Captain Atom wields energy powers of all ranges from nuclear to x-ray to heat/light. He is able to absorb all forms of energy and either boost his own strength and powers or redirect to his enemy. If Atom absorbs too much energy at once, he is sent hurling through time. Depending on the type of energy absorbed, he either goes forward or backward in time.

Nathaniel Christopher Adam, a United States Air Force soldier in the Vietnam War framed for a crime he didn't commit and sentenced to death under the watch of Col. Wade Eiling in 1968. As an alternative to execution, he was invited to participate in a military experiment with little chance of survival. The experiment involved testing the hull of a crashed alien ship's durability by exploding a nuclear bomb under it. Adam survived as the metal melted into his body and the excess energy threw him forward in time nearly twenty years. Not incidentally, this coating with alien metal gave him a full-body silvered metal look.

Upon arrival and regaining coherence from his experience, Adam found himself a man out of his time. He finds a world in witch super powered beings control the earth. Superman who intends to determine if he is a friend of foe approaches him. After a brief altercation he is invited to join the Lords. He accepts and falls in to background character status.