a total of 57 issues and two specials titled the Captain Atom Annual by the time it was discontinued .
In the later 1990s series like Extreme Justice and LAW followed in which Captain Atom figured as one of several lead characters.
In 2005, DCs-Imprint Wildstorm Publishing finally published the more than two-hundred-page graphic novel Captain Atom: Armageddon by author Will Pfeifer and illustrator Giuseppe Camuncoli with a cover image by the painter Alex Ross (comic artist) and the illustrator Jim Lee .
Minor characters
Captain Atom's most important opponent in the modern version of the material by Cary Bates is his superior General Wade Eiling, who abuses his political power to conceal all sorts of dark machinations and business, and who keeps confronting the captain with new difficulties.
Another common adversary that Nathaniel Adams / Captain Atom has to deal with is his "dark twin" Major Force . This is first presented in Captain Atom Annual # 2 from February 1988. There you learn that Force, his powers - which largely correspond to those of Adams - received through a planned re-enactment of the "Captain Atom Experiment". Unlike Eiling, who primarily causes mental and psychological problems for the captain, Major Force, an unscrupulous murderer, is above all a physical threat.
Bombshell , a criminal girl who has a similar background story and similar powers as Adams and who later joins the terrorist group "Titans East", as well as Pastique are to be mentioned among the other characters around the captain .
Major Force
Major Force , alias Clifford Zmeck, is an opponent of Captain Atoms who first appeared in Captain Atom Annual # 1 from February 1988 (author: C. Bates; illustrator: G. Weisman).
Like Captain Atom, Force is the product of a nuclear experiment by the US military. The subject, a Vietnam War soldier named Clifford Zmeck who was sentenced to life imprisonment for rape, was exposed to atomic radiation, which fused his body with an alien metal. In return for his participation in the experiment, Zmeck was promised impunity. The authors of the experiment are the same as for the Captain Atom experiment: General Wade Eiling and the scientist Dr. Megala. Like Captain Atom, Major Force is practically invulnerable and superhumanly strong. He can also project the so-called "Dark Force" from his body and use it in combat. In contrast to Captain Atom's control of energy, Force has power over matter. In order to be able to control Major Force, Eiling and Megala had an explosive charge attached to Zmeck's body before the experiment began, which is located beneath his almost invulnerable body shell. The rationale behind this is that one hopes to be able to kill Force by detonating the charge if it tries to escape the control of the US government. The explosive charge later proves to be ineffective when it turns out that Zmeck's body has been transformed into living energy through the experiment and cannot be killed by explosions.
After his first public appearance, Major Force acts for a while as an involuntary hero in the service of the US government. He later became a rogue and worked as a mercenary and professional criminal. At times he worked again for the US government, which was led by Lex Luthor at the time, and later he was a member of the Injustice League. His main enemy is now Captain Atom. Major Force is also particularly hostile to Captain Atom's superhero colleague Green Lantern (Kyle Rayner), whose girlfriend Alexandra De Witt (green Lantern # 54) he cruelly murdered - the first he stuffed into a refrigerator. Forces other victims also include the former Green Lantern Arisia ( Guy Gardner # 48) and the brother of Green Lantern's friend Guy Gardner .
Since Major Force consists of energy and not matter, various attempts to kill him end up unsuccessful: Every time he is "killed" he rises within a short time - after the energy it consists of has been re-composed - from the dead: So Force comes to life after Guy Gardner cuts his throat; he awakens to new life after beheading him and sending his skull in an energy bubble into the vastness of space ( Green Lantern # 180). Finally, Captain Atom Major Forces succeeds in "sucking off" energy with the help of his own forces, so that only a limp, empty shell remains of it.
action
The Charlton version and the DC version of Captain Atom are largely the same in their plot premise, but have some minor differences in content: While the Chartlon version is about an air force technician named Allen Adam who accidentally turns into Captain Atom during a missile test is, the DC version is about the test pilot Nathaniel Adams, who is intentionally transformed into the "atomic man" during a punitive experiment. Another clear difference between the two variants is the drastically different visual appearance of the original and the newer interpretation of the main character: While Charlton's Captain Atom looks like a normal man in a stylized combat suit, in the DC version he is a being with an impenetrable skin made of nuclear metal.
The Charlton Captain Atom stories
The original Captain Atom series begins with a nuclear accident suffered by Air Force engineer Allan Adams: Adams is locked in it during a missile inspection. After the missile - enriched with nuclear material - is shot into the sky and explodes, Adams is radiated and from then on has all sorts of fantastic superpowers: He can fly on his own, absorb nuclear energy, transport it and fire it as energy beams from his body, moreover he is almost invulnerable and has far superhuman strength. After surviving this, Adams uses his new powers, dressed in a red and yellow costume, to tackle the crime.
Later, when his strength increases massively, Atom's hair turns silver-white and he replaces his fabric costume with a suit made of liquid metal that “seeps” under his skin and appears when he uses his strength.
The opponents that this Captain Atom has to deal with are first of all communist agents and aliens, later also the super villains typical of the genre. With the superhero Nightshade, he is even given a partner at his side.
The DC Captain Atom stories
Four years after DC took over the rights to Captain Atom in 1983, the publisher began publishing a new Captain Atom series in 1987 . The title character of the series has now been renamed from Allan Adams to Nathaniel Adams and received a slightly changed Origin story.
