# Captain Atom

Captain Atom is the name of several superheroes appearing in American comic books, initially owned by Charlton Comics before being acquired in the 1980s by DC Comics. All possess some form of energy-manipulating abilities, usually relating to nuclear fission and atomic power.
Created during the Silver Age of Comic Books to occupy a Superman-like role in Charlton Comics' line-up, the character became part of the DC Universe in 1985 after DC's purchase of Charlton in 1983. The character's similarities to Superman led to DC making numerous attempts to find a distinctive niche for the character within its own stories. As a result, he has played varied roles in the DC Universe, many short-lived, including a period as the supervillain Monarch and the attempted reboot series Breach. Notably, DC's decision not to give Alan Moore permission to use the character in his critically and commercially successful Watchmen (1986) series led to the creation of the popular character Doctor Manhattan. Modern depictions of Captain Atom have instead emphasised, rather than de-emphasise, his similarities to Manhattan.
Captain Atom has appeared in several animated television and film adaptations of Justice League and other DC storylines since the mid-2000s. Chris Cox, Michael T. Weiss, and Brian Bloom, among others, have voiced the character in animation.

## Publication history

Captain Atom was created by writer Joe Gill and artist/co-writer Steve Ditko, and first appeared in Space Adventures #33 (March 1960). Captain Atom was initially created for Charlton Comics, but was later acquired by DC Comics and revised for DC's post-Crisis continuity. In 2011, DC Comics relaunched its superhero comics and rewrote the histories of some characters from scratch, including Captain Atom, giving him a new origin, appearance and slightly altered powers. Captain Atom was the character inspiration for Doctor Manhattan, who was featured in the miniseries (and later live-action film adaptation) Watchmen, which would be connected to the DC Universe in the miniseries Doomsday Clock.
Throughout the years, the character has been featured in several moderate-to-short-lived eponymous series, and has been a member of several different versions of DC's flagship superhero team, the Justice League. In all incarnations, the character initially served for the military. In the Charlton Comics continuity, he was a scientist named Allen Adam and gained his abilities by accident when he was seemingly "atomized" and then reformed himself as an atomic-powered being. In both DC Comics incarnations, he is an Air Force pilot named Nathaniel Adam, who was a test subject in a scientific experiment who seemingly disintegrated in the process, only to reappear later as the super-powered Captain Atom. Over the years, DC has attempted to reinvent the character several times. For a period, the character assumed the mantle of the supervillain Monarch, and in 2005 DC attempted to retell the Captain Atom story with an entirely new character, Breach, who was subsequently discarded. In the new continuity following DC's 2011 relaunch, Captain Atom has never been a member of the Justice League and the team views him with distrust; his character origin and abilities were also revised.

## Fictional character biography
### Charlton Comics (Silver Age)

The Charlton Comics version of Captain Atom was Allen Adam, a rocket technician who gains powers after his special experimental rocket explodes.
Captain Atom was first published in a series of short stories in the anthology series Space Adventures #33–40 (March 1960 – June 1961) and #42 (October 1961). Charlton began reprinting his short adventures in the anthology Strange Suspense Stories beginning with issue #75 (June 1965), renaming the title Captain Atom with issue #78 (December 1965) and giving the hero full-length stories and supervillain antagonists such as Dr. Spectro (previous stories involved Cold War anti-Communist missions or dealing with aliens). Captain Atom later teamed with the superhero Nightshade, with whom he shared a mutual attraction. The superhero Blue Beetle starred in the initial back-up feature, later replaced by a Nightshade back-up series.
DC Comics acquired Captain Atom, among other characters, following the bankruptcy of Charlton Comics. In Crisis on Infinite Earths, the Charlton characters are revealed to originate from Earth-Four and are integrated into DC's continuity.

### DC Comics (Post-Crisis)

A new Post-Crisis version of the character was introduced in March 1987 with the launch of a monthly comic, written by Cary Bates and Greg Weisman and drawn by Pat Broderick.
This modern captain's name is established as Nathaniel Christopher Adam, a United States Air Force officer and Vietnam War veteran. Adam is framed for a crime and experimented on to avoid execution and receive a pardon. He gains metallic skin and vast nuclear powers, but is transported decades into the future and presumed dead.
After Adam resurfaces, General Wade Eiling blackmails him into serving the government as the superhero Captain Atom. Atom separates from the government, joins the Justice League, and briefly marries Plastique.
Captain Atom was intended to be the villain Monarch in the Armageddon 2001 event. However, after this information was leaked, DC changed Monarch's identity to Hank Hall last-minute.
In the Superman/Batman story arc "Public Enemies", Captain Atom is seemingly killed while stopping a kryptonite meteor. He is transported to the WildStorm universe and presumed dead.

