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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Solar Reflections - Doctor In Red!

With the second volume of Doctor Solar Man of the Atom we are getting a full-fledged superhero, a bright and shiny man in red who saves the day when it's needed. The adventures though in this volume also explore the unique nature of Doctor Solar, putting him through a wide range of transformations, not for Solar are the machinations of sundry super-villains but rather it is often Solar battling against the peculiar side effects of his own awesome power.

Frank Bolle

All the stories here were drawn by Frank Bolle, an artist with a flair for the real but lacking the oomph often associated with superheroes. The writing on this series transitioned in the tenth issue with the ubiquitous Paul S. Newman giving way to Dick Wood.

In these stories Doctor Solar is pitted against Nuro time and again who fights most often by proxy and very often using machines. The first of these is a device which challenges the reality people see, but Solar is able to fend off these threats and save Blue Valley. Then it's a computerized robot named Transvac which is able to absorb energy including the energy which comprises Solar himself, but that energy is possessed of a min which uses strategy to escape. Then for a couple of issues Solar has to contend with an overabundance of energy which swells him to gigantic proportions. It is through the steady and reliable help of his best girl Gail he often found his way to return to some semblance of humanity, whether in scale or temporally.

For Gold Key, a company that clearly didn't get the whole superhero zeitgeist, Doctor Solar Man of the Atom is an anomaly. Other superheroes from the company were either parodies of the form (Frankenstein, Dracula, The Owl) or firmly rooted in science fiction like Solar (Magnus, Robot Fighter). It's Solar's magnificently resplendent red costume which has made him an iconic hero worthy of revival over the decades. Sure the nature of the hero, a many torn asunder by the power of the atom and reshaped into something akin to a god is fascinating, but without that costume it's all for naught.

Here are the covers in this collection, all by the great George Wilson.

More Doctor Solar next week. 

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Ditko Cover Classics - Captain Atom #79!

Captain Atom #79 is by writer Joe Gill and artists Steve Ditko and Rocke Mastroserio. This is the final issue written by Captain Atom's co-creator Joe Gill. 

In the spirit of the times, our hero gets his first official super-villain in the chromatic Doctor Spectro, the Master of Moods. You can read it at this link. 

More Captain Atom to come. 

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Ditko Cover Classics - Captain Atom #78!

Captain Atom #78 is remarkable as Cap gets his own title for the first time when Strange Suspense Stories changes its name with its seventy-eighth issue. It's a new full-length adventure by Joe Gill and Steve Ditko with their classic creation now in 1965. Rocke Mastroserio joins Ditko on the art. Since Mastroserio was the only artist other than Ditko to draw the good Captain, it's a great choice. 

You can read the comic book at this link. 

More Captain Atom tomorrow. 

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Ditko Cover Classics - Strange Suspense Stories #77!

Charlton Comics wrapped up the reprints of Steve Ditko's Captain Atom stories in Strange Suspense Stories #77.  The stories in this issue are "The Silver Lady from Venus", "An Ageless Weapon", "The Boy and the Stars", and "The Space Prowlers". You can read the comic book at this link. 

Here are the covers of Space Adventures from which the stories were taken. 

The reprints are over. New Captain Atom adventures start tomorrow. 

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Ditko Cover Classics - Strange Suspense Stories #76!

Strange Suspense Stories #76 featured more vintage Captain Atom stories. The stories in this issue are "The Wreck of the X-44", "The Little Wanderer", "Test Pilot's Nightmare", and "A Victory for Venus". You can read the comic book at this link. 

Below are the covers for the issues from the stories are taken. 

More Captain Atom next time. 

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Ditko Cover Classics - Strange Suspense Stories #75!

Captain Atom made a comeback in Strange Suspense Stories #79. You can read it at this link. There are three Captain Atom stories in this one -- "Introducing Captain Atom", "The Second Man in Space", and "Captain Atom on Planet X". The cover was derived from the Captain's debut cover. Charlton was getting back into superheroes with Blue Beetle and Son of Vulcan. When Steve Ditko came back to them after his famous stay at Marvel it seemed a good time to revive another superhero. Below are the covers of the comics from which the material was pulled. 

More Captain Atom tomorrow. 

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