Captain Atom Annual #1

History

The story, titled 'The Dark Side of the Force,' was scripted by Cary Bates from a co-plot by Greg Weisman, with pencils by Pat Broderick and inks by Bob Smith — the same core creative team responsible for the entire post-Crisis Captain Atom series launched in 1987. Editor Denny O'Neil oversaw the issue. It is the direct continuation of Captain Atom #12 (cover-dated February 1988), which set up Clifford Zmeck's origin as a death-row convict subjected to the same alien-metal/atomic-blast experiment that created Captain Atom; the Annual resolves that story at expanded annual length (39 story pages). One minor production curiosity: the indicia inside the book gives a 1987 copyright year while the cover carries a 1988 date, reflecting the gap between the book's printing/indicia date and its on-sale date — a common Copper Age practice.

Trivia · 8 facts

• The Annual's lead story is titled 'The Dark Side of the Force' and runs 39 pages — well above standard issue length — continuing directly from Captain Atom #12.
• Major Force (Clifford Zmeck) makes his full costumed debut and public introduction in this issue; his technical first appearance as a character was in the preceding Captain Atom #12 (February 1988).
• Zmeck is established as a convicted murderer and rapist who was recruited from death row and subjected to a larger dose of alien Dilustel alloy in a second atomic-blast experiment — a deliberate dark-mirror of Captain Atom's origin.
• General Wade Eiling and Dr. Heinrich Megala orchestrate a staged 'alien invasion' hoax as a public cover story for Major Force's emergence, cementing the series' recurring theme of government manipulation of superhumans.
• The creative team is writer Cary Bates (script), co-plotter Greg Weisman, penciller Pat Broderick, inker Bob Smith, colorist Carl Gafford, and letterer Duncan Andrews, edited by Denny O'Neil.
• Major Force went on to become a Green Lantern villain, most infamously murdering Kyle Rayner's girlfriend Alexandra DeWitt in Green Lantern #54 (1994) — the act that inspired writer Gail Simone to coin the 'Women in Refrigerators' / 'fridging' trope.
• Major Force has appeared across DC animated and video game media, including the film Superman/Batman: Public Enemies (voiced by Ricardo Chavira) and the game DC Universe Online (voiced by Alexander Brandon).
• The book's indicia year reads 1987 while the cover carries a 1988 date — a printing/on-sale discrepancy noted in collector databases, with League of Comic Geeks placing the on-sale date as late November 1987.

Full credits

Variants (2)