Sunday, November 12, 2006

Split the Atom!

Whoa. Hey there, Will Pfeifer. How's it going? Glad you liked the review.

As long as I have your here, would you mind if I ran a few things by you.

First, this is the second time that I got independent confirmation that my recommendation can be used to sell books. Will, would you mind passing that on to the DC publicity department? Maybe they have a review copy of an upcoming book lying around or something. I'm not saying anything... I'm just saying...

Second, I was wondering what happened to Captain Atom right after the end of the mini-series. There are four (4) different comics that purport to show the return of Captain Atom to the DCU, and they are all... different.

Superman / Batman #20 had a bald, amnesiac Captain Atom possessed by the Kryptonite Man. Infinite Crisis #7 had a confused Captain Atom replace a blowed-up Breach over Metropolis. Crisis Aftermath: The Battle for Bludhaven #5 had a comatose, damaged Captain Atom appear in Bludhaven. And your own Captain Atom: Armageddon #9 had a determined and hardened Captain Atom show up in the ruins of Bludhaven (which could be the same event as in CA: BfB, but not in S/B or IC).

Now normally, I'd just chalk it up to editorial error, and I usually hate turning an obvious mistake into a plot point, but the idea that Captain Atom really did return four (maybe three) different times, and there are now four (or three) different Captains Atom running around, one without hair, one with a Monarch suit, appeals to me, because it's arguably in character for Captain Atom, the walking atom bomb blast.

Because it means he fissioned.

Being shot out of the Wildstorm U split Captain Atom, and now there's lots of shiny, radioactive man-gods out there, ready to fight for justice and blow each other up. Maybe Breach, the Captain Atom of Earth-8, and a certain bald, blue, naked guy could join the fray, too. Just imagine: Crisis of Infinite Atoms. Captain Atom Red / Captain Atom Blue. Captain Atom: Clone Saga. Captain Atom: Attack of the Clones.

(huh, suddenly the idea sounds lots less appealling.)

Anyway, Will, just throwing that idea out there. Take it, leave it. That one's free.

Oh, and third, how does Captain Atom spit? Do energy beings in containment suits even have saliva glands? And is his spit radioactive as well?

5 comments:

SallyP said...

Gosh, this does sound like a conundrum.

Will Staples said...

I could be mistaken, since I only flipped through the first issue of Captain Atom: Armageddon, but I think that Cap's reappearance in Superman/Batman happened before he arrived in the Wildstorm U. After the initial explosion in space, he got blasted forward in time several months, got possessed by the Kryptonite Man, and after that got blown into the WU? Something like that? Anyway, I'm pretty sure it was referenced in CA:A #1.

Steven said...

filby: Bald Captain Atom is referenced in CA:A, as something Captain Atom Gold sees briefly, and confusingly, as he falls into the WSU, but there's no explanation, certainly nothing as involved as him being rocketed back and forth through time.

Will Pfeifer said...

Steven -- Hey, thanks again for the kind words Re: CA:A (I like that acronym!) Can't answer most of your questions because I really don't know what happened to CA after the series -- like the pizza delivery guy, my job was to drop him off. What people did with him next was their biz. I can, however, explain the appearance of the bald cap in SUPERMAN/BATMAN -- we learned, at the last minute, that Jeph Loeb was using him in that scene, so I rewrote his appearance in the Wildstorm Universe to include a brief flash to that scene. I figured he was already jumping from one universe to another, one quick blip from another comic book didn't seem to hard to believe.

As for the spitting question -- hell, you got me. My major was journalism, not nuclear physics. The real question is, what's the half-life of that saliva? Does it need to be sealed in a barrel and buried out west?

Anonymous said...

Dang it. The fission theory is highly appealing to me, seeing as how it dovetails with my pet 52 theory-- that (a) Captain Atom is Supernova. He's the guy who calls Booster out on duty and discipline, and he's always been a touchy one. Yup. I'm going with Cap Atom.