Instead of a rocket engineer, Adams is originally a fighter pilot in the US Air Force in the new version. In the Vietnam War, he is accused of a war crime, which he actually did not commit, and sentenced to death. Adam's superior, General Wade Eiling, takes advantage of the pilot's plight to make him a special offer on behalf of the government in Washington: To avoid being executed in the electric chair, he is supposed to be a test subject for an ominous experiment, the so-called "atomic experiment" provide. The chances of survival are very slim, but if he did survive, he would receive full pardon from the government.
The experiment consists in testing the effect that a previously unexplored alien metal has on the human body under the influence of an atomic explosion. The US government came into possession of this metal after the crash of an alien spaceship made of this metal.
The force of the explosion apparently kills Adams at first. In fact, however, his body merges with the alien metal that covers his body like a second skin. Secondly, since then Adams has had a multitude of miraculous, superhuman abilities (“superpowers”): He is able to fly, is superhumanly strong, resilient and fast and can also “fire” bursts of energy from his body and control atomic energy.
At first, however, he had to struggle with the negative consequences of the experiment: his body was catapulted twenty years into the future by the energy of the explosion, so that Adams suddenly found himself again in the 1980s. There he has to deal with a whole series of problems: On the one hand, he is blackmailed by Eiling to put his strength in his, Eilings, service and to work as a “private superhero” of the US government until further notice. As leverage for his extortion, Eiling uses Adam's conviction as a war criminal: the pardon promised to him before the experiment was not signed by the government of the time after Adam's supposed death. The new government now in office refuses to accept the previous government's pledge and to grant Adams his pardon.
Furthermore, Adams struggles with the “traditional” problems of a “man out of time”. His two children are now almost as old as he was when he took part in the “Atom Experiment”. His wife only married the hated Eiling after his death and has since died.
Eiling assigns Adams the name Cameron Scott and a post as Air Force pilot as a cover identity. During his superhero missions on behalf of Eiling, Adams was given the code name Captain Atom, based on his military rank as captain and the "Atom Experiment". In order to hide his identity, whenever Adams moves into a mission, he covers his body with the silver metal skin (Silver Shield), which has "slumbered" in his body since the experiment and "activated" by him at any time by means of his thoughts and as almost impenetrable skin can be placed over his actual body. In doing so, it so to speak seeps from the inside out through his actual skin. Captain Atom's overall appearance is therefore that of a man who is silver from head to toe (except for the feet, which for some reason appear red).
In the course of his series, Captain Atom has to deal with a multitude of shady villains: for example with his dark "twin" Major Force and the terrorist Plastique, with whom he falls in love and whom he marries in later issues. It must also have the invasion of an alien coalition on the ground, led by the diabolical dominators, hit back and in a friendly rivalry with his fellow young hero Firestorm claim. In addition, Adams finally succeeds in his innocence of the crimes he is charged with and ends his collaboration with Eiling. In other series, Atom joins the superhero team Justice League, forms the Justice League spin-off Extreme Justice and later returns to the service of the government.
Revitalization of the concept
After Captain Atom had only appeared as a minor character in other series for a long time, he was put back into the focus of his own publication for the first time in 2005. In the series Superman / Batman , he is previously hounded on the two superheroes by Superman's archenemy Lex Luthor, who was serving as US President at the time. Luthor makes use of the loyalty that Captain Atom shows as an officer to the respective US president. At the end of the fight with Superman and Batman, Captain Atom takes the side of the heroes and turns against the evil Luthor. At the end of the story, Atom steers a spaceship into the center of the meteor in order to save the earth from a huge meteorite that Luthor lets loose on it, where it is caught and destroyed by a huge explosion. After that, Captain Atom remains - thought to be dead - disappeared for the time being.
In the one-shot Captain Atom we finally learn that Atom survived the explosion, but was thrown into another dimension by its force. This dimension is the dimension referred to by the publisher (but not in the stories themselves) as the "Wildstorm Universe" in which the series from the program of the formerly independent Wildstorm Verlag, later taken over by DC Comics, take place. Captain Atom's Odyssey into the Wildstorm universe marks the first "visit" of a character from the regular DC universe , in which most of the DC series are set, in the Wildstorm universe, in which the series taken over by Wildstorm are located.
In search of a way back into "his world", Captain Atom is now experiencing a multitude of adventures in the Wildstorm universe. So he meets the superhero Mr. Majestic and the villain Nikola Hanssen, who manipulates him to restart the Wildstorm universe with the help of the energy that Atom carries (as part of the "Worldstorm Event"). In addition, Captain Atom's appearance has changed due to the interdimensional journey: his silver-colored metal skin has now taken on a yellow-red color.
Adaptations
A TV adaptation of the Captain Atom character, which was essentially based on the comic version of the 1980s and 1990s (Nathaniel Adams) created by Cary Bates and Pat Broderick, appeared in several episodes of the animated series The Justice League . There Atom comes into conflict several times with Green Arrow , another main character in the series, and with his double loyalty to the US government on the one hand and to the other members of the JLA on the other. The conflicts with Green Arrow are always based on the extremely different values and political views of Atom, the career officer, and Arrow, the left-wing alternative peace activist. The voice actors in the original US version of the series were initially George Eads and later Chris Cox .
Reprints
The first Captain Atom stories from Space Adventures as well as issues # 78–82 of the first Captain Atom series were reprinted in aggregate as Action Heroes Archive Volume 1 .
Remarks
- ↑ The alienation of the names and the appearance of the Charlton characters resulted from the "necessity" seen by the DC editors to avoid a permanent identification of the characters in their "original form" and under their original names with Moore's idiosyncratic Watchmen story continue to use them for other, more conventional stories. A fixed association of the characters with Moore's work by the readership, which is regarded as disturbing for the telling of further stories, was thus to be prevented.