The Fall and Rise of Captain Atom #1

Time for Bates and Weisman's return to the character they defined in the 80s

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Interview:

newsarama.com/32254-classic-captain-atom-creators-get-to-the-core-of-the-character-for-rebirth.html

>Cary Bates: When the project first came up back in the summer of 2015, believe it or not, what [DC Co-Publisher] Dan DiDio said he was looking for was a way to get the character back to what he called the core concepts of what Greg and I did in the '80s.

>But it had the stipulation that the starting point had to be the New 52 version of the character.

So with that in mind, what we set out to do was to not only introduce our character, but to give the J.T. Krul/Freddy Williams version a spectacular send-off. You could almost look at our first issue as the undiscovered, last issue — the unknown 13th issue of the previous run.

Somewhere in Kansas, heh

fuck yes

That's our Eiling, even if he's a black dude now

Megala's design has been blandified, sadly

HI user

Keith Fucking david

N52 Cap is existentially moody as a default, as opposed to 80s Cap

the timestamps are so Weisman and okay, we're in 2013 here

>23 minutes ago

#12 of the N52 ongoing ended with him sitting on the moon, and that means we're just going to ignore all the weird shit in Firestorm and let's definitely ignore Legion Lost.

...

bump

at least we'll always have shiny metal ass

storytime before coffee=kinda slow

LOL

>storytime before coffee=kinda slow
Agreed

coffee is love, coffee is life

(and now, to make sure you knew what his technobabble status quo was at the time)

Basically N52 Cap was constantly struggling with instability and emissions, compared to being more of a sponge

This

The parallelism of another underground dome is too good to pass up

pfffft

wait, we're not going to punch it out?

The base was always in Kansas, but you just know there's some deliberate irony in "Captain Atom might explode over Kansas"

bump

...

...hoot hoot?

Also this is promising so far.

THIS is what DC puts out against Deadpool the Duck?! Are they even trying?

...

Megala is a lot less physically disabled, yeah. A shame, he had a pretty great mad scientist look.

hoot hoot!

It's definitely starting from the given point but moving elsewhere, I'll post solicits we have at last page

Also, come the fuck on, the Rocky Mountains are not in Kansas, it's FLAT (except for the flint hills)

He's disabled in N52 but even there far less strikingly

;____;

>quantum fever
We're back baby.

Wade, dammit

eh, it's great and all but I'm going with a beer right now

>we're just before EXTREME JUSTICE now

>THE FALL AND RISE OF CAPTAIN ATOM #2
Written by CARY BATES and GREG WEISMAN
Art and cover by WILL CONRAD
“Past Imperfect” part 2! An overload in the quantum field forced Nathaniel Adam back to the 1990s, leaving him stranded. With no powers and no clear way to get home, he wonders how his presence in the past might affect his future. But if he gets his wish…will that future include Captain Atom?

>THE FALL AND RISE OF CAPTAIN ATOM #3
Written by CARY BATES and GREG WEISMAN
Art by WILL CONRAD
Cover by MARGUERITE SAUVAGE
“Back to the Future” part three! Transported to the present day against his will, Nathaniel Adam struggles to move on from the shattered life he left behind. But General Eiling and the U.S. government have other plans for him—two words: Operation Resurgence.

Good first line on the page there. Glad to see Eiling back. Didn't really like how Cyborg, GL, Superman were there.

>boo-ya
shut the fuck up cyborg...save it for TT Go

To be honest while I appreciate the characterization reset in our three main players and I really like some of the "look" of Atom as he struggles/explodes that was a pretty slow first issue. It was like a Rebirth issue, I suppose - the ones that came before the series. I don't mind that but it's probably not great for the health/sales of the miniseries as a whole.

> Weisman: I think, also, I wanted to bring back the general feeling that we had created. Eiling's gone on to have his own career as a character. You know, Clancy Brown has played him on The Flash on television.

We felt like the character of Eiling has gotten away from who he was in the '80s, who was this master manipulator. We thought of him as Captain Kirk gone bad. Instead, I feel like he's become this blustering, angry general determined to save the country at all cost. So he'd become more of a Thunderbolt Ross kind of character. And I actually like Thunderbolt Ross in the Hulk, but it wasn't ever who Eiling was.

