Captain Atom (Volume 2) #46 is an issue of the series Captain Atom (Volume 2) with a cover date of October, 1990.
Synopsis for "Men of Steel"
Captain Atom and Major Force are abducted via teleportation and are imprisoned on an spaceship on the moon. They are placed in stasis alongside with many other prisoners taken from other planets; also among the prisoners is Superman. Nate breaks free by changing back to his human form after he realized that the spherical devices nearby are specifically jamming his brain and rendering him paralyzed in his Captain Atom form. He then breaks Superman free. Superman is about to free the other prisoners, but Nate tells him not to as this will likely cause more trouble especially with the volatile Major Force. Instead, Nate and Superman opt to explore their surrounding and finding out who abducted them.
However, the two are soon recaptured via teleportation and confronted by their abductor, a towering crystalline alien known as Kylstar. The alien refer to Nate, Superman, and the other prisoners as "galactic weapons," and launches his ship into outer space. Superman tries to reason with Kylstar that he and the others are not weapons but sentient beings. But Kylstar sees no difference, as he see them as weapons programmed for intelligent and independent thought, and he chose Superman, Captain Atom and Major Force for being the most "powerful weapons" from their planet. Realizing that there is no point to reason with Kylstar, Superman agrees with Nate's "direct approach" and punch their way out of their confinement before heading to free the prisoners.
Kylstar uses his technology to once again transport Nate and Superman to a sealed chamber where he will personally "reprogram" them of their flaws: by fighting them in hand-to-hand combat. Captain Atom and Superman are thoroughly thrashed by their warden until they coordinate together in beating Kylstar. The warden stops fighting and realizing he had made a mistake. Kylstar releases the prisoners and explains to everyone that he had been seeking to gather "sentient weapons" from across space to liberate his home planet and his people from a tyrannical dictatorship. Now he realizes that "sentient weapons" also deserve freedom and he plans to return them to their respective planets, but is still offering them to remain in return for good treatment and glorious battle. Much to Nate's surprise, Major Force agrees to join in Kylstar's quest rather than to remain with General Eiling and escaping from having his kill-switch activated. With that everyone except for Force and two others are teleported away. As there are only three "weapons" on board, Kylstar acknowledge that he needs more preparation by conquering the galaxy. Major Force is thrilled with Kylstar's new plan.
Superman and Nate teleported on the roof of the Daily Planet. Before they part ways, Superman tells Nate that while on Kylstar's spaceship he had saw his real face and request to see it again. Nate is initially hesitant to reveal his secret identity, but relent. Then to Nate's confusion Superman instruct him to go down to the city room of the Daily Planet and stand there for five minutes as he will be glad that he did. Nate follows his instruction and is surprised to see his daughter Peggy, who is working for the Planet — Clark Kent had saw a picture frame of Nathaniel Adam on Peggy's desk and hence his intentions to reunite father and daughter.
Appearing in "Men of Steel"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
- Major Force
- Kylstar (Single appearance)
Other Characters:
Locations:
Items:
Vehicles:
- Kylstar's Vessel (First appearance)
See Also