Atomic Man
- The Atomic Man is a human from the Generation 1 continuity family.
Mike Power, the Atomic Man, was born disabled, and worked tirelessly to replace his useless limbs with mighty mechanical prosthetics. Few can withstand his devastating atomic punch, making him a valued member of the Adventure Team.
Fiction
G.I. Joe vs. the Transformers
In 1978, the Atomic Man accompanied Joe Colton and Chok-Pa to the Himalayas of Tibet, where they foiled the plans of General Mihai. Fleeing Mihai's forces, Power shielded his teammates from the firepower of the general's jet fighters with his invulnerable limbs, but was unprepared for both sides to come under attack from the forces of Cobra-La. Power's atomic punch briefly staggered Bludgeon, but the Atomic Man was soon felled by the Pretender's sword in front of his horrified friends. Black Horizon, Part 1 of 2
IDW Generation 1 continuity
Mike Power was born in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, Hasbro Heroes Sourcebook #1 where, as a result of amniotic band syndrome, he was born without a right arm or left leg. In spite of his disability, "Mikey" enjoyed a happy childhood as an amateur sleuth, solving mysteries with the help of his loyal dog Smarts. On one early adventure, he helped track down a stolen bicycle, which had been nabbed by local bullies Finney and Pidge. Sometime after that, Finney went missing inside a "haunted house", and Pidge recruited Mike to investigate. Power discovered that the "ghosts" were holograms projected by a piece of advanced technology being smuggled into the country by Brasnyan spies. Action Man, who had tracked the Brasnyans to the States, burst in and arrested the criminals, congratulating Mike for his courage. While Action Man was busy, Mike rescued Finney and took the hologram projector for himself... unaware that he had actually recovered the remains of an Iron Trooper.
That winter, Mike - after feeling helpless for the first time in his life - became obsessed with improving his prostheses by analyzing and reverse-engineering the advanced technology recovered from the "hologram projector." His new obsession consumed his life to the point where he gave up detective work and neglected Smarts, who eventually ran away. After years of intensive work, Power created a new set of superhuman prostheses for himself, which became his trademark "atomic" limbs. Power and Glory His increasingly experimental research led him to higher education, where he earned several degrees in cybernetics at Cal Tech and M.I.T. Hasbro Heroes Sourcebook #1
After graduating, Power met and befriended Joe Colton, leader of the elite Adventure Team. Power eventually joined the Adventure Team, becoming the "Atomic Man" and the team's first truly super-powered asset. Power and Glory Secret Raiders Befriending fellow technology-wielding superhero Bulletman, the duo quickly gained a reputation as the team's heavy-hitters, capable of tackling missions that their fellow teammates couldn't. Hasbro Heroes Sourcebook #1
This durability would be put to the test in the mid-1980s, when the Adventure Team were deployed to Egypt to rescue Garrison Kreiger from the Tomb of Amtoltec in Dashur. Colton discovered that a swarm of Iron Troopers dressed as mummies had swarmed to the site, and dispatched Bulletman and Atomic Man to take them out. Further investigation revealed that the Decepticon Soundwave, on a mission of his own, had also travelled to the tomb to investigate a mysterious Talisman responsible for the Iron Troopers. The Adventure Team struggled against the Cybertronian in the room containing the Talisman. With his mechanical limbs torn to shreds by Soundwave's hail of fire, Mike was compelled to reach out to the Talisman, which flooded his body with energy, repairing his damaged limbs and granting them the ability to generate forcefields. Ultimately, this mission marked the beginning of the end for the Adventure Team: the world was getting stranger and ordinary humans like Joe Colton weren't capable of keeping up. The Secret of the Mummy's Tomb
On one of their last missions in 1994, the Adventure Team struggled to rescue scientist Emil Burkhart from more Iron Troopers. Relying on his cybernetics to rescue Burkhart, Power was too late to save the scientist, who died while his daughter watched. Despairing over his failure, Power reached out to Kreiger in the hopes of using the Talisman to upgrade his limbs even further. Power disappeared,Power and Glory and helped Kreiger reactivate the Talisman, returning Sgt. Savage and the Eukarian spaceship Axalon to the timestream at the apparent cost of his life.When Eagles Scream Believing that Kreiger had killed their most powerful member, Adventure Force (the re-named Adventure Team) was decommissioned shortly afterwards. Power and Glory
In reality, however, Power was still alive, trapped inside a secure Brasnyan facility in the crater left by the Axalon, and his body growing increasingly mutilated as Krieger, assisted by Doctor X, experimented on his cyborg captive. Strange Visitors Eventually, Krieger discovered a way to use the energy of the Talisman to connect Power to the base itself, allowing him to control the base's numerous facilities and even animate the dead bodies of Domitius Major and "Shockwave".
Learning of "Project: Iceman" after interrogating Tomax Paoli, Kup, Matt Trakker, Gloria Baker, Action Man, Mayday, and Garrison Blackrock travelled to Kreiger's bunker to investigate Kreiger's villainous alliance. When Action Man took out the base's Cybertronian security assets- Kreiger ordered Atomic Man to pump out the flooded corridors. As M.A.S.K. closed in on Kreiger's nerve center, he retaliated by infusing Mike Power with Ore-13, super-charging him and allowing him to truly channel he power of the Talisman. With time running out, Action Man appealed to Power's humanity, confiding in him that he knew what it was like to always strive for self-improvement. Imploring him to remember that all of Atomic Man's improvements were to better the world, Ian Noble's words managed to penetrate Kreiger's conditioning and allow Mike Power to realize that he'd lost his way. Apologizing to his best friend Smarts for abandoning him, Power deactivated his cyborg body and allowed himself to die, deactivating the base and the Eukarian Transformers with it. Power and Glory
Notes
- In Revolution Prelude, Atomic Man is seen next to Bulletman. This is likely a reference to the fact that the original characters formed the “Super Adventure Team.”
External links
- The Atomic Man at Adventure-Gear.com (archived)
- Atomic Man at the IDW Hasbro Wiki