So this allowed us to nuance Eiling back to the kind of character he was.

And Will Conrad, who drew the series, has done a great job with the new Eiling. For me, he's one of the high points of working on the series, because Cap finally has a worthy adversary — not just a guy who's yelling at him all the time. And that was a lot of fun for me specifically.

Agree, there's a lot of place setting.

But at least we know Weisman won't have this cancelled out from under him

I sorta wonder if Rebirth: Captain Atom was ever on the table as an actual series. But yeah, it's nice to have the safety net. Would be nicer to have 12! But I'll take what I can get.

I like minis for reintroducing some characters because it means writers have a very specific planned space to work in, they have goals that have to be accomplished, and then bam, it's sitting there all nice and tied up and ready for someone else to pick up and tip in to already ongoing material, or to be continued by the same team.

Yeah. I think some of the attitude of the heroes there is tied into the N52 and the N52 perception of Captain Atom but they don't come across quite right.

Legion Lost didn't happen, post-Flashpoint Legion of Super-Heroes didn't happen and if it did it was a time anomaly and should be ignored until it goes away.

>Rebirth: The Atom and Captain Atom released in the same week

I think that's a fine idea

Shock!

This was pretty good, thanks OP

ffs Hal

"Uh, I want to buy that Atom book? With the guy in the red and silver costume?"

At least he's throwing in some digs at Eiling.

Wait, when did Captain Atom get Firestorm powers like this page is implying?

New 52 version is a straight-up reality warper

(he also volunteers for Megala's experiment because he's mopey after his dad died and he's a self-destructive flyboy, which is a downgrade in interesting in every way from the 80s origin)

>mopey after his dad died and he's a self-destructive flyboy,
So New 52 Nate was Hal Jordan + Dr. Manhattan?

except with none of the charm, that's not a bad summation

That was a fine first issue, but a bit slower than I thought.

I just hope this "fixes" Nate back to his pre-Nu52 self.

I'm weeks behind on DC so I'll have to read this later,
But will this comic use the continuity from the N52 run or will ATOM GOD be ignored cause story>continuity.

I got the feels from original run though
Him constantly fixing shit to fuck it up only more felt relatable I guess, and art was really good

It was pretty slow. To be fair so was the first issue of the Hawkman/Adam Strange DEATH OF HAWKMAN mini. The alternative and faster way to do it is probably to start with the last page, flashback the problem, and get into the 1994 story quicker. The issue is like present - flashback - present - time displacement, you could've used the latter as the present and done present - flashback - present. But that would have more confusing and harder to get into if new.

IDK though, I was a little disappointed. Line-wide Rebirth hasn't worried too much about spending time lining up canon except for WW, which is cripplingly slow and has nothing new in it. Weisman/Bates only have 6 issues here so honestly as long as it remains Weisman/Bates the faster the better.

If every single issue ends with Nate traveling in time this gets a free pass.

This is a "we want the feel and basis of the 80s version back but we're going to get there from the N52 starting point" sort of thing. What's really open is how much of the actual 80s stuff/cast/history is coming back versus new material that's more like it than like the N52.

Thank you

Yeah, one of the exciting things about this is what will they keep from the old run and what will be new or be given a new twist.

I'm really keyed in to Weisman's comments about Eiling as antagonist, to see what of the personal relationship he might be tipping back in but also just the maneuvering on levels that don't involve punching.

And now I really, really want him to write a crossover with Prieststroke.

Eiling is very refreshing as a general who uses his mind and office more than force of arms. The "Captain Kirk" description from the writers really sticks with me: Eiling is full of bravado, but if you call him on it that bravado can instantly snap to action. And he just pulls people in under his wake, ties them up, it doesn't really matter who they are or what they like if he can find the hook for them.

...

Alright, Hoot hoot, Northern Hawk Owl edition.

>Megala's design has been blandified, sadly

I miss the wild red hair, the comic book as hell robot arms wheelchair, and the tender caresses he got from Babylon.

He used to be able to create and reset his own universes I'm the quantum field

...

>Flash met him once

I kinda want them to meet again, to see what Cary Bates would do with Nu Barry, given his long run on old Barry.

