Danger and despair! The blog faces a setback, but recovers in time to cover more of The Action Heroes Archives Vol. 2 with a startling development in Captain Atom’s early years! Captain Atom gets new powers and a new costume, but was he more powerful before?
Super-Fly Comics & Games’ plucky sidekick Max Lake has embarked on a journey to read his collection of DC & other comics! Join Max each week every Friday as he takes on his Library! Titles reviewed by this blog do not necessarily reflect what the store has in stock, but you can always email the store to special order something that you’ve seen here at superflycomics@gmail.com. You can also call Super-Fly at (937) 767-1445 or just ask someone at the store next time you’re there for special orders. You can read past entries of the blog here. Any questions or comments for Max should be sent to maxdlake@gmail.com or feel free to comment in the comments section below. Check out @maxdlake to follow Max on Twitter. The things Max writes do not necessarily reflect the views of Super-Fly Comics & Games, and Super-Fly Comics & Games is not responsible for what Max says—especially anything that bugs you.
ENTRY 3
Entry Written 1/3/2012
Disaster struck today. My laptop suffered a nasty bump and the hard drive got wiped. Luckily, almost everything on the laptop is backed up. Unluckily, one of the things not backed up is this project. I have some of it backed up and remember most of what I wrote, so I’m going to try to regenerate this and get back on track. Also fortunately, my laptop is still under warranty! But I am very depressed and frustrated.
Entry Written 1/7/2012
Catching up on regenerating old work, but things are hectic. Box for laptop came and we shipped it out for repair. I’m having a hard time getting reading in but am looking forward to getting back on track with Steve Ditko’s Charlton stuff!
Entry Written 1/8/2012
Finished regenerating old work…To the best of my ability anyway! Will read more soon. Having the laptop gone is hurting my work ethic, as I’m not used to writing on the PC in my office. Still, at least I have another computer to work on!
Entry Written 1/9/2012
Got back to reading today and I’m glad I did. I was definitely intrigued to see Captain Atom’s transition after he lost his powers and got beat up in the first issue of this volume, but just have not had an opportunity to read. Well, I had a nice time to sit down and read in my Library and got a good chunk more into Action Heroes Archives Vol. 2
After suffering bitter defeat last time and seemingly all but completely losing his powers, Captain Atom is unmasked and ransomed to the world. He is then locked up, whereupon he finds he does still have his powers and escapes. The USAF is meanwhile working on a “Project Rebirth” to help Captain Atom. This leads to Atom getting his new costume, which is rip proof and more protective, and also has no mask which Atom hopes will boost his public image. His powers are not what they used to be however, but that doesn’t stop him from going after the saboteurs and their new henchman, Iron Arms, who is, ironically enough, a guy with iron arms.
Jumping into action, Captain Atom actually says “Captain Atom up and at them!” which is pretty cheesy, but also pretty classic. Atom then wins the day and his public image back. Some still hate Captain Atom and view him as a menace, reminiscent of Ditko and Stan Lee’s Spider-Man. Atom even gets his own journalist hating on him J. Jonah Jameson style, a female reporter named Abby Ladd who isn’t afraid to ask the tough questions.
Say whaaaaat? Well, as long as you like it Captain!
Captain Atom knows how to deal with upstart young journalists: kiss ‘em!
Speaking of Spider-Man, in the Blue Beetle backup story, Ted Kord unmasked looks a bit like Peter Parker, just not as young. Later appearances distinguish him a bit making him look a little older and dignified (confident?) than poor ol’ Pete P. Blue Beetle continues to get better at crime fighting while dodging questions from police about the disappearance of Dan Garret, who was secretly the original Blue Beetle. The cops think Kord murdered Garret since he returned alone from Pago Island. The gadget repertoire increases, with the Bug ship doing new cool things and BB pulling his gun, but not revealing what it does. Meanwhile, Ted’s secretary Tracey is snooping around trying to figure out what happened on Pago Island herself.
Plastic Man guests in this tale as Tracey’s dress. Also note the timeless expression: “BY RINGO’S BANGS!” and Ted’s regret and distain at having hired a woman
Captain Atom begins teaming up with Nightshade again, first against villains Punch and Jewelee, who are villains with a jester and jewel motifs and I always liked when they popped up in the DCU. Nightshade begins to use her dark force shadow powers, which in its first incarnation is just the ability to turn into a shadow to pass through gates and sneak up on people. Pretty cool stuff.
Punch and Jewelee’s Master Plan to stuff well dressed businessmen into giant electro bongs comes under attack by Captain Atom and Nightshade
That’s it for now. More Action Heroes Archive Vol. 2 next time!
NOTES FROM NOW (7/7/2012) It was crushing to lose the laptop hard drive and all the work, but I think the work turned out better after regenerating it. I haven’t had many other times where I wrote stuff down that was about me not writing, so I don’t expect there to be many more entries like this. However, losing the laptop affected the blog, so I recorded it. And besides, for me, part of all this is the journey of blogging, as well as doing the reading and writing.
At any rate, come back on Monday for more Read My Library!