Taken from
Atop the fourth wall episode # 234 Amazing Spider-man & Captain Atom
Linkara- Hello and welcome to Atop the fourth wall where bad comics burn. It's event month and today we are going to look at the first teaming up of Spider-man and Captain Atom, and see if it warranted a company merger.
Looking at the cover and yeah sorry Steve Ditko but this cover sucks. I mean I realize realise it was taken from an inside panel andCaptain Atom though not as buff as he is depicted in later comics has a dynamic pose as fights minions of the villains but Spiderman has his back to the camera. You know for a photographer you would be more aware of posture. And worst of all Captain Atoms villain Fiery-Icer is their but Spiderman villain Dr. Octopus is not, and well
TIME FOR BACKSTORY. You see in 1977 both Atlas and Charlton were on the brink of financial collapse and had some upcoming TV shows they were hoping to promote with Spider-man's co creator returning for art however Steve Ditko desided to pull his weight and and altered the proposed crossover of Spider-man and Blue Beetle (both of whom had notoriously bad TV shows in production at the time) and demanded that Spiderman team up with one of his creation Captain Atom and Jim Shooter's script was adapted to replace Dan Garrett with Nathaniel Adams that's why an obscure villain such a Firey-Icer was used instead of Adams more popular villains like Dr. Spectro, The Ghost, or Punch & Juddee is because one of Blue Beetle's villains wasclearly supposed to be the Charlton antagonist.
The Comic starts out a Washington D.C airport
Linkara- in his Spiderman voice: "Thanks for coming with me on the assignment Ms Brant."
Linkara- in his female voice: "relax Peter Jamison wants pictures of the archeology exhibition as the Smithsonian and wasn't going to let a college student go to DC on his dime without supervision so don't don't get any Ideas young man"
Later at the home of Captain Nathan Adams. Eve Eden is working on the finishing touches for her date for the Smithsonian.
Linkara sighs..."OK here's the problem alot of people have with this crossover Steve Ditko had not worked on Spiderman in years and still writes Betty Brantas the secretary even though at the time Gloria Grant had this position meanwhile Jim Shooter had no plans to use Nightshade in this story and writes her out of character.
However Betty would become a reporter at the Bugle so you could argue that this was her first assignment. And Eve Eden is a Princess so I guess.. she could be intrigued by the artifacts of old Earth kingdoms."
"Nate sweety I'm hope you're ready for our date"
Linkara in his Captain Atom voice: "I'm glad I got some Time off to take you to the Exhibits"
Linkara: HA Ha your a government experiment
Meanwhile Doctor Octopus is at a abandoned complex where he is confronted by the henchmen of a figure in shadows
Doc Ock: "you think you're gang can threaten me?"
Linkara dressed as Doctor Octopus:"I have a doctrine in woopass!"
Unseen figure : "relax Her Doctor I have no need to fight you they are here to help you"
Linkara: Gee I wonder who this is?(roling his eyes pointing at the cover of book)
At the National Hotel Peter &Betty get into their room only to realize that Jameson booked them into the honeymoon sweat.
Linkara: I know that this was supposed to show J.J as a cheap bastard but was Jameson trying to hook up his employees?
PP: So um how do we do about the sleeping arrangements
Linkara: good God Peter that is a creepy smile
Betty: to the bellhop: yeah we ate going to need cot.
Later at the Smithsonian's new exhibition of the lost kingdoms crews setup the display as the crystal on an ancient stone tablet glows
Linkara: Thats radioactive. That can't be good!
Peter trys to take photos with the other press members but his spider-senses are distracting him.
Linkara: wait Is it radioactive?. No Dr. Octopus and his new minions who rush in.
OH YEAH,,
Peter ducks out and changes into his costume and they fight and they fight until it interrupted by Captain Atom. Unfortunately it appears that the good Captain happens to read the Daily Bugle and believes that Spiderman & Doctor Octopus are working together. In the confusion one of the minions escaped with the tablet
Linkara: very observant you are Captain (slaps himself on the head )
CA: I could defeat this Spiderman easily enough but I have to hold back to not destroy the Smithsonian and the people in it, funny he seems to know my every move .
SM: oh you really stepped into it this time? Hopefully he realizes that the other guys are more of a threat than me if I don't overtly attack him.
Finally the Captain Atom grabs two of Doc Ocks arms and lifts the good doctor into the ceiling while Spider-man webs the last henchmen to the wall.
CA( looking around seeing webbed up henchmen and Spiderman holding up his hands in surrender): I seems I was mistaken into believing that we were on opposing sides
SM: (accepting Atoms handshake) well it happens alot unfortunately . Now lets see what Doc Ock was after?
Elsewhere the escaped minion makes it back to the villains lair
Henchman: Boss Dr. Octopus has failed but I was able to get the Tablet
Firey-Icer appears from the Shadows
FI: it's not the tablet it's the jewel that will increase my power to kill Captain Atom.
Meanwhile at the Smithsonian Atom looks at the place where the missing artefact once was ,
CA: there seems to be a piece missing as a small part of the display table has traces of radiation yet none of the artifacts appear to be producing radiation.
Linkara in a labcoat: Oh no it's just that we had kept the microwave on the table before the exhibit..our bad
SM: Well these guys won't wake up before the cops arrive but I was taking photos before the exhibit opened if you have a place to develop them ?
Linkara: and Captain Atom takes him to his place, which I love but.. why does Captain Atom have film developing
Captain Atom. Protecting the country from superpowered threats and taking photographs of birds...
SM:All right Captain these are the photos I took of display before DocOck broke in and here's pictures of what was there after the fight .
CA: wait I recognize that peace (Atom goes to the shelf to pick up a book on ancient artifacts
Linkara: Oh yeah Airforce pilot Nathan Adams would have that lying around
CA: It's the Orb of Isis said to increase the power of the elements of wizards in posession of it.
SM: well that doesn't sound like Otto? Do you know of any wizards that might want this?
Linkara: Strange..you would think that Spiderman would know more Magic users..
Just then DCs lower east side erupted in flames
Linkara: Oh No save us Meteor man
And Captain Atom flies in the air with Spiderman hiching a ride with his webbing, and the two heroes meet up with the new and improved Firey-Icer and his forces
CA:Spiderman get the people out of here while I absorb the radiation from jewel on his chest
SM: alright that seems to be the last of them but CA is having g problems with his minions
And like on the cover Spiderman leaps towards the Fiery Icer blinding him with the webbing from one hand and pulling out the jewel from his chest with webbing from the other
SM: hey Captain catch
Linkara
eter Parker secret baseball fan
Captain Atom catches the jewel and absorbs the radiation draining it of its magic properties allowing the two heroes to gang up on the villain.
Linkara: and so Captain Atom agrees to have his picture taken with the knocked out Firey Icer before sending him to the authorities , and Spidey stays behind to take photos of the recovery efforts
SM: all right Jonah will have to give me a bonus with this for sure.
And the next day Captain Nathaniel Adams picks up a copy of the Daily Bugle with the headline
Spiderman Terrorizes Washington D.C. wa wa wa
Linkara: this comic is... not bad let's get this out of the way this should have been Spiderman teaming up with Blue Beetle and however the aspect of both characters trying to use their powers responsibly in Spidermans its doing the right thing and in Captain Atoms it's the responsibility of restraint which makes for a clever duo and the risk of using a then obscure villain like Firey Icer helped propel him to an A-list villain .
So that concludes Event month and next time it's Miller time