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| © DC Comics / Used without permission |
Origin: Birthrigh/Transformed
Real Name: Albert Rothstein
First Appearance: All-Star Squadron #25 [DC Comics September 1983]
Character created by
Roy Thomas and
Jerry Ordway
ABILITIES
Prowess 4 {Fair}
Coordination 5 {Good}
Strength 7 {Incredible}
Intellect 4 {Fair}
Awareness 4 {Fair}
Willpower 4 {Fair}
Stamina: 11
Determination: 3
SPECIALTIES
Athletics
Drive
Technology (Mechanics)
Pilot
POWERS
Density [Limit: Tiring if used in maximum level] 5 {Good}
Growth 3 [He's a towering 2.28 m tall, even without Growth] {Average}
Phasing [Limit: Concentration] 5 {Good}
Radiation Resistance ['Thorium"] 1 {Weak}
QUALITIES
. His real name is public - and his size and mohawk make it hard to be discreet.
. Albert tries to honor his godfather’s memory and reputation.
. Mommy's boy: Albert is very protective of his mum.
Points: 46
ORIGIN STORY
In 1942, when Terri Kurtzenberg was a newborn infant, she was inadvertently exposed to radiation from her father, physicist Terry Kurtzenberg (aka Terry Curtis) and got fatally ill. Desperate to cure the baby, Curtis accepted to join the Ultra-Humanite as the reluctant villain Cyclotron in exchange for the Ultra-Humanite healing Terri. As part of Curtis's dealings with the Ultra-Humanite, Terri was also briefly turned into a super-villain, though she was soon restored.
Ultimately Curtis, as Cyclotron, died while fighting the Ultra-Humanite. Cyclotron's best-known legacy likely was his irradiation of the Atom, which later gave the mighty mite superhuman strength. When this occurred the Atom adopted a new costume that was a cross between the old Atom costume and the Cyclotron costume. The orphaned Terri was left in the care of relatives, and her welfare was tended to by Golden Age heroes Firebrand II (who once had a relationship with Terry Curtis) and Al Pratt, the Atom.
Terri's son Albert Rothstein was born in the 1960s, the son of military pilot Phillip Rothstein; by that point Terri was a NASA engineer. When Al was 3, his father was killed in action in Viet Nam. The original Atom stepped in again to help Terri raise her child, and became a part-time surrogate father for Albert - who called him "uncle Al".
As a child, Al was significantly smaller than other children of his age - and afraid of flying (and even of heights) since his dad had died in an helicopter crash. Because of those quirks he was often the butt of jokes and ridicule. He was also one of the 'JSA brats', young children from the ex-members of the Justice Society who were playmates for a time.
Terri Kurteznberg Rothstein likely passed on her genetic alterations to her son, who began to undergo significant physiological changes at puberty. Those started during a summer he spent with his 'uncle' Al and other JSA members (as well as their kids) at the JSA mansion, in Virginia. The Atom showed little Al how to use the gym in the basement, and the short teenager started working out in earnest. He was pretty successful, but also added eight inches to his height in the summer alone, amazing Dr. Mid-Nite.
Once he got back to school, Albert suddenly stop being bullied - since he was now taller and brawnier than about every other kid his age. Pratt and Mid-Nite discussed their theories about the hereditary source of Albert's powers with the Rothsteins.
By age 18, the previously diminutive Albert had reached a towering 2.28 meters and became a basketball star at the University of Southern California; at that point he was also becoming super-strong and durable. Those assets came on top of what was becoming a remarkable musculature. Albert had asked the Atom to train him using a variation of the regimen designed by heavyweight champion Joe Morgan. This regiment was the one Pratt had used to become the Atom.
Aside from his basketball career, Al was chiefly interested in mechanics and trained as a gearhead with cars, motorcycles and even helicopters - his favourite kind of vehicle as they now positively reminded him of his father. While his 'uncle' Al was acting as his coach and pressuring him into becoming a basketball star, Albert was increasingly more interested in mechanics and airplanes than in being a basketball player. During a summer vacation to Trevor Island, he helped Admiral Trevor finish repairing his wartime P-38, and Trevor taught him how to fly the legendary fighter. He later held summer jobs as an auto mechanic, though he started approaching burnout when he also became the star player of the USC's Trojans. After discussing the matter with Pratt, Rothstein quit the USC and transferred to the UCLA.
While he was in his second year at college, Albert received a card inviting him to take his Christmas break with Lyta and Hector, two of the JSA brats he had not seen in years (except for a brief encounter with Lyta the previous year). They wanted to become super-heroes and join the JSA, and invited Albert to come along. As the three prepared to petition the JSA for membership, they were joined by Norda (Hawkman's and Hawkwoman's godson) and then by Jade and Obsidian (allegedly the children of the original Green Lantern). However the bullheaded, brash Hector-led attempt to demand membership in the JSA went poorly, and the would-be heroes found themselves drifting around the city on Christmas' Eve, and getting into trouble with a pimp at a MacDonald's.
By that point the young Star-Spangled Kid, who had joined the JSA after having been rescued from temporal exile, decided to leave the Society and organise the rejects into a new group called Infinity, Inc. He was joined by another young JSA member, Power Girl (and, pre-Crisis, by her friend Helena Wayne aka the Huntress), and all the kids - including Brainwave II, who had just tried to join the JSA of his own. The Star-Spangled Kid later changed his name to the more mature Skyman.
One of the early adventures of Infinity Inc. was a conflict against several JSA members who had been drowned by the Waters of Ruthlessness and had turned evil. Nuklon's mother deduced that the corrupt Atom would try to enhance his strength further with thorium ; Nuklon and Wildcat flew to an experimental reactor in Utah where they correctly expected to find the Atom stealing thorium. However, Nuklon was accidentally exposed to concentrated thorium radiation during the fight, then beaten up by the Atom and left to lie amidst the exposed thorium bars.
Like the Atom and his mother, Nuklon was not fatally poisoned by thorium radiation. Instead, it affected the young hero's physiology, giving him the ability to change his density. Reuniting, the second-generation heroes tracked the JSA to the Ultra-Humanite's lair in Colorado and then into Limbo. They battled the evil JSA to a standstill, and the tide was eventually turned by the appearance of the Brain Wave, father of Henry King Jr. who gave his own life to defeat the Ultra-Humanite.
