Atomic Skull: the two bearers of the atomic skull facing Superman
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All about Atomic Skull starts with a question: which one are we talking about? Two men have worn this skull of energy, and nothing links them. Albert Michaels, director of S.T.A.R. Labs turned head of a criminal network, is the pre-Crisis bearer. Joseph Martin, arrived in 1991, is the modern bearer: a metahuman with a damaged brain who thinks he is the hero of a serial. Here are the two paths, and what the sources refuse to settle.
📋 Contents
- Atomic Skull: two men, one skull
- Albert Michaels, from S.T.A.R. Labs to the head of SKULL
- Three first appearances, and creators who change
- SKULL: the organization existed before the man
- Joseph Martin: the modern bearer, born of a gene bomb
- The Atomic Skull serial that reversed the roles
- Powers: a shooter facing a brawler
- Atomic Skull on screen: animation and television
- Who has worn the skull since 2012?
- FAQ — Frequently asked questions
- Conclusion
Atomic Skull: two men, one skull
The name Atomic Skull does not designate one character, but two. The reference indexes separate them by a figure: Atomic Skull I and Atomic Skull II, filing labels rather than story nicknames.
The first is Doctor Albert Michaels, a scientific executive of the Man of Steel's city: director of S.T.A.R. Labs, then head of the criminal organization SKULL. He belongs to the pre-Crisis comics, from 1976 to 1982 — a supporting player in the Superman catalogue, a B-movie role that continuity has set aside.
The second is Joseph Martin, arrived in 1991. Not a scientist, a metahuman: superhuman strength and stamina, energy blasts, and a total loss of his hair.
The two profile files repeat it, each on its own side: no known link exists between these two men.
| File | Albert Michaels | Joseph Martin |
|---|---|---|
| Era | Pre-Crisis (1976-1982) | Post-Crisis (since 1991) |
| Trade | Director of S.T.A.R. Labs, then head of SKULL | Metahuman with a damaged brain |
| Origin | Cybernetic implants | The Dominators' gene bomb |
| Facing Superman | Declared enemy | Thinks he is the hero, takes him for the threat |
Albert Michaels, from S.T.A.R. Labs to the head of SKULL
His file, drawn from the Who's Who of March 1985, fits in a few lines: American, 1.80 m, 82 kg, base of operations Metropolis, profession «professional criminal».
The origin of the power is medical before it is criminal. Michaels suffers from a rare nervous disorder; to restore the electrical impulses of his brain, he turns to cybernetic implants, and then discovers that they convert his brain waves into energy blasts. Another version, incompatible, circulates: only the profile file is kept here.
What makes him an enemy by construction is his place: he ran the laboratory to which Superman entrusts his scientific problems before taking the head of SKULL. The setting of his stories — S.T.A.R. Labs, the WGBS Building, 344 Clinton St. — is that of the civilian life of Clark Kent. His file adds that after the resetting of DC continuity, that status is no longer canonical.
Three first appearances, and creators who change
An ordinary character has one first appearance. This one has three, and his file says so. Depending on which one is kept, the creators are not the same.
Superman vol. 1 #303, cover dated September 1976: the index carries the note «Albert Michaels (first appearance)», under the villains heading, with Gerry Conway on the script and Curt Swan on pencils. Then Superman vol. 1 #323, cover dated May 1978: «first appearance as the Atomic Skull». The costume is born there, not the man, under Martin Pasko's pen.
The third is Teen Titans Spotlight #16, November 1987, signed by Tony Isabella and Chuck Patton: first canonical appearance after Crisis. The contradiction is in the sources themselves: the collaborative online encyclopedia gives #303 and credits Conway and Swan in its box, then #323 and Pasko in its text.
Albert Michaels's three first appearances
SKULL: the organization existed before the man
The most frequent confusion does not aim at the two bearers, but at the word «skull». SKULL is a criminal organization, and it precedes Michaels by two issues: it appears in Superman vol. 1 #301, cover dated July 1976, created by Gerry Conway and José Luis García-López.
Its file, published in the Who's Who of November 1986, describes it as born in Metropolis then extended to the West Coast, and «apparently inactive nowadays». Michaels runs it: he does not embody it. The indexes mark this — in Superman vol. 1 #325, the Atomic Skull and SKULL form two distinct entries, alongside Jenet Klyburn, Morgan Edge, and Perry White.
The distinction counts: Michaels's danger is as much organizational as physical. He has neither the strength nor the invulnerability, but a laboratory, a network, and a well-made head, like other adversaries built on intelligence rather than strength.
Joseph Martin: the modern bearer, born of a gene bomb
The second bearer debuts twice in the same month, October 1991: Adventures of Superman #483 presents the civilian, by Jerry Ordway and Jim Fern; Action Comics #670, «Skullduggery», the costumed one, by Roger Stern and Bob McLeod.
During Invasion!, the Dominators' gene bomb triggers the metagenes of many humans. Martin is one of them: superhuman strength and stamina, energy blasts, total loss of his hair. His skull face is not a mask. The tipping comes after: beaten senseless by thugs, he suffers heavy brain damage and loses contact with reality.
The following month, Superman: The Man of Steel #5 devotes «The Curse of the Atomic Skull» to him, by Louise Simonson, Curt Swan, and Jon Bogdanove, with Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen in the cast. A savory detail: Swan, cocreator of the first Atomic Skull, draws the second here.
The Atomic Skull serial that reversed the roles
The whole modern character fits in a misunderstanding. Martin models himself on a serial starring a superhero called «the Atomic Skull», makes himself the costume, and roams Metropolis. In his head, the roles are reversed: he is the hero, and Superman the threat to eliminate.
