Atomic Knight

ATOMIC KNIGHT

Real Name: Gardner Grayle

Class: Human technology-user

Occupation: Superhero, formerly army sergeant, S.T.A.R. Labs test subject

Group Affiliation: formerly S.T.A.R. Labs, Seven Soldiers of Victory II, Outsiders II

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: Shining Knight II

Base of Operations: Alexandria, Virginia

First Appearance: (Shining Knight II) Silver Age Showcase #1 (July, 2000), (Atomic Knight) Strange Adventures #117 (June, 1960)

Powers: Atomic Knight wore a battlesuit powered by solar cells that gave him a degree of invulnerability and superhuman strength, protection from radiation and could trap opponents in a stasis field. The suit's attached blaster shot bursts of intense cold or heat. He possessed unspecified precognitive powers.

History: A division of S.T.A.R. Labs researching how people would react to an atomic holocaust recruited Gardner Grayle as a test subject. They gave Grayle a battlesuit designed for a post-atomic world and had him test it out as Shining Knight. He joined the second incarnation of the Seven Soldiers of Victory to battle interstellar menace Agamemno.

Grayle was hooked up to a virtual reality machine and given the identity of Atomic Knight. He experienced a simulated nuclear holocaust in the V.R. machine and was given the task of restoring order to this imaginary world. Eventually the machine gave the Atomic Knight telepathic powers, and his mind took over the direction of the V.R. world. The V.R. world began to alter reality, so the project had to be closed down by Superman, who saved the Atomic Knight from the simulation.

The Atomic Knight had a hard time readjusting to the real world, but pursued a career as a superhero, briefly joining the Outsiders.

Comments: Created by John Broome & Murphy Anderson.

Shining Knight II received a profile as part of the Seven Soldiers of Victory entry in Silver Age Secret Files #1. Atomic Knight received profiles in Who's Who: the Definitive Directory of the DC Universe #1 and The DC Comics Encyclopedia.

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