Captain Atom In Space Adventures!

I first read Captain Atom's earliest adventures in these four issues of Space Adventures published by Charlton Comics in 1978. I still have fond memories of finding these issues on the newsstand, back in those days when grocery stores were still a primary location for getting hold of comics. Charlton was raiding its backlog to keep afloat during a grim time in the comic book marketplace. I fell in love with the charming Joe Gill and Steve Ditko stories and have never looked back. I've since purchased these stories in the original as well as copious reprintings since. 

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Ditko Cover Classics - Captain Atom #89!

Captain Atom #89 is by scripter Dave Kaler and artists Steve Ditko and Frank McLaughlin. The Captain Atom series comes to an abrupt halt with this final issue in the 60's run. Captain Atom must confront his old enemy The Ghost as well as a new magic foe called Thirteen who is aided by his talking cat Faustus. 

You can read it at this link. 

The Nightshade feature closes out as well as we see our heroine battle old foe Jewelee in a story by Kaler and artist Jim Aparo. 

But it's not over, not quite. More Captain Atom this weekend. 

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Ditko Cover Classics - Captain Atom #88!

Captain Atom #88 is by writer Dave Kaler and artists Steve Ditko and Frank McLaughlin. In a truly strange tale with a message, Captain Atom travels to a distant planet in answer to an S.O.S. from long ago. He finds a deadly menace in the form of giant insects. 

You can read it at this link. 

In a story by Kaler and artist Jim Aparo, Nightshade confronts the menace of The Image, who travels through mirrors. There's a distinct Alice in Wonderland aspect to this ongoing tale of Eve Eden. 

More Captain Atom tomorrow. 

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Ditko Cover Classics - Captain Atom #86!

Captain Atom #86 is by writer Dave Kaler and artists Steve Ditko and Rocke Mastroserio. Captain Atom's most relentless enemy The Ghost returns with his teleportation powers to menace Atom and Nightshade once again. The Ghost is greedy and wants gold, but finds something stranger waiting for him in this issue. 

You can read it at this link. 

Once again Blue Beetle has an adventure by Gary Friedrich and Steve Ditko. More on Ted Kord later this summer. 

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Ditko Cover Classics - Captain Atom #85!

Captain Atom #85 is by writer Dave Kaler and artists Steve Ditko and Rocke Mastroserio. The new Captain Atom teams up with Nightshade to battle the super-villains Punch and Jewlee, who got their super weapons from a mysterious box they found on the seashore. Weirdly this box of nigh magical weapons is connected to the larger story. 

You can read it at this link. 

The Blue Beetle returns in a story by Gary Friedrich and Steve Ditko, but I'll have more to say about him in a few months, 

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Atomic Reactions - Action Hero!

Then came the "Action Heroes". When Dick Giordano took over the editorial reins of Charlton Comics in the late 60's from Pat Masulli, he wanted to make the comic line more exciting and in keeping with a then surge in comics interest as a result of the pop-culture hit Batman TV show. To that end he wanted to create more heroes, but not necessarily "super-heroes" but low-powered types who had to really struggle to defeat their enemies. Judomaster, Thunderbolt, and a soon to debut Peacemaker fit the bill snugly. But Captain Atom and the Blue Beetle were world-beaters - what to do.

Well Steve Ditko, fresh from his days as the drawer of all things spidery, took control. He completely revamped the Blue Beetle creating one of the most durable superhero designs of all time. As for Captain Atom, things were a little bit more convoluted.

Beginning with Captain Atom #83, the good Captain was de-powered by a complicated set of circumstances which caused him to max out his abilities to restrain the danger of an out-of-control nuclear core. At first he's without any powers, but slowly they return, but not in the same way or degree as before. Suddenly the hero who could fly to the end of the universe was limited. With the new powers came a new look as in the very next issue he doffs his gold costume and puts on for the first time my favorite Captain Atom look. Actually "putting on" is an ideal way of stating it as the costume is actually a few coats of a special metallic substance which protects the public from his radiation as well as serving as a handsome outfit. He eschews a mask as he'd previously been publicly un-masked, but no one seemed to connect the silver-haired Atom with the brown-haired Adam.

The new Atom battles a relative small-time thug Iron Arms before in the very next issue teaming again with Nightshade, who became something of a regular, to battle the criminal duo Punch and Jewelee, two small-time thieves who get their mitts on some other-dimensional weapons. After that the Ghost returns and we discover that he has connections with a mysterious cadre of green-haired gold-armored women from another dimension, the same from which the mysterious weapons appeared.

After that Captain Atom is on his own again as he battles the bluntly named Fiery-Icer, a criminal with basic motivations. This was the very first Captain Atom comic I ever read, the one that made me fall in love with the character. Then Cap goes on his strangest mission yet, aboard a time-warp ship built by the United States government he travels to the far reaches of outer space to answer a distress call from a mysterious planet assaulted by giant insects. He finds a world abandoned by its people and operating on automatic because they had become overcome by ennui when all the challenge in their lives was removed by conveniences.

Then Cap returns home in time to battle both the Ghost and a new foe called Thirteen, as these apparent criminals battle for control of a mysterious device Cap had unintentionally brought back to Earth with him. Thirteen has a fun cat familiar and uses seeming magic, but his secret is more complex still.

Then it ends...just like that. The "Action Hero" line folds, and soon both Dick Giordano and Steve Ditko are gone to DC.

