The following contains spoilers for Dark Crisis on Infinite Earths #5, on sale now from DC Comics.
Superheroes constantly die and come back to life. Some have gone through this cycle of death and rebirth on more than one occasion. Seemingly, this is the main focus of the entire Dark Crisis event. With the Justice League dead, the next generation of heroes has had to step up. The story has been exploring what that looks like, as well as teasing the potential futures of the DC Universe with these heroes. Whilst the Justice League will most certainly have a triumphant return though, one hero has been brought back by Dark Crisis with no fanfare at all.
This revelation came during the giant battle against the Dark Army in Dark Crisis on Infinite Earths #5 (by Joshua Williamson, Daniel Sampere, Alejandro Sánchez and Tom Napolitano). Whilst big name heroes like Nightwing and Jon Kent's Superman were the focal points of the battle, there were plenty of lesser-known heroes fighting in the background. Eagle-eyed readers may have been slightly confused by one inclusion though as, in the lead up to Dark Crisis, they were confirmed to be categorically dead.
DC's Captain Atom Has Experienced Many Deaths
A couple of panels showed nuclear hero Captain Atom in the background fighting against the Dark Army. The only problem with his inclusion is that one of the series that directly led to Dark Crisis, Joshua Williamson and Xermánico's Infinite Frontier, established that Captain Atom was already dead. In fact, he's been dead since the early days of another DC event series. Dark Nights: Death Metal kicked off with the atomic hero's death, which irradiated the west coast of America. Although most of the fallout from Death Metal was undone after Wonder Woman's sacrifice, Infinite Frontier revealed that some things still remained. One of these things was the death of Captain Atom, as another multiversal version of the character posed as the deceased hero for a brief time before his ruse was quickly uncovered.
The idea of Captain Atom blowing up as he did in Death Metal isn't a new one. It was a key turning point in the iconic Kingdom Come storyline (by Mark Waid and Alex Ross) which prompted Superman's return. After Captain Atom's protective suit was punctured, he exploded and irradiated the entirety of Kansas. In both the cases of Kingdom Come and Death Metal, it set a new status quo for the DCU and kicked off the dramatic events that ensued. DC vs. Vampires repeated this cataclysmic end for Captain Atom in their DC vs Vampires: All Out War series (by Alex Paknadel, Matthew Rosenberg, Pasquale Qualano, Nicola Righi and Troy Peteri), with a vampire assault leading to the penetration of Captain Atom's suit and causing another nuclear explosion.
Captain Atom's Return is Unexplained in Dark Crisis
It's incredibly strange that one of the series that led up to Dark Crisis stated that Captain Atom was dead while the Dark Crisis series itself showed otherwise. Many readers may wonder why Captain Atom is alive again. It could just be a simple case of the creative team forgetting the character was dead. Then again, it could be a case of his resurrection occurring in another comic book title and simply going unnoticed.
Regardless of whether his return was in the background of Dark Crisis on Infinite Earths #5 or somewhere else entirely, it's another example of how meaningless death is for comic book heroes. More than that though, it's an example of how expendable lesser known characters like Captain Atom are. The best summary of this came from Commander Steel in Heroes in Crisis #5 (by Tom King and Clay Mann), when he detailed all of his deaths and rebirths and how meaningless they seemed to be. Heroes like Steel and Captain Atom can be killed off and brought back without fanfare in a way Batman and Superman cannot. As Captain Atom just proved, it doesn't always have to be a side effect of some Crisis either. Sadly, it makes their deaths seem meaningless and their lives even more so. Maybe that's just the life of a b-list or c-list hero. When the dust of the next Crisis settles, it could even turn out that Captain Atom never existed at all.