“Yesterday’s” Comic> Captain Atom #79

Doctor Spectro. So we get a pre-DC villain as a bonus.

Captain Atom vol 2 #79

Charlton Comics Group (February-March, 1966)

“Doctor Spectro: Master Of Moods”

CREATOR: Pat Masulli

WRITERS: Ditko & Gill

PENCILER: Steve Ditko

INKER: Rocky Mastroserio

LETTERER: Jon D’Agostino

Not sure why the colorist was ignored. There’s also a reprinted story from Space Adventures #24 that was cut from five pages to three. Because that was the problem with Space Adventures, too MANY pages to ensure you couldn’t get a full story in. How about cut it to zero pages and put me out of my misery. The link to the comic is there to read along at Comic Book Plus (if it’s still working) so I’ll leave that to you and stick with the main story.

[Read along with me here]

Captain Atom and Gunner are undercover trying to find a criminal ring. While they stop one group and get a list of others, one name is missing. The leader of that gang decides to hit a bank but make the mistake of talking about it outside a performance by Doctor Spectro, who is using the show to test his theories about how color affects people. Ostracized because nobody believed him, the crooks want to make him help them, but as he fights them off he is hit by his own experiment and turns evil, now seeking revenge. Captain Atom stops the crooks, but it takes all his effort to stop Spectro’s rampage in the city, with a suit that absorbs energy to power his various light-based weapons. Eventually he ends up taking in too much power and is seemingly destroyed. Then again, a destroyed man can hardly scream about revenge.

What they got right: Wonky science is just a Charlton thing at this stage. So ignoring that Doctor Spectro makes a surprisingly good villain for Captain Atom. I can see why DC added him to their roster.

What they got wrong: Forget the crooks and just have Spectro not so much evil but just really angry and acting out, slowly turning more dangerous in his revenge and going full evil by the end of the story. He’s only evil because his machines turned him evil and nobody will know it to be able to cure him, including himself. I’m just not a fan of that.

What I think overall: For the record I read “Moon-Run”, and I was right. Three pages wasn’t enough, and neither would be five to tell the story of an android nobody suspects was a robot (while constantly insulting robots) until he saves their lives. It’s a weak story, but luckily the title story we’re all here for was quite good. This should be a trend of improvement.