“A new beginning” apparently means “a new costume and silver sleeves”.
Captain Atom #84
Charlton Comics Group (January, 1967)
LETTERER: Herb Field
“After The Fall A New Beginning”
WRITER: David A Kaler
PENCILER: Steve Ditko
INKER: Rocke Mastroserio
New Blue Beetle:
PLOT: Dick Giordano (I think it’s plot; I hate when gag credits make you guess who did what)
WRITER: Gary Friedrich
ARTIST: Steve Ditko
why no colorist credits?
Prisoner of Koste, Captain Atom is demasked, but with his hair still silver he still isn’t recognizable as Captain Nathaniel Adam. Managing to escape when his powers return, Captain Atom is too late to stop the ransom payment, but is able to get a new liquid metal coating that can form a new, less damageable costume that hides under his skin when he isn’t using his atomic power. With his new “suit”, Atom makes short work of Koste and Iron Arms, redeeming himself in the general public, outside of holdouts like one rather annoying lady reporter.
What they got right: Questionable science aside, The new Captain Atom design is better than the previous one, though still not the full body one DC Comics readers might recognize. The final battle with Koste and Iron Arms is enjoyable.
What they got wrong: Please tell me that reporter isn’t going to come back? She’s annoying and get around a military base way too easily so she can harras Captain Atom some more. I know Ditko came from Marvel, but trying to Marvel this up just looks bad and gets me thinking about why DC wanted him with the other Charlton heroes.
In our Blue Beetle story, Ted returns to his secret base underneath his science lab, and finds not only his secretary “working late” (she’s actually snooping for information on Dan Garret), but some guy calling himself the Masked Marauder demanding Ted’s scientific data. As Blue Beetle, our hero manages to chase him off, after getting beat up (again, I’m convinced Dani learned from Ted rather than one of the versions of her father), and secretly changes back to Ted Kord as the police arrive. Except they aren’t here for the Marauder (secretly Count Von Steuben). The detective wants to talk to Kord about the supposed murder of Dan Garret!
So they’re slowly building up to whatever led to Dan being replaced by Ted. Long time fans already know where this is going, but this is the first time I’ve seen them go there, so it should be interesting. Ted is still not impressing anyone as the Blue Beetle. Apparently he spent more time on his gear than his fighting. I can’t seem to find a last name for Tracey, if she ever had one. Notice also we’re using one T for Garret instead of two. Two T Garrett is the Charlton re-imagine, one T Garret is the old Fox/Holyoke/Fox again version with the chain mail armor and random superpowers. That’s a goof there.
What I think overall: It’s a pretty good comic. We’re still following this title until Ted goes solo with his own book, but I’m looking forward to coming back to Nathaniel’s story at some point.
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