A hero originally published by
Charlton Comics and later by
DC Comics.
Captain Atom first appeared in
Space Adventures #33
in 1960.
Captain Atom has multiple origins that have been intertwined over
the years by different publishing houses and different writers. Originally,
Nathaniel Adam was an U.S. Air Force officer working with the
U.S. space program during the early 1960's. Just prior to the
launch of a new rocket, Adam was making the final adjustments to
the rocket, when he dropped one of the tools he was using and it
fell into the heart of the rocket. Climbing down after it, Adam
found himself aboard the rocket as it blasted off into the
atmosphere. Either because of his presence or due to a problem with
the rocket's configuration, the missile exploded, vaporizing Adam
in the process. Amazingly, Adam was able to reform himself through
strength of will, and found that he now possessed atomic powers
such as flight and the ability to project energy blasts.
Captain Atom was part of the Charlton Comics publishing house
group of characters and was popular for a time. In the 1980's,
the characters were bought by DC Comics and were incorporated in
minor roles in the Crisis on Infinite Earths. When the Crisis
was over, a number of characters from Charlton were introduced
into the mainstream DC Universe, including the Question, Blue Beetle,
Peacemaker, and Captain Atom. Captain Atom was given his own
comic and a new origin as well.
In the new origin, Nathaniel Adam was a former soldier in Vietnam
who was accused of murdering his commanding officer and sentenced
to death. Adam was offered a chance to be part of a secret experiment
with a small chance of survival. Lowered into a deep hole outside
of a small air base, Adam was surrounded with by a shield made of
an extraterrestrial metal and an atomic bomb was set off under him.
To those observing, Adam was seemingly vaporized along with the metal,
and the case was closed.
In actuality, Adam was coated in the melting metal, which allowed him
access to the quantum field. Because of the huge influx of energy,
Adam was shunted into time and appeared 20 years later at the same
air field, disoriented and covered by a metallic shell. The head
of the project, a general named Wade Eiling, was brought in and
offered Adam a deal: he would be allowed to operate as a government
agent in exchange for his freedom and the opportunity to clear his
name. Adma agreed and became a government sponsored superhero called
Captain Atom.
To cover up his actual origin, Captain Atom was given an origin
very similar to his Charlton Origin, but changed to cover up any
holes in the story. Atom became an active member of the Justice
League and eventually the head of the European branch of that team.
He eventually cleared his name from the original charges brought against
him and was reunited with his now grown son and daughter.
When DC Comics decided to introduce the Armageddon 2000 cross-over
event, they needed a hero-gone-bad villain and tapped Captain Atom
to be the hero that becomes Monarch. However, as the series progressed,
the writers decided to change that and make Hawk of Hawk and Dove
Monarch, despite the fact that all of the clues and all of the
information pointed to Captain Atom. This made the ending of this
crossover event odd though Atom did battle Monarch and fought him
through time, before returning to our time.
For a while, Captain Atom was the leader of the Justice League
splinter group Extreme Justice. During this time, two life
changing events took place. First he married the former villain
Plastique and secondly, he found out that he was not in fact
Nathaniel Adam. Rather like the origin of the hero Swamp Thing
who found out years later that he was not Alec Holland, but a
plant that thought he was Alec Holland, Captain Atom discovered
that during the event that gave him his power, the alien metal
actually created a "quantum duplicate," a being that was in every
way Nathaniel Adam but was not Nathaniel Adam. Captain Atom
turned out to be that creation, and the real Nathaniel Adam had
been trapped in time for years until he escaped. His imprisonment
caused Adam to lose his mind and he took the armor of the
villain Monarch and became that villain, fulfilling the original
idea for the Armageddon 2000 storyline in a sort of cock-eyed way.
Captain Atom is still a member of the JLA reserves and has been
seen on a number of ocassions including during the Our World at War
event.
In the now famous Kingdom Come mini-series, that portrays
a dark future for the DC Universe, Captain Atom is the cause of a massive nuclear explosion in Kansas, when he and
other heroes, lead by Magog attempt to capture the Parasite. A blow by the Parasite splits open the metal
shell encasing Captain Atom, setting lose the energy contained in it.
Thanks to
amib for the reminder about the
Kingdom Come events.