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Post by dans on Jun 27, 2024 20:16:41 GMT
What do we know about Atom Blake who remained on Earth when he was an adult?
In The 3 Blakes in 1953, Atom says that he just had an adventure with Shiva, and they fought a guy who wanted to be a fire devil. I can't find any references to Atom in any story that contains Shiva as well, so my thought is that this is a story that was never written, and either CSyphrett planned to write it or it was discussed among writers back on the yahoo site. In this story Atom is frozen eternally at 6 years old but there is no mention of his origin.
I first encountered Atom in Libby's story "The Castaways" where he was a friend of Sue Barr, and he was 6 years old, a powerful mage, and had to sleep for long periods of time after using his powers. Again there was no mention of his origin.
The next time Atom appeared, as best I can determine, is in Libby's story Crying Time Again, where it was also mentioned that he was 6 years old, a powerful mage, and had an odd metabolism that required that he sleep a lot. No mention of an origin. He appeared in the Assault on Eternity story as well, a 6 year old mage with no other origin.
I then used Atom in Magic and Demons and Ghouls, Oh My, and since I didn't know his origin, I suggested that adult Earth Atom lost a duel with Blaze and Satanus who cursed him to remain at 6. I don't remember if him fighting Blaze and Satanus was my idea or if I had read it somewhere - but I sure can't find any prior references.
So: I want to confirm that it is 5EP canon that Atom fought Blaze and Satanus and lost. Once that is confirmed, I think I'd like to write the stories of Atom's duel with Blaze and Satanus, which must have taken place before 1953, and also his team-up with Shiva, which had to have taken place sometime in 1953 and must have been one of Shiva's first cases.
So, anyone have references to anything I missed above? Thanks!
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Post by DocQuantum on Jun 27, 2024 21:00:19 GMT
Just off the top of my head, I think you've got all the references you need. I'm pretty sure you came up with the idea for Atom's origin to explain how he changed so drastically from what he had been in the original comics to what we know him as now. In my opinion, the magical Atom is the duplicate of the original, since it mirrors the real-world duplication of Atom Blake in name only as a Boy Wizard, but it's probably best if this is kept vague. The actual story of how the two Atoms split MUST be named "Splitting the Atom," and it may indicate that BOTH are the original, since perhaps they end up splitting into two identical forms just like Duo Damsel.
The reason Atom sleeps a lot is pretty simple: He's physically 6 years old and requires 12 hours of sleep at night, plus an afternoon nap. Nothing complicated about it. My kids gave up naps a few years before that age, but some 6-year-olds still need naps. Blaze and Satanus may have found it amusing to make Atom one of those who do need naps.
Most of Shiva's adventures have never been written about, and I don't think CES ever intended to write those untold stories. So we can infer what may have happened, but I think your timeframe of their team-up being in 1953 not too long after Shiva's origin is correct. My guess is that Atom Blake was probably the first other "superhero" that Shiva ever met, but certainly not the last.
I would place any appearances of Blaze and Satanus sometime between 1950 and 1953, since 1950 is the time frame in which they first dueled with the Marvel Family, another untold tale that has ramifications dealing with Mary Bromfield's adoptive parents.
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Post by dans on Jun 27, 2024 22:11:02 GMT
The story of Atom splitting into two beings is told in WOW Comics #2; it starts on Page 29 in the ComicBookPlus version. Atom goes to his friend Dusty's house and tells Dusty he has learned how to duplicate himself; there is a knock on the door and another Atom enters the room. The two Atoms merge, and now singular Atom tells Dusty he is going to go to Mercury to find his father, and then tells Dusty to look out the window, and they watch another Atom (already outside the house) leap into the sky and then vanish. The Atom vanishing into the sky is the one that goes on to Mercury. We never see Atom actually split; either he split into duplicates before he visited Dusty or he can make a new Atom appear out of thin air in other locations than where he happens to be. Atom who remained behind tells Dusty that if one of them dies, the other will die at the same time, and we never see the Earth-bound Atom again. The rest of the story tells of the adventures of the Atom who travels to Mercury, finds his father, finds a girlfriend, and keeps jumping to new apparently random worlds. Atom's power set is very poorly defined. The ring seems to be able to do anything, but Atom needs to figure out complex mathematical formulae in order to command it. And Atom is described as having the strength of a hundred men, but he never really uses any other powers. So my story line would pick up with Earth-bound adult Atom encountering the two demons in the late 40s or early 50s, and losing some kind of duel and being cursed to eternal sixishness. I'd give Atom more well-defined powers, and offer some reason why he's not as famous as the Marvels. Plus put some references in to his past adventures, and also perhaps some kind of reference to his space-faring duplicate - maybe they have some kind of mental connection? And the other story would have young Atom meet Shiva, shortly after Shiva got his powers.
