The Official Captain Atom Thread

[Colossal Spoons]

Loving this book, one of my fav DC characters(ignore that Monarch business). Nice team-up with Barry in issue 3

 

[TheCorpulent1]

... I think you might be the only person who reads this, dude.

 

[Cain]

I read this book too and it's definitely the only thing by JT Krul that I've ever really found readable.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Damn, I was looking forward to taunting Spoons with that for a while.

 

[Colossal Spoons]

Haha, jerk

I read this book too and it's definitely the only thing by JT Krul that I've ever really found readable.

Don't know much about Krul, but I'm glad he got this right

 

[TheCorpulent1]

The Red Lantern jokes were getting stale.

 

[Colossal Spoons]

Even that book isn't what everybody(myself included) expected it to be. There's substance; not just "Arrgh, we're so mad!"

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Are there actual plots instead of page after page of mindless RRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGEEEEE!!!!!! or something?

 

[Colossal Spoons]

Yeah, Atrocitus kind of narrates the book and he just made Bleez smart(er).

 

[TheCorpulent1]

He can do that?

 

[Colossal Spoons]

Yessir, it involves a plunge into this blood pit but he can increase their mental capabilities. He thinks keeping them as snarling creatures, they'll be more loyal and easier to command.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

The Red Lanterns are somehow even worse now that I know they could be more than bloodthirsty morons...

 

[Mystirious]

Ironically knowing that about the Red Lanterns fills me with rage

 

[Colossal Spoons]

They can't do it themselves. It's all Atrocitus' will.

 

[Spike_x1]

Haven't read the latest issue of Captain Atom, but I think that I'm loving the art most of all. The colors really pop off the page in a way that I adore.

 

[Mystirious]

I'm loving this book so far. It's full of epicness and SCIENCE

They can't do it themselves. It's all Atrocitus' will.

Dat crafty Atrocitus

I wonder if Bleez would be able to help some of her fellow RAAAAAGEEE lanterns get back their minds now that she's able to think clearly again

 

[nimrod]

The new Captain Atom is good so far. The Artwork could be improved though.
Hope it lasts.

 

[Artistsean]

I buy this comic too, wasn't planning to actually. Got issue one to check it out (along with Batwing, Wonder Woman, and other New 52 comics) and just kept getting it.
I like him being this Dr. Manhattan guy who has no secret identity, and just goes around saving the day all over the place. I also love the idea that they are showing just how powerful he is and how everyone thinks of him because of his power. And how he is becoming distant from humanity. they took Alan Moore's ideas for Captain Atom and altered them to fit into the DCU.

I like that Captain Atom was the basis for Dr. Manhattan, and now he is being based on what Watchmen thought Captain Atom might become... only without the nudity, pessimism, and stuff that came with Watchmen.
Its also sort of a Watchmen prequel of sorts, when we meet Dr. Manhattan he already knows his powers and how to use them all. Here Captain Atom is learning, and not understanding them and stuff.

I do miss the idea that he was living atomic energy in a suit, but this is a cool idea too and I like his design. I think the atomic symbol is meant to be floating inside his chest right?

 

[Energist]

I have to say that I feel like they ruined Captain Atom, at least for me, especially after he had such a strong showing in Generation Lost. Now this book will almost surely be cancelled (it really should have been already, considering it was selling lower than four of the six already-cancelled titles at the time of their cancellations), and as a result of turning him into Dr. Manhattan, he'll likely have nowhere to migrate to without a solo title of his own. DC may have literally power-boosted him into total obscurity.

What's more is I could understand wanting to try and capitalize on the relative Watchmen hype at first... but that was before Before Watchmen was announced. Now people who want their Dr. Manhattan fix can find him in those books, but what about someone like me, who much preferred the Carey Bates interpretation of Captain Atom?

Whole thing kind of depresses me. I was a fairly big fan of Captain Atom before the relaunch; he was one of only a few DC characters that I really liked, anyway. Now, however, he's just another one of a growing list of characters DC have either ruined for me by way of the relaunch, or have seemingly written out of their universe altogether.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Reboots. Gotta love 'em.

 

[Colossal Spoons]

I wish they'd jumped a bit further into his career as Captain Atom. Watching him figure out how to use his powers isn't as interesting as I thought it was gonna be. And he's freaking horrible at chemistry and biology, so it's even worse.

 

[Energist]

Captain Atom's lack of knowledge is really the only way to keep him in check now, though. If he weren't a complete novice at alchemical manipulations, then he pretty much would be Dr. Manhattan with a slightly different look.

They just made him too darn powerful, I'm sorry to say. How in the world is he going to fit on a team like the Justice League or International when this book is inevitably cancelled and DC want to put him somewhere else? I suppose he might fit on Stormwatch, but their title will probably be cancelled soon, too. So what then?

It seems like there was a severe lack of foresight going into this interpretation. Dr. Manhattan in a world with no other real super-powered beings worked, because he could solve problems no one else could and actually functioned thematically as another potential threat because of his power level. The story also being finite helped to make him an interesting niggle in the plot while it lasted.

But giving Captain Atom virtually the same power-set in a world filled with daily crises and other super-powered beings will inevitably lead readers to question why he isn't fixing more things. I see him eventually becoming a villain at this point, to be quite honest. It's really the only path that logically makes sense. He eventually gets a better grip on how to use his powers, decides he can fix the world's problems as he sees fit, and the super heroes of the DC Universe have to step in to stop him.

He's be Extant'ed again (for the first time?) already. DC just don't realize it yet (or maybe they do).

 

[Colossal Spoons]

1/2 of the Firestorm duo is awesome at science, but they've been getting beaten up for 7 issues now . They could take Marvel's approach on Sentry and apply it to Cap Atom(in a way that doesn't collapse onto itself) and have him be super powerful, aware of how to use his powers, but only tackle planetary threats.

Wait, Stormwatch is in danger of cancellation? Curses!

 

[HighFivingMF]

Well Captain Atom's book is listed in the Justice League family titles. So I assume he'll be there or JLI.

 

[Energist]

So, the solicitation for Captain Atom #12 reads:

CAPTAIN ATOM #12
Written by J.T. KRUL
Art and cover by FREDDIE E. WILLIAMS II
On sale AUGUST 15 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T
• CAPTAIN ATOM’S evolution continues as he regains his human appearance. But even though he’s closer than ever to regaining his humanity, it comes at a major cost as chaos is unleashed at his laboratory headquarters.
• This issue reaches from Earth to the edge of the universe and ends with a massive change in Captain Atom’s status quo in the DC Universe.

The writing is obviously already on the wall that this book is getting the axe, but they can't set Captain Atom loose in the greater DCU as he currently is. So he's either getting boosted to such ridiculous power levels that we'll never see him again (ala JLU Amazo),[/i] at least as a super hero, or he's getting depowered to allow him to more easily migrate somewhere else when the title eventually ends.

I hope it's the latter.

Also, to the Firestorm comparison: Could Firestorm be at like twelve places at once (literally) because he's so fast, shrink himself down to the size of an atom, cure cancer, listen in on radio waves and satellite signals, absorb a nuclear blast, and navigate the time stream (while receiving instruction on how to do so from future versions of himself)? Because this incarnation of Captain Atom has been shown to be able to do all of that in addition to his transmutation abilities.

I'm not trying to be facetious, either. I really don't know that much about Firestorm, so perhaps he really could do all of those things, and this level of power for a recurring super hero is not without precedent in the DC Universe. I'm not even strictly opposed to the concept, but I happened to like the old Captain Atom a great deal, and hate that he was sacrificed for what we now have instead.