That was only established in that Ostrander tag on to the original run that was trying to tie things into that Elementals Firestorm status quo, and IMO was a hard right turn.

I would read that

>Also, come the fuck on, the Rocky Mountains are not in Kansas

user, don't be silly. DCCW has FIRMLY established that the Kansas/Missouri border is right both mountains and the Pacific Ocean.

Or do you not watch the Flash?

>We thought of him as Captain Kirk gone bad

That... is a pretty good encapsulation of him.
Especially when you remember Mirror Mirror Kirk was prone to subtly 'disappearing' anyone who opposed him.

I miss Babylon in general.

It would've been nice to see him cope with Megala's death.

KIDS AND WIVES AGE CHARACTERS.
ALL CHARACTERS MUST BE ETERNAL BACHELORS.

EXCEPT BATMAN. BATMAN GETS ALL FIVE ROBINS. IT IS NOW CANON HE FIRES THEM NEW YEARS DAY TO FIND A NEWER, YOUNGER ROBIN.

How could you give up this glorious Heinrich? God I hope Babylon appears.

Yeah that looks more like Wyoming to me.

You can do such a detailed unpicking of Nate and Wade's relationship. I think the Gen has some of the feelings he has about Nate's own son for Nate, as well. Zmeck wasn't the first test subject for the experiment, y'know? And the apparently very sincere love they both had for Angela.

Now I want to go back through and see their ages; Nate was rocketed into the future at what was it, 26? Eiling wasn't a general then, but he was older, and the timeleap was 1968 to 1987, I think. Marrying Nate's wife is the linchpin that so many other things roll around.

Yeah, Nate was 28 and Eiling was a colonel

It's like, you can see just the absolute most base, conniving methods in what Eiling did to Nate and what he did after. But especially with how he treats Nate's kids you can see a sort of genuineness to it too: how would Eiling have been if it had all worked out in that moment? He got Nate in a difficult position and used it, but would he rather have a Nate than a Zmeck? It seems like it.

And the thing is the base and the heightened are actually both true.

And the frame-up was to protect the conspiracy that Eiling was a part of whose ultimate goal had been military coup of the US government; I wonder if there wasn't a time at which Eiling viewed Nate as a potential protege, but he was too honest. And instead he took on Allard, who was much more easily controlled, and used him brutally with respect to Zweck. But Allard was always second-best, wasn't he?

Well, put it this way. Wade Eiling probably doesn't have much regard for single parent households, right?

Since when did Kansas border the ocean?

When they're at the coast he says "just a few seconds now", there was a timeskip approximately that long between panels.

No excuse for the Kansas Front Range, though.

Not bad at all, hopefully it will only get better.

Pretty good for a first issue though.

Being Nate is suffering.

Generation Lost resumes tonight, so yes, that is true

Am I reading that newspaper correctly? He went back to '94?

Seems that way. Interesting choice--it's after Bates/Weisman had had to end the book, and right around when EXTREME JUSTICE got going, so it's open if we're going to see the Nate of That Time, or this current Nate is just then, and the solicit spoils nothing.

Speaking of Zmeck, do you guys think we'll see him? In the Nu52, he was Blackjack instead and way different, but they could ignore that, I suppose.

We're also supposed to be getting a new villain as well.

Yeah, of all fucking things he (and a white dude total caricature of Eiling who was all shouting and idiocy and no finesse) showed up in the LoT Firestorm story

It's also the year Kingdom Come came out

ZERO fucking HOUR with MONARCH/EXTANT TIME!

not sure if want

who would not want a mesh of quantum power with the lords of chaos and order to bring some strange villain to fuck up the JSA?

Extant and Monarch are always such messes, and Nate had a really awful stint as Monarch...

Nate ;_;

This is such a nice interview. You can tell that they really care about this book, but still keep this matter of professionalism where they don't want to bad talk previous authors.

Thanks famala, this was a nice intro.

Oh dear Jesus what is that. Is that the professor? Jeez that's insane. I like it.

Yes, that's what Megala had become--you see him relatively hale during the 1968 experiment, and then it's a shock when he shows up that crippled, and his longing for recovery is a major driver in the original series.

shit, you wanna read the first issue of the 1986 run?

But Monarch is Nate at his most powerful form.