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Post by DocQuantum on Jun 27, 2024 23:09:57 GMT
I’ve read all the Atom Blake stories as well, some years ago, and I always assumed that the two Atoms merged again shortly after that story, since there was little reason to remain separated for long at that time. I figured he split again sometime later in the 1940s in an untold story when he needed to go to space but wanted to keep from having to drop out of school or something else like that. There’s no reason he couldn’t have pulled that splitting trick many more times. It’s a power that fits with his name, after all.
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Post by dans on Jun 27, 2024 23:23:46 GMT
So, Blaze and Satanus turn an adult super powered Atom into a 6 year old. How does that affect his life? Was adult Atom married? Did he have kids? Where did he live, before and after? Does young Atom try to connect to his friends and family after the change? If not, why not? It would be easiest if the world thinks adult Atom died, and nobody connects your Atom with adult Atom, but would 6 year old Atom be OK with letting everyone who knew him think he was dead?
There's a lot of stuff that would need to be explored tied up in this potential story.
I wonder why Blaze and Satanus cursed him with eternal youth? That doesn't seem to be the worst curse a pair of demons might dream up...
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Post by dans on Jun 28, 2024 0:45:59 GMT
I’ve read all the Atom Blake stories as well, some years ago, and I always assumed that the two Atoms merged again shortly after that story, since there was little reason to remain separated for long at that time. I figured he split again sometime later in the 1940s in an untold story when he needed to go to space but wanted to keep from having to drop out of school or something else like that. There’s no reason he couldn’t have pulled that splitting trick many more times. It’s a power that fits with his name, after all. Yeah, but the Atom that goes to space leaves immediately. He goes to Mercury, then to the future, then to Saturn, and then to Praetoria (which may be an asteroid). So it would have been quite some time before the two Atoms merged again. Maybe after Praetoria he came home and then split again and left for a long time.
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Post by dans on Jun 28, 2024 10:43:29 GMT
I am trying to figure out how Atom Blake's friends and family reacted when Atom went from being a man in his late 20s to a child of 6...
Presumably Atom continued to use his super powers from his discovery of them in 1940 as he aged, but he never publicly created a superheroic identity who gained widespread attention. He might have been a local hero who deliberately avoided meeting other heroes or he might have used his powers secretly. I lean toward 'used his powers secretly'. He had some kind of private life - might even have had a wife and children - and then all of a sudden, that man was gone. In his few appearances on the 5EP site as six year old 'Atom the Boy Wizard' in the 50s and 80s, Atom does not seem to be mourning the loss of his private adult life; he seems to be a cheerful, spunky 6 year old boy with magic powers and a sleeping affliction.
So what happened to his private life when he was changed? His possible wife and kids? I wonder if, when he saw he was about to lose his duel with Blaze and Satanus, Atom might have created yet another duplicate of himself - but altered that new duplicate so he didn't have any powers or even the memory of having powers, and sent that new duplicate back into Atom's normal life? (Maybe he created that duplicate at the beginning of the fight to cover him while he was gone - and then never merged with him afterward?) (I just realized an added benefit - somehow Atom lost his ring in the confrontation with Blaze and Satanus - suppose he left it with this new Atom, who wouldn't remember that it had magic powers, and he might just have left it to one of his kids, who in turn left it to a grandkid, etc, until it reached the future when Imaginette found it somehow).
So then we have 3 Blakes - Space Atom, who left Earth in the 1940s and who hasn't returned yet), young Atom, the eternally 6 year old Boy Wizard), and Normal Atom, who has no powers and just lives out a normal life span, with no memory of Space Atom, young Atom, or every being anything other than a normal (very smart, very athletic) human. So if Atom had a wife and kids and friends, they are not able to tell the difference...
Note - there actually is a 5 Earths precedent for having 3 Blakes - in fact, the story is called 'The 3 Blakes' and there are actually 4 Blakes appearing in that story!
This still leaves young Atom with sad memories of a life he used to have and can never go back to, but six year old kids are pretty adaptable...
How does this sound to you guys?
The other option I can think of is memory alteration on those who knew Atom, but I feel as if this option has really been used too frequently on Earth S (including by me!) The first time Shiva confronted Kali, he banished her to another dimension and erased her from the memory of the entire world (including himself) and then not much longer after that, Magique accidentally erased the Super Squad from the memory of the entire world (in a story I wrote). I don't like mass memory erasure, so the '3 Blakes' theory seems like a better alternative to me.
Thanks for your thoughts!
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Post by DocQuantum on Jun 28, 2024 14:40:35 GMT
I would keep it as simple as possible to avoid a lot of the problems you bring up. First, what family does he have? His mother died when he was young. I don't recall if Stuart survives the original stories, but he could have died or disappeared again by 1950. Stuart left Atom with the Pages (who are probably elderly), not with any cousins, so presumably there is no other family that Stuart knew of on Earth. Atom Blake spends much of his time roaming through space, so he doesn't get too involved in things on Earth. Thus, most of his friends are from childhood, and they've moved on. He has no true friends who are super-heroes, only acquaintances.