#### Monarch

In Infinite Crisis, Captain Atom returns when Superboy-Prime punctures Breach, who wields similar energy-manipulating abilities. The end of Armageddon has him reappear in the devastated Blüdhaven. A year later, Captain Atom is revealed to be contained inside Blüdhaven and used to administer radiation treatments to metahumans. He later escapes and kills Major Force.

##### Countdown

In Countdown to Final Crisis, Captain Atom assumes the Monarch name and battles heroes throughout the multiverse.
During a fight against Superman-Prime, Atom's suit is damaged, releasing a chain reaction that destroys Earth-51. It is later revealed that the Monitor Solomon attacked Atom in Blüdhaven, rupturing his skin and facilitating his transformation into Monarch.

#### Project 7734

During Jimmy Olsen's investigation about Project 7734, the secret black-op commanded by Sam Lane to fight extraterrestrial menaces on Earth (including Kryptonians), it is discovered that an amnesiac and brainwashed Captain Atom is in his possession.

#### Generation Lost

In Justice League: Generation Lost, Captain Atom is among the heroes tasked with hunting down Maxwell Lord.

### The New 52

In The New 52 continuity reboot, Captain Atom is reintroduced with altered powers, appearance and origin. This version was never framed and participated in the experiment that gave him powers voluntarily. During a fight with Dr. Megala, who has taken control of Firestorm's body, Atom absorbs a massive amount of energy, which disperses his molecules across the timestream. One of these pieces becomes a separate entity named Nathaniel Adym and joins the Science Police in the 31st century.

### DC Rebirth: The Fall and Rise of Captain Atom

Captain Atom (Nathaniel Adam) lost control of his powers and caused a devastating accident in this six-issue series set in 2012. Needing to contain his unstable abilities, he went into Dr. Megala's Subterranean Suppression Dome but seemingly exploded. The world believed Nathaniel Adam was killed in a blast; However, Adam took a subatomic trip through time and ended up without powers, 20 years in the past. It is revealed that the quantum blowback sent him back in time to 1994 as a normal man. Adam's wound distorted after being shot during an attempted car robbery, and his body was encased in liquid metal. As a result of the time stream correcting itself, he was thrown back to 2017.

### DC All In

In Absolute Power, Captain Atom loses his powers to Amanda Waller's Amazo army. Atom (Ray Palmer) and Atom (Ryan Choi) use him to test a device that can retrieve powers and restore them to the correct superhero. This leads to Adam's powers returning at full strength, along with those of other "Atom Project" subjects. In the series Jenny Sparks (2024), the titular character works with the Justice League in an attempt to stop Captain Atom after he starts to think of himself as a god, using his powers to heal diseases for some while coldly killing others at his whim. The revised depiction is heavily influenced by Doctor Manhattan.
In Jenny Sparks #5, Atom's original DC Comics backstory is confirmed as canon. A willing army recruit famed for making "unheard of" numbers of kills, Adam was arrested for "brutal" behaviours in the jungle in 1968 (potentially having been framed). To avoid hanging, he participated in an experiment to test whether a recovered alien ship could withstand a nuclear attack. The molten ship appeared to kill Adam, but he reappeared decades later as Captain Atom – true to form, he promptly enlisted again in the U.S. army and later the Justice League, where "no one gave him much thought" and he was viewed as "generic". More recently, he checked himself into a mental hospital, before leaving with a god complex.

## Powers and abilities
### Powers

Captain Atom's body is coated in the alien metal Dilustel, which enables him to generate vast amounts of nuclear energy and makes him virtually immortal. Atom's skin is highly durable and can only be damaged by the X-Ionizer, a device designed to cut through it. Cracking or rupturing his skin causes Atom to leak radiation at an uncontrollable rate, to which he runs the risk of atomic detonation.
In addition to his superhuman abilities, Nathaniel Adam is also an experienced United States Air Force pilot. He is especially skilled in combat piloting, is trained in military weaponry, strategy, and hand-to-hand combat, and speaks multiple languages, including Russian. Adam also has strong survival instincts derived from his experiences during the Vietnam War.
At other times and storylines, Captain Atom has had different or greatly increased powers. During his Monarch era, his powers significantly increased, making him a multiversal level threat. The short-lived New 52 version of the character was an "energy-based life form" whose control over physics meant he could transform lava into snow and manipulate time.

