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Captain Atom: Difference between revisions

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Captain Atom (view source)

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[[File:Captain_Atom_1_2371.jpg|frame|[[Chrome Champion|Cosmic]] [[Kung Fu Jesus|Action Jesus]], ["What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic|anyone?"]]]
 
A [[Charlton Comics]] superhero who got incorporated into [[The DCU]] following ''[[Crisis Onon Infinite Earths]]''.
 
The original Charlton Captain Atom was '''Allen Adam''', created by writer [[Joe Gill]] and artist [[Steve Ditko]]. He first appeared in ''"Space Adventures''" #33 (March, 1960). Allen was a scientist in the United States Air Force who was working on an experimental rocket when it was accidentally launched. The rocket exploded in midair, taking Allen with it - but he reformed again on the ground, having somehow acquired superpowers in the explosion. Naturally, he put those powers to use as a superhero. The character regularly appeared in ''"Space Adventures''" until its issue #42 (October, 1961). Then held his own magazine from December, 1965 to December, 1967. A small number of new Captain Atom stories appeared in anthology titles of [[The Seventies|1970s]] and [[The Eighties|the early 1980s]].
 
When [[DC Comics]] bought the Charlton characters, and brought them into the DCU, they gave Captain Atom his own ongoing, written by pre-''[[Gargoyles (Animation)|Gargoyles]]'' Cary Bates and [[Greg Weisman]]. Starting on March, 1987. This series rebooted Captain Atom from the ground up - a new character with a new origin and new powers. The [[Post-Crisis]] Captain Atom was '''Nathaniel Adam''', a captain in the USAF, court-martialled for a crime he didn't commit. He was given a choice: a death sentence, or participation in a potentially fatal experiment -- sitting at ground zero of a nuclear explosion encased in an alien metal, in the hope of testing the metal's properties. Survival would mean freedom. Nathaniel chose the experiment. The explosion didn't kill him; what it ''did'' do was bond the alien metal to his flesh, giving him superpowers, and throwing him twenty-odd years forward into the present day. He found himself able to access the 'quantum field' that underpins reality to produce a variety of effects.
 
So far, so expected. Where ''Captain Atom'' diverged was that Nathaniel had been a member of military intelligence, and was pressed once more into service for them as a deep-cover agent, as the new government refused to fufil the promise of the previous government. His cover identity was that of a superhero, the Charlton adventures presented as his fake backstory, but in reality, he was working for the government. The course of the ongoing saw Nathaniel try to discover the truth behind his original frame-up, attempt to establish his freedom from his superiors, and slowly become the hero he pretended to be. He also joined up with [[Justice League of America|Justice League International]], initially as an agent, but going on to serve as a hero.
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'''Nathaniel Adam tropes:'''
* [[Absurdly Sharp Blade]]: The X-Ionizer device featured in a number of comics can turn anything into one of these blades. The Cambodian uses one to great effect in v1 issue #7.
* [[Always Someone Better]]: [[Depending Onon the Writer]]. Captain Atom sometimes plays this role (most recently in ''[[Captain Atom]]: Armageddon'' to ''[[The Authority]]'', and, indeed, the entire [[Wildstorm]] Universe), but at other times he falls prey to [[The Worf Effect]], as pointed out below.
* [[Arch Enemy]]: [[The General|Wade]] [[The Chessmaster|Eiling]] and, in ''[[Justice League of America|Justice League Europe]]'', the Queen Bee.
* [[Badass Normal]]: Cap was this before he got superpowers, since he was, after all, a special operations officer who had served multiple tours of duty in [[The Vietnam War|Vietnam]]. When he temporarily lost his powers, he was still a match for Batman in hand-to-hand combat.
* [[Battle in Thethe Center of Thethe Mind]]: The "Quantum Quest" arc.
* [[Becoming the Mask]]: Pretty much the point of his first DC ongoing. He was a government agent pretending to be a superhero, but became a hero for real.
** This happens to Doctor Spectro too. At first he was just an ordinary scientist who posed as a villain from Captain Atom's fictional backstory in order to get an interview with the press. Soon, however, he becomes a real supervillain.
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