“Naturally my world gets top billing.”
Captain Atom #80
Charlton Comic Group (April/May, 1966)
“Death Knell Of The World!”
Ditko & Roche
Also includes a back-up talking about Earth as a planet or something. I didn’t read it.
An artificial planetoid is speeding for a collision course with Earth. Captain Atom learns there is an alien city in the planetoid and works with the leader, Darko, to find a solution and save both planets. Even with the leader’s aid and daughter both warning him of their leader’s evil, Captain Atom has no choice but to help build and power the machine, but Darko set it up as a trap, hoping to use the hero’s atomic power to also conquer Earth. Darko’s daughter sacrifices herself to free Captain Atom, and Darko sees the error of his ways, the assistant becoming the planetoid’s new leader as our hero sends it back into space.
What they got right: They do a fair job working in Captain Atom recounting his origin as an audio recording for the President (one of the few people who knows Captain Atom’s secret existence). Darko may want power but he also loves his daughter, and her death really does seem to hurt him.
What they got wrong: The origin recalling probably should have been in the first issue of his solo series, for anyone who managed to avoid Space Adventure.
What I think overall: A good story, light on action but with a decent amount of drama. Not every story has to feature a huge fight.
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