Solar Reflections - A Whitman Sampler!

In the fourth and final Dark Horse Doctor Solar Man of the Atom volume we find a delightful blend of vintage superhero yarns from across many many years as the series winds down and then gets revived a time or two.

Doctor Solar battles King Cybernoid in all the remaining Gold Key issues of the series, the android with the brain of Solar's longtime implacable foe Nuro. The series loses much of its distinctive science fictional flavor in attempting to achieve a purely superhero tone.

Dick Wood is the writer of record as the series tumbles along and Al McWilliams does one issue before giving way to Ernie Colon who gives the series a lighter touch and a bit more zip in terms of action. Jose Delbo steps in to handle the last issue of the 60's run.

Then in 1980 Whitman (formerly Gold Key) attempt to revive the series and publish for the first time the second part of the Wood-Delbo story which had begun a decade before. After that scribe Roger McKenzie is brought in to craft new stories with veteran Dan Spiegle handling the artwork. The tone of the McKenzie-Spiegle issues is completely different, very much in keeping with the slightly darker tone of comics of the late Bronze Age as Solar battles King Cybernoid for a final fatal time and a dour villain called the Sentinel.

The volume closes out with a blast to the Gold Key past with a singular issue of The Occult Files of Dr.Spektor in which Doctor Solar appears as a guest star to help rescue Spektor from a charge of murder. The story by Don Glut and the artwork by Jesse Santos is quite yummy.

And that's a wrap. Doctor Solar Man of the Atom was a product of the Cold War, when the glamour and effects of the atomic bomb were an all-consuming fascination for much of the world. Starting in 1962, the year of the Cuban Missile Crisis and wrapping up in the early 80's when the Cold War was nearing its final years, the character seems to embody that phenomenon in many ways.

And that's a wrap on Doctor Solar. 

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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 #87!

Captain Atom #87 is by writer Dave Kaler and artists Steve Ditko and Rocke Mastroserio. Captain Atom comes up against a dangerous foe in the oddly named Fiery-Icer, though there's little doubt what he does. The villain and his henchmen trap Atom a few times in this story. 

You can read it at this link. 

Nightshade, the Darling of Darkness gets her own back-up feature at long last in a story by Dave Kaler and Jim Aparo. We learn something of her origin as well as a new deadly enemy. 

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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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