Atomicus

Atomicus © Juke Box Productions AstroFacts Status: Active but not in this solar system Origin: Astro City: Local Heroes #2 Base of Operations: Astro City in the past, currently space-faring First Appearance: April 6, 1961 Personal Data Aliases: Adam Peterson Occupation: Worked for the Mayor's Staff Date of Birth: created on April 6, 1961 InfoDump Headlines: <in world date and Headline> Appearances (in Publication Order): <issue list> Event Timeline 1961/04     Flashback Incidents leading to the origin of Atomicus. 1961/04/07     Headline Atomicus Saves Missile Scientists. 196?/??/??     Headline Atomicus Saves Ike. Atomicus One of the most powerful heroes in Astro City's history, though his time there wasn't very long. History The entity that became the super-human Atomicus was formed in the Atomic Research Lab at Fort Kanigher in April of 1961. His first act of heroism was to rescue Dr. Vasily Petrov, a Soviet defector. (Soviet agents were attempting to return Dr. Petrov to Russia.) The hero was dubbed Atomicus by Elliot Mills, a reporter for the Astro City Rocket, on April 7th, 1961. Atomicus' alter ego, Adam Peterson, started working for the staff of Astro City's mayor, Morton (first name unknown), shortly thereafter. Also working for the staff was Irene Meriwether, a mayoral aide. Atomicus and Meriwether were known to be a couple before Peterson's appearance. At the time, it was still not known that Peterson was Atomicus. Meriwether soon suspected the connection, however, and went about mercilessly attempting to prove that Peterson and Atomicus were one in the same. When she finally succeeded, the furious Atomicus left the Earth, never to be seen again. It has been confirmed by the First Family and other star-faring heroes that Atomicus is still out in space. Powers In addition to flight and super strength, Atomicus, he hass ability to create "atomic duplicates" of himself. That infers a mental mechanism for manipulating mass at the atomic level. The atomic duplicates are copies of himself that, appearance-wise, are completely identical. They are capable of speech and practically indistinguishable from the genuine Atomicus. Atomicus' powers are nuclear based. They can be weakened if his link to nuclear energy is diminished or absorbed. In his Adam Peterson disguise, he wears the Atomicus costume underneath his clothes, but in a different form, flatter and simplified. He transforms it into the regular costume through some application of his powers. Footnotes According to Kurt Busiek, Atomicus's story was inspired by an image Alex Ross drew of a Superman-esque character finally getting fed up at his love interest for constantly trying to expose his secret identity. In Superman comics of the 60s and 70s, this was indeed something Lois Lane was repeatedly getting up to.[clarification needed]