Atom Blake would be unmarried at the time. Perhaps he had a girlfriend, but he broke it off with her by letter after the 6-year-old Atom realized he wouldn't be able to change back to an adult, and she never knew the truth, was utterly heartbroken, and went on to marry someone else. Hearing stories about a Boy Wizard would never in a million years make her wonder if it was her ex-boyfriend.
The split between two Atom Blakes must have happened before any confrontation with Blaze and Satanus, and there must have been a very good reason for one of the Atoms to head into space and never come back for several years. The space Atom is the one who (in my mind) met and married a humanoid woman and had kids, and never returned to Earth (yet) and thus never realized that the Earth Atom was ever transformed into an eternal 6-year-old. Space Atom also has the ring.
6-year-old Atom's psychology is a lot simpler as a 6-year-old. He cries a lot in the early days, but he also adapts to his new life pretty quickly and doesn't mope over old events. He lives in the present, as 6-year-olds do.
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Post by DocQuantum on Jun 28, 2024 14:59:37 GMT
Maybe a twist is that the old girlfriend, now married to someone else and with kids of her own, somehow learns about Atom's transformation into a 6-year-old Boy Wizard, and she befriends him in a time of need. Magic Atom has a 6-year-old's mind and thinks of her more as a motherly type and sleeps in a guest room at her house whenever he's in the area, thinking of her and her husband as parental figures. Magic Atom doesn't appear to have any home of his own. He has magic powers, so perhaps he builds temporary treehouses and forts whenever he needs them and abandons them just as quickly. Perhaps some other people he's met along the way have given him shelter. Nobody on Earth is aware that original Atom Blake ever split himself in two, so Magic Atom is thought to be the "original" by one and all. Magic Atom has the memory of a 6-year-old, so it's possible he doesn't even recall or think about the split, either, unless he's reminded of it somehow. It's not important to him. He lives in the present, remember.
There are a lot of story possibilities to fill in Magic Atom's history and circumstances a bit more.
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Post by dans on Jun 28, 2024 15:59:51 GMT
Actually, I think there is no reason that there have to be 2 Atom Blakes in the present time on Earth S, or even in the late 40s. Space Atom could have returned to Earth at any time, particularly since he can travel in time. We have previously discussed that Space Atom is still 'out there' but his life would be simpler if he has returned to Earth and merged with Earth Atom in the late 40s before he encountered Blaze and Satanus. So, possibly, Space Atom returned the princess to her own world, Stuart died of a heart attack, and Space Atom returned to Earth and merged with Earth Atom and then he had the run in with the demons.
Everything I have posted was based on the assumption that there are continually two Atoms from 1940 through the present, and Space Atom is still out there. But this was never canon, only speculation. Thanks
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Post by DocQuantum on Jun 28, 2024 17:03:02 GMT
Yeah, it's better to base your story on the idea that there's only one Atom Blake. If and when Space Atom ever returns with his family as I'd like to do in a story, it can be revealed that there was a split in an untold story circa 1948, so it would have happened a couple of years before the Blaze/Satanus encounter. No need to overcomplicate things by accounting for all possibilities.
The Atom Blake on Earth might not even know or remember that there ever was a split, since the circumstances might have been better for only the Space Atom to know that info; the mission into space may have required that.
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Post by dans on Jun 28, 2024 17:20:56 GMT
I'm thinking that Atom is drafted in 1942/43 and serves in the military until 1946, and goes to college immediately after he is released. He wants to study higher math. Maybe he'll attend a prestigious university in Europe. It doesn't really matter where he goes but I thought it would be fun to send him to a very high prestige school in Europe.
So what were the best colleges in the world for math degrees in 1947?
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Post by DocQuantum on Jun 28, 2024 17:30:39 GMT
Surely he'd have been too young to be drafted in World War II. He was called a boy in all his appearances in his 1940-1942 stories. There is no indication he was on the verge of manhood.
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Post by dans on Jun 28, 2024 19:52:11 GMT
Surely he'd have been too young to be drafted in World War II. He was called a boy in all his appearances in his 1940-1942 stories. There is no indication he was on the verge of manhood. Is is not clear when Atom was born. In his origin story he was delivered to the Pages with a note dated January 19, 1925. Not clear how old he was, but his father had already given him the full sequence of sunergy treatments required to adapt his body to the final full treatment. So I'm figuring he was at least 6 months old on January 19, 1925, and more likely at least a year old. That would make him at least 15 and likely 16 in January 1940. He must be at least 17 in 1942. Draft age in 1942 was 18. So based on the specific dates shown in the story (the date on the note, and January, 1940, the date WOW Comics #1 was released), he was likely of draftable age in 1942 and definitely old enough in 1943.
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Post by DocQuantum on Jun 28, 2024 21:07:31 GMT
He looks to be around 10 to 13 at most in the stories. Just look at him. That is a prepubescent child.
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