Captain Atom
The Nathaniel Adam incarnation of Captain Atom as depicted inSecret Origins #34 (December 1988), art byTy Templeton andJerry Ordway.
Publication information
Publisher	Original: Charlton Comics Current: DC Comics
First appearance	Allen Space Adventures #33 (March 1960) Nathaniel Captain Atom vol. 3 #1 (March 1987)
Created by	Allen Joe Gill (writer) Steve Ditko (artist) Nathaniel Cary Bates (writer) Pat Broderick (artist)
In-story information
Full name	Nathaniel Christopher "Nate" Adam
Team affiliations	(Both) United States Air Force (Nathaniel) Justice League International L.A.W. Justice League Extreme Justice Justice League Europe Justice League Task Force United States Army
Partnerships	(Nathaniel) Nightshade Plastique Forerunner
Notable aliases	(Nathaniel) Cameron Scott,Monarch
Abilities	(Allen) Superhuman strength, speed, stamina, and reflexes Anti-magic Time manipulation Time travel Teleportation Atomic manipulation Atomic transmutation Quantum field manipulation Fundamental-forces control Energy projection Energy absorption Reality alteration Flight Immortality Invulnerability Matter manipulation Matter generation Matter absorption Regeneration Bio-fission Size alteration Self-sustenance Space vacuum adaptation Power augmentation Power distribution (Nathaniel) See:Powers and abilities
Captain Atom Cover forCaptain Atom vol. 3 #1, art byPat Broderick. Publication information Publisher (Vol. 2) Charlton Comics (Vols. 3 and 4) DC Comics Schedule Monthly Format Ongoing series Genre Superhero Publication date December 1965 – September 2012 No. of issues Vol. 2 12 Vol. 3 57, plus 2Annuals Vol. 4 12, plus a #0 issue Creative team Written by Vol. 2 Joe Gill Vol. 3 Cary Bates,Greg Weisman Vol. 4 J.T. Krul Artist(s) Vol. 4 Freddie Williams II Penciller(s) Vol. 2 Steve Ditko Vol. 3 Pat Broderick,Rafael Kayanan

Captain Atom is the name of severalsuperheroes appearing inAmerican comic books, initially owned byCharlton Comics before being acquired in the 1980s byDC Comics.^[1] All possess some form of energy-manipulating abilities, usually relating tonuclear fission andatomic power.

Originally created byJoe Gill andSteve Ditko during theSilver Age of Comic Books to occupy aSuperman-like role in Charlton Comics' line-up, the character became part of theDC Universe in 1985 after DC's purchase of Charlton in 1983. The character's similarities toSuperman 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 theDC Universe, many short-lived, including a period as the supervillainMonarch and the attempted reboot seriesBreach. Notably, DC's decision not to giveAlan Moore permission to use the character in his critically and commercially successfulWatchmen (1986) series led to the creation of the popular characterDoctor 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, andBrian Bloom, among others, have voiced the character in animation.

Captain Atom was created by writer Joe Gill and artist/co-writer Steve Ditko, and first appeared inSpace Adventures #33 (March 1960).^[2] Captain Atom was initially created forCharlton Comics, but was later acquired byDC Comics and revised for DC's post-Crisiscontinuity.^[3] 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 inspiration forDoctor Manhattan, who was featured in the miniseriesWatchmen, which would be connected to the DC Universe in the miniseriesDoomsday Clock.^[4][5][6]

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, theJustice League. In all incarnations, the character initially served for themilitary. In the Charlton Comics continuity, he was a scientist namedAllen 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 anAir Force pilot namedNathaniel 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.^[7] Over the years, DC has attempted to reinvent the character several times. For a period, the character assumed the mantle of the supervillainMonarch, 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's2011 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.

