Comments on: 365 Reasons to Love Comics #182

By: Linkara

Linkara — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 01:25:56 +0000

I personally loved Captain Atom: Armageddon. While a government agent seemed to be an odd choice to be representative of the more heroic side of the DCU to contrast with the more violent and abrasive Wildstorm universe, I think he carried it off well. ^_^

I'm not entirely convinced his current identity as Monarch has him as a villain, since he's done nothing villainous so far. Heck, considering the direction the Monitors are going, it seems to me that Captain Monarch might actually be the hero of the whole thing. ^^

By: stephen cade

stephen cade — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 23:03:54 +0000

Amazing how many of my favorite characters have Ditko to thank for them--at least in part.
The silvery arm period is great--I have some in reprints.
I loved his own series up to issue 50 when all was revealed, but I wan't fond of the art after PAt Broderick left. I think Rafael Kayanan tried to emulate Ditko, but without success.

By: Andrew Collins

Andrew Collins — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 21:40:15 +0000

Captain Atom is one of my all-time favorite characters. I got rid of a huge chunk of my comic collection a few years back, but I did hang onto my run of the 1980's Cary Bates/Greg Weisman Captain Atom series. It wasn't the greatest comic ever, but it was a good, solid superhero comic. Bates & Weisman portrayed Captain Atom as a lifelong military man suddenly thrust 20 years into the future and gifted/cursed with amazingly powerful abilities, and it really worked as a superhero story.

Cap's highpoint at the time came from being designated the "Leader" of Earth's forces during the Invasion! crossover, something he turned out to be pretty good at. But even then, it was clear that DC didn't seem to have a true idea of what to do with him. His role in the Giffen Justice League was limited. He was later revealed to be a government-placed spy. By issue #50 of his series, all of the major plot points had been tied off and Cap was left to flounder. It's no wonder DC considered him for the Monarch role. It was tragic what happened to Hank Hall in response to the story leak, but I was relieved they didn't ruin Cap by turning him into a villain like that. He's one of the most powerful characters in the DCU and he should be featured as prominently as Superman, but I always felt like no writer or editor quite knew what to do with him. Much like Firestorm. He also got married to the villainess, Plastique, and their pairing was then promptly all but forgotten about in the comics. I only just read recently that they had divorced and I thought, "They did? When?"

Cap's recent foray into the Wildstorm universe was "meh" (I especially missed the silver bodied Cap. The gold look was atrocious...). And now that he looks to be leaping back into the Monarch role again, I'm worried that we're about to see the undoing of Cap in the DCU. I guess they're trying to make way for the return of the Charlton-verse on one of the other 52 Earths.

Oh well, at least I have the 80's series and his appearances on the JLU cartoon to enjoy.

Random note: The 80's series features one of the few non-Vertigo guest appearances by Death from the Endless, somewhere around issue #42 or 43 of the series.

By: Stephane Savoie

Stephane Savoie — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 16:26:11 +0000

The Wildstorm series wasn't terrible; just sort of pointless. In it he wore the costume designed for him by Alex Ross, one intended to be reminiscent of his original golden costume.

By: DanCJ

DanCJ — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 14:47:52 +0000

I like Cary Bates's revamp. One clever thing they did was rather than completely throwing the original away, they turned the original run into false back-story to the current one.

By: Anthony Strand

Anthony Strand — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 14:43:28 +0000

Jaap - Actually, the was *The Atom* (Ray Palmer) that McGinley voiced. Captain Atom was played by CSI's George Eads.

By: rpiltqhard

rpiltqhard — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 12:36:48 +0000

Hello! Good Site! Thanks you! ziiacneqqa

By: Jaap

Jaap — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 07:34:21 +0000

What, no mention of his role in JLU, voiced by John C "Perry Cox" McGinly?

By: Lothor

Lothor — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 05:01:26 +0000

Too bad Canada Day, Eh-pril, and M-eh had no love for T.M. Maple.

By: Ian Astheimer

Ian Astheimer — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 03:47:33 +0000

Breach was intended to be a revamp, yeah, but that was changed during pre-production.

The character exploded during Infinite Crisis, and Captain Atom appeared in the same spot a moment later, back from his Wildstorm adventure.

By: Eric TF Bat

Eric TF Bat — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 03:09:12 +0000

Wasn't Breach a failed attempt to update Captain Atom? Whatever happened to that?

I didn't mind the Wildstorm crossover, actually. The Monarch stuff is yet another stupidity to add to the pile in the latest Marvelisation of DC...

By: Zach Adams

Zach Adams — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 02:53:12 +0000

I really know next to nothing about the Nat Adam version of Cap; pretty much all my experience with the character outside of the JLI era is through the two Action Heroes Archives volumes, which only reprint his earliest and final adventures (I believe it's just the stuff Ditko was involved in aside from a couple of 70s stories published in Charlton Bullseye; at the very least it's only Ditko's Atom and Beetle work, with none of the Nightshade backups, Peacemaker, etc.) I'm not really sure how well he could ever really fit in without about as much tweaking as was done to arrive at the Nat Adam version from Allen Adam. That said, depending on the overall character and thematics of Earth-Four, I'd love to see Monarch meet the yellow-clad Allen Adam (or Renee Montoya meet the "classic" Objectivist Question)