## Rogues gallery

Captain Atom has his own enemies:
* Bolt (Larry Bolatinsky): An assassin and mercenary sporting an electrokinetic suit hired by General Eiling for a number of militia hero sales schemes. Often came in conflict with Captain Atom over the course of his military career while under contract in another of many government staged publicity stunts.
* Doctor Spectro (Tom Emery): A scientist driven mad by his emotion-altering prisms, Dr. Spectro gained the ability to affect emotions directly. Post-Crisis, Spectro was a small-time crook General Wade Eiling used to create a cover story for Captain Atom. Very bright costumes were a characteristic of Dr. Spectro.$^{:87}$ Doctor Spectro first appeared in Captain Atom #79 as the first supervillain antagonist of the titular hero, and was created by Steve Ditko and Joe Gill.$^{:87}$ The character first appeared in Charlton Comics, later in DC Comics.$^{:87–88}$ James Sandy counted Doctor Spectro among the many comic characters that were introduced in the Silver Age of Comic Books and disappeared again after a short run, but authors of The Superhero Book found him a unique supervillain.$^{:361}$
* Fiery-Icer: A mercenary with a suit that unleashes intense fire from his right gauntlet and frigid cold from the left, the mysterious Fiery-Icer fought Captain Atom on several occasions.
* General Wade Eiling: Once his commanding officer in the military who even in his new identity Nathaniel Adam often butted heads with due to his unscrupulous means of promoting America's new military assets. Unknown to the Captain for the longest time, it was the corrupt general who had Adam framed for killing a senior officer which, in turn, subjected him to the Atom Project years ago.
* The Ghost (Alec Rois): A physicist who developed a teleportation device that he used to become a millionaire, Alec Rois took on the persona of the Ghost and became Captain Atom and his partner Nightshade's Pre-Crisis nemesis. Post-Crisis, he was a cult leader nicknamed the Faceless One, a disgruntled weapons developer and a former CIA operative who sought revenge against an unscrupulous employer. Having been trapped in the Quantum Field by his own Stealthray tech, he is released as an energy being who controls teletranslocation through it and has connections to Atom's past conviction while enlisted five years ago.
* Iron Arms: A mercenary that employs a backpack that powers powerful cybernetic arms.
* The Cambodian (Rako): An arms dealer and personal enforcer of the Post-Crisis Ghost. A survivor of a U.S. bombing raid during the Vietnam War, this Cambodian refugee was taken into Rois' services while he was a government agent. Acting as the Green Elite's hitman, Rako framed Nathaniel Adam for treason under Rois' orders, resulting in his drafting into Project: Atom. As the Cambodian, he would clad himself in armor and weaponry tempered by the X-Ionizer, wielding a skein sharp enough to pierce Captain Atom's Dilustel armor.
* Major Force (Clifford Zmeck): A rapist/murderer exposed to the same experiment that created Captain Atom, he would regularly betray the U.S. government or go back to work for their more clandestine, i.e., crooked, organizations, becoming a regular as Captain Atom's Post-Crisis nemesis.
* Monarch (Hank Hall): In an alternate future, Hank Hall goes mad and kills Earth's heroes to conquer the world. When the hero Waverider comes back in time to prevent this, he instead creates the paradox that made his future possible. When Monarch goes back in time to retrieve his past self, it was Captain Atom that failed to stop him. Captain Atom battled the villain through time to quell the guilt of his failure to stop him earlier.
* Plastique (Bette Sans Souci): A French-Canadian terrorist with explosive-based powers and intense separatist designs, first came in contact with Captain Atom during an assassination attempt at a Canadian/American peace delegation. The two frequently clash with one another, eventually falling in love and entering into a whirlwind marriage, albeit a short-lived one.
* Punch and Jewelee: A husband and wife team of villains who work as thieves and mercenaries. Post-Crisis, they instead fought King Faraday and Nightshade.
* Thirteen: In reality a federal agent from Earth's future, Thirteen travels back in time with his partner Faustus, a talking cat, to prevent the Ghost from stealing an experimental missile and end up facing Captain Atom. He appears to be a sorcerer but it is unknown if he employs true magic or just sufficiently advanced science.
* Ultramax: Former assassin turned death row inmate in the early 2000s, when Atom had his meltdown and was catapulted into the Q-Field. Max Thrane, as he was facing the electric chair at the time, was bathed in the fallout during his execution. About a decade later, Captain Atom would return and undo his predicament, only for him to awake finding he had gained similar Quantum Powers due to the hero's blowback years ago, to which, now going by the name Ultramax, Thrane set out on a path of revenge against the one who slated him for his death sentence.

