Al Pratt was a short redhead that was pretty much the least powerful member of the group he was associated with... it's no wonder that I identified with him! He may not have had a great rogues gallery or the greatest costumes, but I could never help rooting for the guy.
And Thor was originally a red-head. And Al's costume is the same color scheme as Thor's (just swapped around a bit)! Nicely done.
ReplyDeleteDon't worry about Al. There's always Tomorrow, man.
ReplyDeleteOh! That's who the villain is in the top left corner. Good eye, Tobor!
ReplyDeleteOf course, should the Golden Age Atom ever make it to the TV screen, as part of the Justice Society on any of the CW shows, he'd probably be "recast" as African-American. Maybe even (God forbid!) renamed...
Black Atom.
@Cary: Groan!!!!!
ReplyDelete@Tobor: He's right about one thing, though. I didn't initially recognize Zarrko, either. I thought it was the Mad Thinker, mind-controlled into shaving himself bald by the Puppet Master!
P.S.---this raises several questions, however. For example; was Thor pulled back into the 1940's as a pawn in some kind of rivalry between Zarrko and Degaton? Or has the Golden Age Atom simply been brought of retirement by the apparently senseless kidnapping of his wife's physician...Dr. Donald Blake?
ReplyDeleteWhy not a little of both? Thor's alter-ego was abducted during the Early Silver Age as part of some scheme to end the four-way time war between Kang, Degaton, Tomorrow Man, and the Time Trapper.
ReplyDeleteHmmmm! Captain Atom, yesterday. Golden Age Atom, today. Who's next; Ray Palmer or Ryan Choi?
ReplyDeleteSigned: Another Ymous.
@Anon837: One thing you're forgetting: Thor is an Asgardian deity, and has canonically existed for thousands of years.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I think maybe we should take what Cary said more seriously. I know I wouldn't put it past them.
I can just see the transfer of power finishing, and as Tomorrow Man reaches out for Mjolinr, the hammer flies up right into his... forehead.
ReplyDelete"Thou... art not... worthy."
But to say that Al "may not have had... the greatest costumes" is an understatement. If you can find the coloring job of his earliest adventures, the costume was just horrible. Granted, Al was a college student, and not exactly majoring in fashion design, but what he had was pretty awful.
Re: Timeline: I just see this as taking place somewhere in the late 60s, when Al was in semi-retirement and Thor was still being drawn by Kirby.
@Daviticus: Thor was thousands of years old. But, not so Donald Blake...who was virtually born (presumably in the late 1950's) as a semi-ambulatory medical student due to the punitive spell cast on Thor by Odin.
ReplyDeleteMarvel'sThor was canonically brought from Asgard to Earth during WW2, by a Nazi mad scientist: He initiallt battled against the Invaders (although apparently he'd forgotten this by the time that he encountered Captain America again in Avengers #5), but then Hitler's ranting about the possibility of using Jotun as well made him realise that he was on the wrong side.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great image! I always liked the golden-age Atom and his unique costume design.
ReplyDeleteBut, Odin's punitive spell (see THOR v.1/#159) initially made the thunder god forget that fact. So, previous to that, Donald Blake canonically thought he was just an ordinary mortal physician, occasionally amped up by Asgardian energy.
ReplyDeleteDING-DING-DING-DING! And the debate ends in a draw with both contestants retreating to neutral corners.
ReplyDeleteThey don't get it...:/
ReplyDeleteI suspect Carycomic thinks we might be headed for a troll-fight that might force Ross to institute maximum security e-mail precautions...again.
ReplyDelete@Anon843: Bingo!
ReplyDelete