The Charlton Comics version of Captain Atom wasAllen Adam, a rocket technician who gains powers after his special experimental rocket explodes.^[8]

Captain Atom was first published in a series of short stories in theanthology seriesSpace Adventures #33–40 (March 1960 – June 1961) and #42 (October 1961). Charlton began reprinting his short adventures in the anthologyStrange Suspense Stories beginning with issue #75 (June 1965), renaming the titleCaptain Atom with issue #78 (December 1965) and giving the hero full-length stories andsupervillain antagonists such as Dr. Spectro (previous stories involvedCold War anti-Communist missions or dealing with aliens). Captain Atom later teamed with the superheroNightshade, with whom he shared a mutual attraction. The superheroBlue Beetle starred in the initial back-up feature, later replaced by a Nightshade back-up series.

While primarily referred to as Allen Adam in stories, thefanzine titleCharlton Bullseye, published in cooperation with Charlton Comics, gives the character's name asN. Christopher Adam, which would later be used as the civilian identity for the Post-Crisis version of the character.^[9] A later issue of a showcase comic book series published by Charlton also by the name ofCharlton Bullseye gave the character's name asJohn Adam.^[10]

DC Comics acquired Captain Atom, among other characters, following the bankruptcy of Charlton Comics. InCrisis on Infinite Earths, the Charlton characters are revealed to originate from Earth-Four and are integrated into DC's continuity.

A new Post-Crisis version of the character was introduced in March 1987 with the launch of a monthly comic, written byCary Bates andGreg Weisman and drawn byPat Broderick.^[11]

This modern captain's name is established asNathaniel Christopher Adam, aUnited States Air Force officer andVietnam 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.^[7][12]

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 marriesPlastique.^[13]

Captain Atom was intended to be the villainMonarch in theArmageddon 2001 event. However, after this information was leaked, DC changed Monarch's identity to Hank Hall last-minute.^[14][15]

In theSuperman/Batman story arc "Public Enemies", Captain Atom is seemingly killed while stopping akryptonite meteor. He is transported to theWildStorm universe and presumed dead.

In Infinite Crisis, Captain Atom returns whenSuperboy-Prime puncturesBreach, who wields similar energy-manipulating abilities. The end ofArmageddon has him reappear in the devastatedBlüdhaven.A year later, Captain Atom is revealed to be contained inside Blüdhaven and used to administer radiation treatments tometahumans. He later escapes and killsMajor Force.^[16]

InCountdown to Final Crisis, Captain Atom assumes the Monarch name and battles heroes throughout the multiverse.^{[7][17][18][19][20][21]}

During a fight againstSuperman-Prime, Atom's suit is damaged, releasing a chain reaction that destroys Earth-51.^[22] It is later revealed that the Monitor Solomon attacked Atom in Blüdhaven, rupturing his skin and facilitating his transformation into Monarch.^[23]

DuringJimmy Olsen's investigation aboutProject 7734, the secret black-op commanded bySam Lane to fight extraterrestrial menaces on Earth (includingKryptonians), it is discovered that an amnesiac and brainwashed Captain Atom is in his possession.^{[24][25][26][27]}

InJustice League: Generation Lost, Captain Atom is among the heroes tasked with hunting downMaxwell Lord.^[28][29][30]

InThe 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.^{[31][32][33][34]} During a fight with Dr. Megala, who has taken control ofFirestorm'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 theScience Police in the 31st century.^[35][36][37]

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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.^[38] 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.^[39] 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.^[40] As a result of the time stream correcting itself, he was thrown back to 2017.^[40]

InAbsolute Power, Captain Atom loses his powers toAmanda Waller'sAmazo army.Atom (Ray Palmer) andAtom (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 seriesJenny 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 byDoctor Manhattan.^[41]

InJenny 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 agod complex.^[42] After being captured byGorilla Grodd'sLegion of Doom and having his powers partially drained in the "We are Yesterday" crossover story, Captain Atom is saved by Ryan Choi and has an epiphany that he should use his powers once again to do good.^[43]

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.^[44][45] Cracking or rupturing his skin causes Atom to leak radiation at an uncontrollable rate, which causes him to run the risk of atomic detonation.

