As a result, he has played varied roles in the DC Universe, many short-lived, including a period as the supervillain Monarch and the attempted reboot series Breach.

[4][5][6] Throughout the years, the character has been featured in several moderate-to-short-lived eponymous series, and has been a member of several different versions of DC's flagship superhero team, the Justice League.

In the Charlton Comics continuity, he was a scientist named Allen Adam and gained his abilities by accident when he was seemingly "atomized" and then reformed himself as an atomic-powered being.

In both DC Comics incarnations, he is an Air Force pilot named Nathaniel Adam, who was a test subject in a scientific experiment who seemingly disintegrated in the process, only to reappear later as the super-powered Captain Atom.

In the new continuity following DC's 2011 relaunch, Captain Atom has never been a member of the Justice League and the team views him with distrust; his character origin and abilities were also revised.

A new Post-Crisis version of the character was introduced in March 1987 with the launch of a monthly comic, written by Cary Bates and Greg Weisman and drawn by Pat Broderick.

[9] This modern captain's name is established as Nathaniel Christopher Adam, a United States Air Force officer and Vietnam War veteran.

[21] During Jimmy Olsen's investigation about Project 7734, the secret black-op commanded by Sam Lane to fight extraterrestrial menaces on Earth (including Kryptonians), it is discovered that an amnesiac and brainwashed Captain Atom is in his possession.

[29][30][31][32] During a fight with Dr. Megala, who has taken control of Firestorm's body, Atom absorbs a massive amount of energy, which disperses his molecules across the timestream.

In the series Jenny Sparks (2024), the titular character works with the Justice League in an attempt to stop Captain Atom after he starts to think of himself as a god, using his powers to heal diseases for some while coldly killing others at his whim.

A willing army recruit famed for making "unheard of" numbers of kills, Adam was arrested for "brutal" behaviours in the jungle in 1968 (potentially having been framed).

The molten ship appeared to kill Adam, but he reappeared decades later as Captain Atom – true to form, he promptly enlisted again in the U.S. army and later the Justice League, where "no one gave him much thought" and he was viewed as "generic".

[40] Captain Atom's body is coated in the alien metal Dilustel, which enables him to generate vast amounts of nuclear energy and makes him virtually immortal.

The short-lived New 52 version of the character was an "energy-based life form" whose control over physics meant he could transform lava into snow and manipulate time.

He joins Batman's Insurgency to combat Superman's growing Regime before being mortally wounded by Wonder Woman while retrieving an enhancement pill from the Fortress of Solitude.