Number 1941: Ditko’s first superhero

In his blog, Toonopedia.com, the late Don Markstein asserted that Captain Atom was Steve Ditko’s first superhero, so Space Adventures #33 (1960) has some historical significance. I didn’t know that when I picked it from the comic book spinner at my local drug store in ’60. The historic significance might not have been evident to a friend of mine either a few years later. He was very enamored of Ditko’s Spider-Man, and was looking for other Ditko work. I am sure he is the one who got my copy of this comic, so the scans I am using for this presentation are those I found on the Internet. All I can say about that is, “Hey, Jimmy! I want my comic back!”

I know...not likely.

Also not likely is Captain Atom’s origin, which is just as silly as all of the other superhero origins, but involves nuclear bombs and radiation. In one panel Captain Atom explains he gets out of his civilian clothes and down to his Captain Atom uniform by burning off his top clothes with radiation. A nice touch is showing then-President Eisenhower as a character. Also unlikely would be putting a radioactive man in the same room as the President of the United States, and that falls on the scripter, Joe Gill.

Ditko left the strip, did Spider-Man for Marvel, then went back to Charlton where he revived the character. But despite Ditko’s involvement, Captain Atom was short-lived, and this version of the character was gone by 1967.

Come back on Sunday, September 11, for the first issue of Charlton’s Captain Atom.

Posted in: Pappy Comics