In addition to his superhuman abilities, Nathaniel Adam is also an experiencedUnited 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, includingRussian.^[46][47] 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 amultiversal level threat. The short-livedNew 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.^[34]

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 crookGeneral Wade Eiling used to create a cover story for Captain Atom. Very bright costumes were a characteristic of Dr. Spectro.^{[48]: 87 [49][50]} Doctor Spectro first appeared inCaptain Atom #79 as the first supervillain antagonist of the titular hero, and was created bySteve Ditko andJoe Gill.^{[48]: 87 [51]} The character first appeared in Charlton Comics, later in DC Comics.^{[48]: 87–88} James Sandy counted Doctor Spectro among the many comic characters that were introduced in theSilver Age of Comic Books and disappeared again after a short run,^[52] but authors ofThe Superhero Book found him a unique supervillain.^[48]: 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 partnerNightshade's Pre-Crisis nemesis. Post-Crisis, he was a cult leader nicknamedthe 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 ownStealthray 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 heroWaverider 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 foughtKing 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.

• An alternate universe variant of Captain Atom appears inArmageddon 2001.
• An alternate universe variant of Captain Atom who was killed byParasite appears inKingdom Come.
• Several alternate universe variants of Captain Atom appear inCountdown to Final Crisis:Quantum Storm from Earth-37, the leader of the Atomic Knights from Earth-38,Brigadier Atom from Earth-13, aHulk-like variant namedAttum, the roboticQuantum Mechanix, Captain Adamma, Quantum Boy, an anthropomorphic wolf version, aSoviet Atom from Earth-30, aDoctor 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 characterReed Richards, appears inFinal Crisis andThe Multiversity.
• An alternate universe variant of Nathaniel Adam who never became Captain Atom appears inFlashpoint.^[53][54][55]

• The Nathaniel Adam incarnation of Captain Atom appears inJustice League Unlimited, voiced initially byGeorge Eads and subsequently byChris Cox.^[56] This version is a member of theJustice League, speaks with a slightTexan 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 inYoung Justice, voiced byMichael T. Weiss.^[57][56] 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 toBlack Canary by the season finale.
• The Nathaniel Adam incarnation of Captain Atom appears inBatman: The Brave and the Bold, voiced byBrian Bloom.^[56] This version, also known as Allen Adams and Cameron Scott, is an arrogant and egocentric member ofJustice League International who is fond of makingpublic service announcements and looks down on heroes without superpowers.

• The Nathaniel Adam incarnation of Captain Atom appears inSuperman/Batman: Public Enemies, voiced byXander Berkeley.^[56][58] This version works for the U.S. government under PresidentLex Luthor and leads a group of government-sanctioned heroes.
• The Nathaniel Adam incarnation of Captain Atom makes a cameo appearance inJustice League: The Flashpoint Paradox, voiced byLex Lang.^[56] This version is a member of the Justice League. Additionally, theFlashpoint incarnation of Captain Atom makes an appearance, during which he was captured by theAtlanteans and forced to powerAquaman's doomsday device.
• The Nathaniel Adam incarnation of Captain Atom appears inInjustice, voiced byFred Tatasciore.^[59][56]
• The Allen Adam incarnation of Captain Atom appears inDC Showcase: Blue Beetle, voiced byJeff Bennett.^[60][56]
• The Nathaniel Adam incarnation of Captain Atom appears inJustice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths, voiced byBrett Dalton.^[61]

The Allen Adam and Nathaniel Adam incarnations of Captain Atom appear as character summons inScribblenauts Unmasked: A DC Comics Adventure.^[62]

Captain Atom appears in theInjustice: 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 theFortress 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.

• DCU Guide
• Captain Atom on DC Database, aDC Comicswiki
• Captain Atom on the DC Animated Universe Wiki, an external wiki
• Captain Atom (1960) andCaptain Atom (1986) atDon Markstein's Toonopedia. *Archived (1960) andArchived (1986) from the originals on April 9, 2012.
• Captain Atom (DC Comics) at the Big Comic Book DataBase
• International Catalogue of Superheroes entry for Captain Atom
• Captain Atom historical sales figures at The Comics Chronicles

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