Captain Atom sacrificed himself to save the world but was transported into the WildStorm Universe with a menacing new look.
One of the most powerful superheroes in the DC Universe is Captain Atom, who is based on the Silver Age Charlton Comics character of the same name, after the Charlton characters were merged into the DCU following Crisis on Infinite Earths. Created by Cary Bates and Pat Broderick in 1987’s Captain Atom #1, Nathaniel Adams was a disgraced officer in the U.S. Air Force who volunteered to participate in a risky top-secret experiment in exchange for a full presidential pardon. Captain Atom would eventually serve as a member of various iterations of the Justice League before being stranded in the Wildstorm Universe years before it was similarly merged into the DCU following the cataclysmic events of Flashpoint.
When Earth was threatened by a large meteor of solid Kryptonite that was on a collision course with the planet, Captain Atom volunteered to pilot a Composite Superman/Batman spacecraft constructed by Toyman to intercept it. With his unique abilities gained from the experiment, Atom absorbed enough radiation emanating from the meteor to protect Earth while the spacecraft he piloted obliterated the meteor upon impact. In the aftermath, Atom completely vanished, with the world believing him to be dead. However, Atom was alive and well, albeit transported to a parallel universe from the sudden, massive influx of radiation from the meteor.
Reappearing in the Wildstorm Universe with a red and yellow metallic form first seen in 1996’s Kingdom Come, Captain Atom was attacked by the superhero Mister Majestic as he regained his bearings in the strange world. Atom realized he was on a different world when he noticed that the general populace deeply feared the superhero community. Atom was hunted by the Wildstorm Universe’s heroes, who thought he was an entity theorized to cause the end of the world. The truth behind Atom’s destiny in the Wildstorm wasn’t far off, with the Void host Nikola Hanssen using Atom’s quantum powers to restart the entire Wildstorm Universe after claiming a portion of the Void’s powers lodged in his body, causing his temporary change in physical appearance.
The restart of the Wildstorm Universe coincided with Captain Atom’s explosive return to the DCU at the apparent expense of another superhero in his place. During the crossover event Infinite Crisis, a number of heroes pursue Superboy-Prime as he sets out to find his own way to restart the DCU; among them is the quantum superhero Breach. Created by Paul Levitz and Marcos Martin in 2005’s Breach #1, Breach possessed similar energy absorption and transmutation abilities as Atom. When Superboy-Prime punctured Breach’s containment suit with his heat vision, the resulting explosion caused Captain Atom to reappear in the DCU in his traditional form, with little memory of his time in the Wildstorm Universe, while Breach was presumed dead.
In saving the DCU, Captain Atom was not only inadvertently transported to the Wildstorm Universe but would also play a pivotal role in completely resetting it. This development mirrored Atom’s own Post-Crisis origin story, with Nathaniel Adam rematerializing nearly two decades after enduring the experiment that gave him his superhuman powers, albeit in a parallel universe rather than a jump forward in time.
While Captain Atom eventually returned to the DCU, his impact would echo throughout the Wildstorm Universe for years to follow after his eventual departure.
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