Mister Atom
| Mister Atom | |
|---|---|
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| Publication information | |
| Publisher |
Fawcett Comics (1947) DC Comics (1972 - present) |
| First appearance |
Captain Marvel Adventures #78 (1947, historical) The Power of Shazam! #23 (1996, canon) |
| Created by |
Otto Binder C. C. Beck |
| In-story information | |
| Team affiliations |
The Society Monster Society of Evil |
| Abilities | Superhuman strength and endurance Virtual invulnerability Flight Fire nuclear blasts |
Mister Atom is a fictional comic book supervillain, a radioactive robot who is regularly seen as an enemy of Captain Marvel. He first appeared in Captain Marvel Adventures #78 in November 1947.
Mister Atom was created by Dr. Charles Langley in a story in Captain Marvel Adventures #78. His body was constructed first, and then Langley charged the robot with radioactive energy. The spark that gave the robot life also ended the life of his creator. Super-charged with a nuclear reactor and armed with a deadly mind, Mister Atom went on a wave of destruction believing he should rule the world and killed several people in Washington, before being challenged to a fight to the finish by Captain Marvel as he tried to attack the UN Building. He was stopped (barely) by Captain Marvel. Mr. Atom was imprisoned in an underground, lead-lined cell, as no other prison could contain his power, but he threatens to break out one day. Later he was freed by aliens called the Comet Men who hoped to employ his power in the conquest of Earth, though told him he would rule Earth, and told him to destroy Fawcett City to show his power. But they fell to fighting among themselves when Mr Atom realised they planned to destroy him and were all apparently destroyed in a giant explosion. However, the blast had actually thrown Mr. Atom forward in time, to 2053, a world where almost everything was run by atomic power, which Mr Atom found out from an inhabitant and decided it would be the perfect conquest for him. Captain Marvel travelled to this future after being told by Shazam of the danger which threatened it and battled Atom again, who forced Marvel off by threatening to cause the destruction of the world using the machinery. By now the world officials had decided to give in to Mr Atom and sent a delegation. But once again he was apparently destroyed, this time in an atomic furnace when the engines were turned on when Marvel disguised himself as part of the delegation to block Mister Atom from the machinery.
However, Mister Atom was re-introduced in 1976, by which time DC Comics had purchased the rights to use the Captain Marvel characters; Captain Marvel's enemy King Kull used his advanced scientific acumen to bring Atom back to having been told by Shazam the 20th century and employed his help battling Shazam's Squadron of Justice. Atom's first appearance in a DC comic was in Justice League of America #137, a crossover issue depicting Captain Marvel's first meeting of Superman. With Brainiac projecting a force field around him a much larger Mr Atom attempts to wreck a futuristic city on Earth-One called Tomorrow. Destroying the city meant the three super-speedsters had to repair it, which was causing increased rotation of the Earth. Atom easily withstood the efforts of the Golden and Silver Age Green Lanterns and Flashes, the god Mercury and Ibis the Invincible to subdue him, even when Brainiac's forcefield around him was turned off and Brainiac had been defeated, but when he tried to use Ibis's Ibistick to send Ibis to a faraway star, having stunned Ibis from an energy blast, he found the stick had a failsafe that caused any commands that would harm Ibis to backfire on the user, and Atom was the one propelled far into space.
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