His file says it in so many words: he is not a supervillain properly speaking. He has, however, been manipulated by real criminals, who knew what to do with a man sure he was acting well. Hence double-bottomed titles: in April 1997, Action Comics #732 is titled «The Saving Skull».
The sources diverge on the nature of the serial: the file speaks of a television serial, the collaborative encyclopedia of an old movie serial. A detail the other source does not take up: the file adds that the hero of that serial was visibly modeled on the original villain. It is the only bridge between the two bearers, and it is made of cardboard. A pact with Neron is also sometimes attributed to him: the index of Underworld Unleashed mentions no bargain.
Powers: a shooter facing a brawler
Michaels converts his brain waves into powerful energy blasts, and his file attributes nothing else to him: neither superhuman strength, nor flight, nor skin able to take an impact. He is not a brawler, he is a shooter, and also an administrator and a network chief.
He also has hardware: the index of DC Comics Presents #35, of July 1981, places part of the action aboard his skull-shaped ship, the «Flying Skull». Outside the Superman perimeter, his file gives him as adversaries the second-generation Flash and the first Firestorm.
Martin, for his part, combines superhuman strength and stamina with energy projection: a physique, where Michaels was a brain. Faced with the raw power of a Kryptonian, neither wins by strength. Several details on the color of the blasts or the emission of radiation circulate without having been cross-checked. For a comparison, the electric enemy born in the animated series plays in a neighboring register.
Atomic Skull on screen: animation and television
No live-action film appearance to this day: neither with Christopher Reeve, nor in the DCEU, nor in James Gunn's Superman. It is on the television and animation side that one must look.
In Justice League Unlimited, he figures in the Secret Society founded by Gorilla Grodd and since passed under the direction of Lex Luthor, in «Alive!» then «Destroyer», the two episodes of May 2006, with the voice of Lex Lang. The episode «Revelation» of Young Justice, on 14 October 2011, makes him one of the seven of the Injustice League.
Superman vs. The Elite, released on 12 June 2012, is his most consequential appearance: Joseph Martin opens the film, kills civilians, escapes, and Manchester Black executes him. That gesture triggers the whole disagreement of the film with the line Superman refuses to cross. The second season of the animated series that modernizes the Man of Steel makes him, in 2024, an agent of Task Force X.
A clarification. In the 1988 cartoon produced by Ruby-Spears, an Albert Michaels figures in the segment «Fugitive from Space», but as a S.T.A.R. Labs scientist, with no line and no costume: writing that the Atomic Skull appears in that series would be inaccurate.
Who has worn the skull since 2012?
From the New 52 relaunch on, the indexes stop naming a civilian. Action Comics Annual vol. 2 #1, of December 2012, brings him back in «Anchiale», six pages by Max Landis and Ryan Sook, with the sole note «first New 52 appearance». In July 2014, he figures among the villains of Superman: Doomed, alongside the man with the kryptonite heart, then in Superwoman until March 2018.
The «Atomic» arc of Batman/Superman vol. 2, in 2020, is the clearest: after an explosion in the center of Gotham, the two heroes look for who rigged the Atomic Skull like a bomb. The answer is Ultra-Humanite, and the index lists him «deceased». He returns nonetheless from Flash vol. 1 #775 in December 2021 through to an arc of 2026: writing that he is dead would be false.
The question of the name remains. The reference databases file all these appearances in Albert Michaels's chronology; the issue indexes write no civil name; and the same databases attribute to Joseph Martin the bulk of the modern on-screen versions. Those chronologies also contain gaps, which forbids announcing a total of appearances. The question stays open.
FAQ — Frequently asked questions
Who is Atomic Skull in DC Comics?
Two distinct characters. Doctor Albert Michaels, director of S.T.A.R. Labs turned head of the organization SKULL, is the pre-Crisis bearer. Joseph Martin, appeared in October 1991, is the modern bearer. Their files specify that no known link relates them.
Are Atomic Skull and Reactron the same character?
No. The nuclear-reactor villain of the series Supergirl is Reactron, real name Ben Krull, played by Chris Browning in November 2015. Do not confuse him either with Nuclear Man or with Marvel's Red Skull.
What is Atomic Skull's first appearance?
There are three, and the definition is what settles it: Albert Michaels in Superman vol. 1 #303 (September 1976), the costume in #323 (May 1978), the canonical post-Crisis version in Teen Titans Spotlight #16 (November 1987).
Has Atomic Skull appeared in a live-action film?
No appearance of that kind is attested to this day by the sources consulted. You will, however, come across him in animation, in Superman vs. The Elite (12 June 2012).
Why does Joseph Martin think he is a hero?
Because he has lost contact with reality. Beaten senseless by thugs, he suffers heavy brain damage, then models himself on the hero of a serial called «the Atomic Skull».
Is Atomic Skull dead?
The sources contradict each other. The index of Batman/Superman vol. 2, in 2020, lists him «deceased» after the arc in which Ultra-Humanite rigs him like a bomb. But his profile file gives him as alive, and he reappears from December 2021.
Who voices Atomic Skull on screen?
Lex Lang in Justice League Unlimited in 2006, Dee Bradley Baker in Superman vs. The Elite in 2012, and Max Mittelman in the animated series devoted to the hero, in 2024.
Conclusion
One name, two men, no link between them: that is the Atomic Skull. Albert Michaels is the pre-Crisis bearer, a Metropolis scientist turned network chief. Joseph Martin is the modern bearer, and the more troubling of the two: he strikes Superman while believing he is saving the city.
The rest calls for caution: three first appearances, creators who change according to the definition, and since 2012 a costume whose bearer the indexes no longer name. If you want to go on, Hank Henshaw's false Superman and the Man of Steel's imperfect double also play on the hero's reversed image.