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Description
Originally a character owned by Charlton Comics, Captain Atom, along with several other characters including Blue Beetle and the Question, were bought by DC Comics. While Blue Beetle and the Question had designs and backgrounds that fitted very well into the DC Universe, Captain Atoms was... well... in need of altering to fit in.

With longtime Superman writer Cary Bates and then new writer Greg Weisman ( creator of the animated Young Justice ) providing a completely revamped character and background with a strikingly 'DC' redesign by artist Pat Broderick, the Charlton Comics scientist Allen Adam was replaced by the DC Comics Air Force Captain Nathaniel Adam.

Captain Atom was an initial success from the DC relaunch of 1986/7, and was near perfectly integrated into the DC Universe in a solid tale that ran from 1987 to 1991 mixing science fiction elements, political intrigue, and superheroics as the wrongly convicted air force captain Nathaniel Adam found himself hurled through time from 1968 to the present day via a government experiment testing the durability of an energy absorbing alien alloy against a nuclear weapon ( a metal capsule that Nathaniel was placed inside was made from the metal, they didn't tell him they were going to blow it up ). The resulting experiment left Nathaniel years in the future and with impressive superpowers ( pretty much Superman level superpowers ) but with the loss of his wife ( who had remarried but later died ) and missing out on seeing his children grow up.

Initially coerced to act as the governments spy in the Superhuman community with a false background to establish him as a hero with 20 years experience ( in an inspired move the writers used the Charlton version as his false background ) and using the alias 'Cameron Scott' due to Nathaniel Adam still being a convicted military criminal ( and legally dead ), the frankly new to the decade and the concept of superhumans Nathaniel found himself seeking to prove up to the standards of the superheroes he was encountering. All the while trying, at times awkwardly, to maintain the fiction that he wasn't new to the job.

His 57 issue series played with the ideas of identity, family, and in some ways deconstructed the superhero concept without being overly mean spirited or bleakly gritty ( bar one or two occasions ), among his adventures one of the most notable was his encounter with Neil Gaimans 'Death' and defeat of Nekron. In spite of his power Nathaniel was a very flawed, very human character who wanted to live up to the ideals set by his fellow heroes, but he also wanted his life back even though over 20 years had passed in the moment he gained his powers.

Along side this was his role in the Justice League International/Europe comic, that provided a lighter side to the character away from Government machinations and more attention to his friendships and relationships with his team ( it was this comic that my idea of Nate and Powergirl as a possible pairing came from, they had a interesting interaction with each other that i've ran with ).

After this he became increasingly underused in the 1990's ( i like to ignore the Extreme Justice comic, though bits were interesting ) until the mid 2000's with the solid 'Captain Atom Armageddon' story and with 2010's 'Justice League Generation Lost' which linked to his heyday and gave him a decent enough final story.

Description
Originally a character owned by Charlton Comics, Captain Atom, along with several other characters including Blue Beetle and the Question, were bought by DC Comics. While Blue Beetle and the Question had designs and backgrounds that fitted very well into the DC Universe, Captain Atoms was... well... in need of altering to fit in.

With longtime Superman writer Cary Bates and then new writer Greg Weisman ( creator of the animated Young Justice ) providing a completely revamped character and background with a strikingly 'DC' redesign by artist Pat Broderick, the Charlton Comics scientist Allen Adam was replaced by the DC Comics Air Force Captain Nathaniel Adam.

Captain Atom was an initial success from the DC relaunch of 1986/7, and was near perfectly integrated into the DC Universe in a solid tale that ran from 1987 to 1991 mixing science fiction elements, political intrigue, and superheroics as the wrongly convicted air force captain Nathaniel Adam found himself hurled through time from 1968 to the present day via a government experiment testing the durability of an energy absorbing alien alloy against a nuclear weapon ( a metal capsule that Nathaniel was placed inside was made from the metal, they didn't tell him they were going to blow it up ). The resulting experiment left Nathaniel years in the future and with impressive superpowers ( pretty much Superman level superpowers ) but with the loss of his wife ( who had remarried but later died ) and missing out on seeing his children grow up.

Initially coerced to act as the governments spy in the Superhuman community with a false background to establish him as a hero with 20 years experience ( in an inspired move the writers used the Charlton version as his false background ) and using the alias 'Cameron Scott' due to Nathaniel Adam still being a convicted military criminal ( and legally dead ), the frankly new to the decade and the concept of superhumans Nathaniel found himself seeking to prove up to the standards of the superheroes he was encountering. All the while trying, at times awkwardly, to maintain the fiction that he wasn't new to the job.

His 57 issue series played with the ideas of identity, family, and in some ways deconstructed the superhero concept without being overly mean spirited or bleakly gritty ( bar one or two occasions ), among his adventures one of the most notable was his encounter with Neil Gaimans 'Death' and defeat of Nekron. In spite of his power Nathaniel was a very flawed, very human character who wanted to live up to the ideals set by his fellow heroes, but he also wanted his life back even though over 20 years had passed in the moment he gained his powers.

Along side this was his role in the Justice League International/Europe comic, that provided a lighter side to the character away from Government machinations and more attention to his friendships and relationships with his team ( it was this comic that my idea of Nate and Powergirl as a possible pairing came from, they had a interesting interaction with each other that i've ran with ).

After this he became increasingly underused in the 1990's ( i like to ignore the Extreme Justice comic, though bits were interesting ) until the mid 2000's with the solid 'Captain Atom Armageddon' story and with 2010's 'Justice League Generation Lost' which linked to his heyday and gave him a decent enough final story.