Friday, May 24, 2019

Captain America and The Atom



He might not have had the greatest costume or much in the way of powers, but I always had a soft spot for the original Atom, Al Pratt.  What can I say, he was a short redhead - for some reason I identified with him.  I always liked that despite being one of the less powerful members of the Justice Society of America, he never hesitated to rush into battle.  I also really enjoyed his depiction in the Len Strazewski/Mike Parobeck JSA series from the 90's, as a cantankerous senior citizen still willing to fight.

6 comments:

det_Tobor said...

What A Cover! reminds me a bit of an early Superman Batman style cover. Those 2 worked so well together! I think Al got an atomic punch much later on. I think it would have made a great 4th of July cover.

Carycomic said...

@Ross: yeah, when it came to big show-downs with super-villains, the Golden Age Atom always chose to fight. Not split.

;-D

Wolfhammer said...

Great cover Ross! You can never go wrong with Cap and I agree with you about The Atom being an underrated character. I think Roy Thomas really did him justice in the pages of ALL-STAR SQUADRON though.

Simreeve said...

det_Tobor said...
"I think Al got an atomic punch much later on."
Yes, around or slightly after the end of WW2... maybe inspired, OOC, by the atomic bomb?
Roy Thomas later retconned it as a delayed effect of his being blasted by the [reluctant] supervillain Cyclotron -- who was also the maternal grandfather of Nuklon/Atom-Smasher -- back in 1942.

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Carycomic said...
@Ross: yeah, when it came to big show-downs with super-villains, the Golden Age Atom always chose to fight. Not split.

;-D"

And when Paul Levitz wrote the secret origin of the JSA, in the late' 70s, he actually had Al say "Don't you know, you can't split an Atom."

Carycomic said...

Precisely what I was referencing. Good memory! :-)

Glenn said...

Great cover. I could see Al being a workout partner for Captain America during WWII when Cap was stateside.

On that cover it appears there are two groups of bad guys - criminals and fifth column supporters. It looks like the criminals are fighting WITH the heroes shooting the fifth columns aka Rocketeer movie or am I reading too much into it?

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