Created by: Joe Gill and Steve Ditko

First Appearance: Space Adventures v2 #33

Affiliated Organizations: Justice League Europe, United States Air Force

Friends/Allies: Firestorm, Blue Beetle, Batman, Power Girl

Strengths/Abilities: What can't he do? Flight, Strength, Invulnerability, Energy Manipulation, etc

Overview:

Allen Adam, the original Captain Atom, was a soldier who was on a rocket when it accidentally got launched into space... and then the rocket exploded. You may think this is one of the worst ways to die, but somehow, he survived, able to reform his body from energy, gaining frankly overpowered abilities and becoming the hero we know as Captain Atom. He starred in a handful of issues, but he was a Charlton Comics character, so his series was on borrowed time. Fortunately enough, the Charlton characters were acquired by DC, leading to him entering the DC Universe after COIE.

This time, he was Nathaniel Adam, and his accident sent him forward in time twenty years which added an extra amount of angst to his origin. Additionally, this version introduced Wade Eiling, Adam's superior in the Air Force and a constant thorn in his side. The dynamic between Adam and Eiling played a huge role in the new Captain Atom series that was ongoing at this time. Eventually, Adam would break away from Eiling and the Air Force, joining the Justice League and creating his own splinter team of Justice League Europe.

Next up for Adam was Armageddon 2001, an event with a mystery villain called Monarch that was supposed to be him! However, they changed it last minute. Armageddon 2001 was Adam's last major event for a while; he bounced around a few minor superhero teams before ending up coming into conflict with Batman & Superman, after which he got sent to the Wildstorm Universe.

Yes, Wildstorm. He had his own series here where he was trying to get home and he interacted with a bunch of Wildstorm characters, but he eventually made his way back to the main DCU by Infinite Crisis, replacing the totally-not-a-replacement character Breach after his death. He ended up getting a fancy new Monarch suit and taking on the role that he was supposed to originate. He ended up being one of the main villains of Countdown, but Countdown's never worth reading or talking about. Turns out it was all the fault of a pesky rogue Monitor, anyways, so we can all forget Captain Atom was ever Monarch at all. Atom showed up in a Brightest Day tiein series with a bunch of his Justice League teammates, but whoops, it's time for Flashpoint!

In the New 52, Captain Atom had an ongoing, although unfortunately, it didn't last very long. It had a really cool premise of Adam pushing the limits of his powers, newly-found due to the reboot, and dealing with moving through time in a non-linear fashion like a certain character based off of him. It's a cool series! There was also a follow-up during Rebirth that gave Captain Atom a son, but unfortunately it was the last Captain Atom series to this point.

What else has he been up to since then? Mostly exploding whenever writers want to cause some destruction and up the stakes a bit. Hopefully it won't be terribly long before Captain Atom takes his place as a major hero once more!

Recommended Reading:

• Captain Atom by Cary Bates & Greg Weisman

• Captain Atom by J.T. Krul

• The Fall and Rise of Captain Atom by Cary Bates & Greg Weisman

CotM artwork by Gabriel Hardman

CotM Voting: Military

Voting Breakdown:

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