Space Adventures #9
Space Adventures #9 (May 1978) is the first place readers could find the original Captain Atom origin story — 'Introducing Captain Atom,' drawn and co-written by Steve Ditko from Space Adventures #33 (March 1960) — in a new, widely distributed Bronze Age package, making the character accessible nearly two decades after his debut. The issue carries outsize historical weight because that same Ditko-created Allen Adam origin is the direct creative DNA for Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' Doctor Manhattan in Watchmen (1986): when DC declined to let Moore use the actual Charlton characters, Captain Atom became the template for the quantum-powered, nuclear-dread superhero that reshaped the medium. By reprinting the founding stories of Charlton's most consequential superhero just as the direct-market era was dawning, this issue also marks the tail end of Charlton's ability to exploit its own legacy before DC acquired the line following Charlton's bankruptcy.
Sell my copy
Have this issue — or a whole collection? Get a fair offer from us, skip the marketplace fees and the hassle.
We Buy Collections ▸History
The Space Adventures title (Volume 3, third numbering iteration) had been dormant since issue #8 in the late 1960s; it lay fallow for roughly a decade before Charlton revived it in May 1978 as a reprint vehicle. The revival run of issues #9–12 was conceived as an all-Ditko Captain Atom showcase, drawing entirely from stories Ditko had produced with writer Joe Gill for the second Space Adventures series in 1960–1961. The cover of issue #9 itself is new Ditko art, giving the package a fresh face even as its interior contents were drawn nearly eighteen years earlier.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Publisher: Charlton Comics; cover date May 1978; part of the third numbering sequence of Space Adventures (vol. 3), which ran issues #9–13 from May 1978 to March 1979.
- The issue reprints three Captain Atom stories: 'Introducing Captain Atom' (from Space Adventures vol. 2 #33, March 1960), 'The 2nd Man in Space' (from Space Adventures vol. 2 #34), and 'The Crisis' (from Space Adventures vol. 2 #40).
- All reprinted stories were written by Joe Gill and drawn by Steve Ditko — the same creative team who, shortly afterward, would co-create Spider-Man at Marvel Comics.
- The lead story, 'Introducing Captain Atom,' presents the first appearance of Allen Adam (Captain Atom): a military technician accidentally launched inside an atomic rocket, atomized in the upper atmosphere, and reconstituted on the ground with nuclear-energy superpowers and the code name Captain Atom.
- The issue also carries the first appearances (in their original 1960 printings) of supporting characters Sgt. 'Gunner' Goslin and General Eining, both of whom recur throughout the Charlton Captain Atom continuity.
- The cover is new Steve Ditko artwork produced for this 1978 reprint edition, distinguishing it visually from the Silver Age originals.
- The Charlton Allen Adam incarnation of Captain Atom — whose origin, military context, and nuclear-powered physiology are on display throughout this issue — served as Alan Moore's primary template for Doctor Manhattan when Moore initially pitched what became Watchmen (1986) using DC's newly acquired Charlton characters.
- The story content was later collected in DC's Action Heroes Archives Vol. 1 (October 2004), cementing the historical importance of the original Gill/Ditko Captain Atom run that this issue reprints.
Cast · 4 characters
Full credits
Full plot ⚠ may contain spoilers
▸ Reveal full plot — may contain spoilers
When Captain Adam is trapped in an atomic rocket, Captain Atom is born. Captain Atom goes on to stop some enemy agents who had sabotaged a Jupiter Rocket.
Plot details indexed by the Grand Comics Database (CC BY-SA).