BHOC: CAPTAIN ATOM #84

Another of the Modern Comics reprints of classic Charlton comics that I picked up in 3-bags at the Two Guys was this issue of CAPTAIN ATOM. my first exposure to the character. This was a bit of a transition issue in the original run as, having helped to originate the character several years before, Steve Ditko here re-conceptualized him to better fit in with the super hero style of the time. (He’d done the same thing with the Blue Beetle the issue before.) But I had no way of knowing any of this when I first cracked open this comic.

On the inside, Captain Atom started out wearing a different costume, and we came into the story en media res. Apparently, last issue Cap tried to stop a runaway reactor, the radiations from which caused him to lose his powers. Without them, he was clobbered by the minions of the evil scientist Koste and carried off. Koste immediately unmasks Captain Atom to the world, but because Atom’s hair changes color when he powers up, his true identity as Captain Adam remained his own. But it was a humiliating defeat for the hero.

Held for a ten million dollar ransom, Atom discovers that his powers are slowly coming back, and so he stages a daring escape from his captors–only to run headlong into the muscle for this particular adventure, the villain known as Iron Arms. Iron Arms beats the hell out of Atom and imprisons him in a cage high over a cavern, not realizing that Atom’s powers are returning and he can simply fly out–which he does. Atom tries to intercept the helicopter delivering his ransom, but he is again too late. What a botch-job!

The public is furious, its ire being stoked by reporter Abby Ladd who has a beef with Captain Atom. However, events turn on a dime when Gunner, Atom’s attache, tells Atom that the experimental procedure is ready to begin. Here, we learn (or re-learn, if you had been reading the title regularly when it first came out) that Captain Atom’s body is powerfully radioactive, a side-effect of the accident that gave him his powers. Only his costume protects others from being poisoned in his presence–and that’s a stopgap measure at best.

But the government thinks it’s perfected a way to counteract the harmful radiation. Atom’s body is coated head-to-toe with a metallic sheathe that will block the radiation. After going through the prolonged process, Adam waits for the Geiger counter to stop clicking. And it doesn’t. After several hours, frustrated, he powers up, intending to go after Koste–and the metallic sheathe comes to the fore, revealing itself as the all-new Captain Atom costume.

Re-energized by his transformation–tot he point where he doesn’t even mind the loss of much of his atomic powers–Captain Atom steals a kiss from Abby Ladd, and then soars off to confront and defeat Koste and Iron Arms–which he does, in a spectacularly-choreographed battle. For the most part, this redeems Atom in the eyes of the public, though in true Spider-man fashion, there are still those who think he’s a menace, including Abby Ladd. 

The back-up story was the second adventure of the new Blue Beetle, whom I’d already met in his own comic. From context, I could tell that this story took place earlier, and I was intrigued at what I might have missed between the two, and whether any of those comics might turn up at the two Guys later on. Ditko packs a lot of story into just 7 pages, showing off the Beetle’s new lair and equipment, and setting up his overall status quo.

At this point, Ted Kord’s assistant Tracy wasn’t in on his secret identity, and she was probing to find out what happened to Kord on the mysterious Pago Island. A masked intruder is also looking for similar info, but the Beetle arrives in time to clobber him and chase him off. He reveals his true identity as Count Von Steuben, which meant nothing to me then and still doesn’t’ today. And the story wraps up with the arrival of Detective Fisher, who hasn’t come in response to the break-in but rather because he’s got some pointed questions for Ted Kord about the disappearance of Dan Garrett (secretly the previous Blue Beetle.) And it’s on Kord’s shocked and terrified face that the chapter closes. This was overall a pretty good comic book, very much like a “light” version of a 1960s Marvel book–and it was enough to make me a fan of both of these characters.