DC Comics Rebirth Spoilers: Fall & Rise Of Captain Atom #4 Creates 2 New Quantum Characters On Road To The Watchmen Rebirth w/ Dr. Manhattan?

Spoilers, Top Story

DC Comics Rebirth Spoilers for the Fall and Rise Of Captain Atom #4 follows.

The issues opens with Captain Atom pretending to be a “new” Captain Atom inspired by the old one.

Captain Atom explains what’s happened in the first few issues and his own spin as he wants to keep the fact that is the old Captain Atom a secret.

These pages were released by DC Comics prior to the issue hitting stands as a teaser.

For the audience, Captain Atom triggers a blast and absorbs its fallout to show this “new” Captain Atom is safer and more super-heroic than the “old” Captain Atom.

Ok, now we get into the net new pages that DC didn’t reveal in advance.

It would seem that when Captain Atom was pulled from the past to back to the present his quantum wake caused an explosion that killed many, which we know, but also put a killer being executed into a quantum bubble.

Max Thrane has not aged in 5 years and the quantum bubble keeps the electricity of the electric chair from executing him.

This is seemingly a net new character, a criminal called Max Thrane. It is not Sergeant Clifford Zmeck as many expected to see in this mini-series (more on him though at the end of this column as well as Amy Allen; two names veteran DC readers will recognize).

Officials want Captain Atom to implode the quantum bubble, but…

…Max Thrane turns the tables and siphons some of Captain Atom’s energies.

This new character, not called Major Force or Bombshell (yet?) doesn’t want to return to the prison so…

…he attacks Captain Atom and escapes!

We then pivot to Captain Atom’s son Kenji seemingly in University. Dr. Megala didn’t tell Captain Atom he knows where his son is, but…

… he knows and has been doing tests on him in stealth hoping he has inherited some of his dad’s quantum powers!

So, in the Fall and Rise of Captain Atom #4 we have the debut of new quantum powered villain that isn’t Clifford Zmeck who was the villain Major Force pre-Flashpoint.

We also get more on Captain Atom’s non-powered (so far?) son Kenji who is not Amy Allen or the teen quantum heroine Bombshell of the pre-Flashpoint Teen Titans.

All this is on the road to the Watchmen Rebirth pitting heroes and villains of DC Rebirth seemingly versus the Watchmen or Doctor Manhattan or both!

Part of what we also saw in the Fall and Rise of Captain Atom #4 was his new costume purple / gold’ish (Major Force like costume) which was changed to differentiate him from…

…the very blue Doctor Manhattan (too similiar a look to the blue hued Captain Atom that the character was inspired by) of the Watchmen.

After all Dr. Manhattan is coming to DC Rebirth after actually playing a part in creating the New 52 and Rebirth after Flashpoint ended. And, it is very likely a Captain Atom vs. Doctor Manhattan moment will be included in the Watchmen Rebirth climax.

Stay tuned though.

John is a long-time pop culture fan, comics historian, and blogger. He is currently the Editor-in-Chief at Comics Nexus. Prior to being EIC he has produced several column series including DEMYTHIFY, NEAR MINT MEMORIES and the ONE FAN'S TRIALS at the Nexus plus a stint at Bleeding Cool producing the COMICS REALISM column. As BabosScribe, John is active on his twitter account, his facebook page, his instagram feed and welcomes any and all feedback. Bring it on!