But eventually another story drops, one plotted and drawn but not scripted when the axe fell. This story appeared many years later in the fanzine Charlton Bullseye in two parts, with a script by two fans and inks by an up-and-coming John Byrne. In the story Captain Atom and Nightshade fight their ultimate battle against the murderous Ghost and solve the mystery of the other-dimensional women who worship him. (More on this story next week.)

Soon after that DC acquires the rights to the Action Hero line, and Captain Atom joins Superman and Batman and Wonder Woman in a spanking new DC Universe. There's some success of course, but rarely does he achieve the sparkling heights he had at Charlton.

More Captain Atom tomorrow. 

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Ditko Cover Classics - Captain Atom #84!

Captain Atom #84 is by scripter Dave Kaler and artists Steve Ditko and Rocke Mastroserio. Ditko asserts even more control over the character by changing his look and lowering his power levels. This is doubtless in keeping with both Ditko's own philosophy about the nature of heroes as well as Dick Giordano's desire to keep his line-up of "Action Heroes" more man and super. The Blue Beetle returns with scripting by Gary Friedrich. 

You can read it at this link. 

Captain Atom gets a smashing new look, losing his golden Cold War togs and replacing them with a more colorful combo in red, white and blue. He loses his mask as well, figuring I guess that his stark transformation will be enough to throw anyone off his trail. 

More Captain Atom and Blue Beetle next time. 

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Ditko Cover Classics - Captain Atom #83!

Captain Atom #83 is by scripter Dave Kaler and artists Steve Ditko and Rocke Mastroserio. The credits showcase that Ditko plotted this tale. His revised version of Blue Beetle debuts in this issue with a script by Gary Friedrich. 

You can read it at this link. 

With the arrival of Blue Beetle, this comic really becomes a Ditko tour de force. More Captain Atom and Blue Beetle tomorrow. 

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Ditko Cover Classics - Captain Atom #82!

Captain Atom #82 is by artists Steve Ditko and Rocke Mastroserio. This issue marks the debut of both Captain Atom's second super-villain The Ghost and his first ally in fighting crime the deadly Nightshade. Ditko fan Dave Kaler takes over the scripting officially, though Kaler has stated he added little to Ditko's work. 

You can read it at this link. 

The fandom grows as Dick Giordano is working hard to make the most of the Action Hero line-up. More Captain Atom tomorrow. 

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Ditko Cover Classics - Captain Atom #81!

Captain Atom #81 is by writer Joe Gill and artists Steve Ditko and Rocke Mastroserio. This dynamic issue marks the return of Dr. Spectro. 

You can read it at this link. 

More Captain Atom tomorrow. 

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Ditko Cover Classics - Captain Atom #80!

Captain Atom #80 is by writer Joe Gill and artists Steve Ditko and Rocke Mastroserio. The story is a full-length thriller which doesn't hide its inspiration. 

You can read it at this link. 

More Captain Atom action tomorrow. 

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Atomic Reactions - Captain Atom Returns!

In 1965 Charlton thought it might be a great idea to test the superhero waters again since they were always keen to keep an eye on trends. They had been publishing Blue Beetle for over a year and both Thunderbolt and Judomaster were on the verge of debuting. To see what interest there was in their arguably most successful superhero to that point, they scraped up the vintage Captain Atom stories from Space Adventures by Steve Ditko and Joe Gill and presented them in three issues of Strange Suspense Stories - issues seventy-five through seventy-seven.

The experiment must've proven successful because with the seventy-eighth issue the title was changed to "Captain Atom" and new stories were crafted by the old team of Gill, Ditko with former Captain Atom fill-in artist Rocke Mastroserio finishing the pencils with his distinctive look.

In the then popular mode, Cap was given some new supporting characters to round out the now twenty-page stories. In the first new story about aliens from the "Blue Planet" seeking to undermine the space program in order to take over Earth, we meet Professor Arnold Jupe and his lovely daughter Leah. She becomes enamored with Captain Adam of the United States Air Force, who is of course the secret identity of Captain Atom himself. In these stories oddly his commanding officer does not know who he is so he's constantly having to balance saving the world with avoiding being charged with desertion. You'd think the higher ups would've planned it better.

After battling the Blue Aliens, Cap meets his first full-blown supervillain, the colorful Dr. Spectro who uses colored lights to effect the mood of people. After his own personality is altered due to too much exposure to his own rays Spectro goes rogue and Captain Atom has to put him down. Then it's back into space where Captain Atom must confront a deadly planetoid which is headed for Earth. It turns out to be hollow and full of people who are under the control of the dictator Drako. Cap of course saves the Earth and turns the tables on Drako.

In none of these stories do we see Leah Jupe or her father, so either they were never meant to continue or the writers thought better of giving Cap a permanent love interest. 

Then Dr.Spectro returns, albeit in an array of colors as he struggles to reform his body after getting himself reconstituted as five tiny versions of his old look. The versions have different personalities and not all of them have the same motivations -- this one is a hoot.

Finally we see the classic Captain Atom join up with secret agent Nightshade and they go into secret battle against the spy and thief The Ghost. This is a hi-octane adventure and shows a hint of the way forward for the burgeoning Charlton "Action Hero" line. For one thing Dave Kaler takes over the scripting chores from Gill, though Kaler is on record as saying Ditko was doing practically everything himself. Ditko was deeply involved with Gill also, perhaps employing the Marvel method he'd used with Stan Lee at Marvel.

But big changes are in store for Captain Atom and we'll look at those next week.

More Captain Atom to come. 

 

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