[2] The Joseph Martin version of the Atomic Skull first appeared in The Adventures of Superman #483, and was created by Roger Stern and Bob McLeod.

After failing to find a cure, Michaels secretly contacts the criminal organization SKULL, who give him a radium-powered device designed to harness his neural disorder into deadly atomic "brain-blasts" in exchange for him becoming their agent.

[3] However, these mental blasts were difficult to control and only worsened his condition, a situation that he blamed on Superman after the Man of Steel captured the scientists who could have cured him.

Labs for a routine check-up when it was struck by an intense blast of energy from the Dominators' gene-bomb that gave him superhuman strength and caused his flesh to become invisible.

Later attacked by some thugs, the resulting brain damage caused insanity, and he took on the guise of "the Atomic Skull" who was a hero from an old movie serial that he loved.

[16] In Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps #45, the Atomic Skull is shown trying to make amends by being the warden at Stryker's Island Penitentiary.

[19] In a story featuring the reality-altering villain Dominus recreating various pre-Crisis Superman continuities, the supposed Golden Age Atomic Skull was first introduced.

He was Lawrence Dennis, an actor and Nazi sympathizer who used his reputation as the hero of the serial Curse of the Atomic Skull as a platform to promote Nazism.

[20] The Atomic Skull is the name of Joseph Martin's favorite hero from a (fictional) 12-episode movie serial made by National Film Studios in 1936.

Despite this, he and Zelda Wentworth, Electron's daughter (played by actress Eleanor Hart, whom Lois Lane has a passing resemblance to[21]), fell in love.

Battling Electron and his minions (such as Rocketman) with his heat ray eye-blasts, the Atomic Skull eventually destroyed the mad scientist's plans and returned to normal.