## Other versions

* An alternate universe variant of Captain Atom appears in Armageddon 2001.
* An alternate universe variant of Captain Atom who was killed by Parasite appears in Kingdom Come.
* Several alternate universe variants of Captain Atom appear in Countdown to Final Crisis: Quantum Storm from Earth-37, the leader of the Atomic Knights from Earth-38, Brigadier Atom from Earth-13, a Hulk-like variant named Attum, the robotic Quantum Mechanix, Captain Adamma, Quantum Boy, an anthropomorphic wolf version, a Soviet Atom from Earth-30, a Doctor Manhattan-lookalike, and a giant-sized anthropomorphic atom.
* An alternate universe variant of Captain Atom from Earth-4, amalgamated with Doctor Manhattan and Marvel Comics character Reed Richards, appears in Final Crisis and The Multiversity.
* An alternate universe variant of Nathaniel Adam who never became Captain Atom appears in Flashpoint.

## In other media
### Television

* The Nathaniel Adam incarnation of Captain Atom appears in Justice League Unlimited, voiced initially by George Eads and subsequently by Chris Cox. This version is a member of the Justice League, speaks with a slight Texan accent, and is a disembodied mass of energy contained in a special suit with a limit to how much energy he can absorb, which will cause him to explode like a nuclear bomb if exceeded.
* The Nathaniel Adam incarnation of Captain Atom appears in Young Justice, voiced by Michael T. Weiss. This version is a member of the Justice League. In the second season, he becomes the leader of the League before handing over the position to Black Canary by the season finale.
* The Nathaniel Adam incarnation of Captain Atom appears in Batman: The Brave and the Bold, voiced by Brian Bloom. This version, also known as Allen Adams and Cameron Scott, is an arrogant and egocentric member of Justice League International who is fond of making public service announcements and looks down on heroes without superpowers.

### Film

* The Nathaniel Adam incarnation of Captain Atom appears in Superman/Batman: Public Enemies, voiced by Xander Berkeley. This version works for the U.S. government under President Lex Luthor and leads a group of government-sanctioned heroes.
* The Nathaniel Adam incarnation of Captain Atom makes a cameo appearance in Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox, voiced by Lex Lang. This version is a member of the Justice League. Additionally, the Flashpoint incarnation of Captain Atom makes an appearance, during which he was captured by the Atlanteans and forced to power Aquaman's doomsday device.
* The Nathaniel Adam incarnation of Captain Atom appears in Injustice, voiced by Fred Tatasciore.
* The Allen Adam incarnation of Captain Atom appears in DC Showcase: Blue Beetle, voiced by Jeff Bennett.
* The Nathaniel Adam incarnation of Captain Atom appears in Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths, voiced by Brett Dalton.

### Video games

The Allen Adam and Nathaniel Adam incarnations of Captain Atom appear as character summons in Scribblenauts Unmasked: A DC Comics Adventure.

### Miscellaneous

Captain Atom appears in the Injustice: Gods Among Us prequel comic. He joins Batman's Insurgency to combat Superman's growing Regime before being mortally wounded by Wonder Woman while retrieving an enhancement pill from the Fortress of Solitude. Captain Atom then drags Superman to the atmosphere in an attempt to kill him, with the resulting explosion leaving the former dead and Wonder Woman comatose.

## Collected editions

| Title | Material collected | Published date | ISBN |
| Action Heroes Archive Volume 1 | Space Adventures (vol. 2) #33-42, Captain Atom (vol. 1) #78-82 | November 2004 | 978-1401203023 |
| Action Heroes Archive Volume 2 | Captain Atom (vol. 1) #83–89, Charlton Bullseye #1–2, 5, Mysterious Suspense #1, Blue Beetle (vol. 5) #1-5 | May 2007 | 978-1401213466 |
| Captain Atom: Armageddon | Captain Atom: Armageddon #1-9 | November 2006 | 978-1401211066 |
| Captain Atom Vol. 1: Evolution | Captain Atom (vol. 4) #1–6 | December 2012 | 978-1401237158 |
| Captain Atom Vol. 2: Genesis | Captain Atom (vol. 4) #0, 7-12 | August 2013 | 978-1401240998 |
| Captain Atom: The Rise and Fall of Captain Atom | Captain Atom: The Rise and Fall of Captain Atom #1-6 | January 2018 | 978-1401274177 |