Solar (comics)
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Solar was a fictional comic book character. Originally known as Doctor Solar, Man of The Atom, he first appeared a comic book published by Gold Key Comics in the 1960s.
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Gold Key Comics
The original Doctor Solar was a physicist named Philip Solar. He was disintegrated in a nuclear accident, but he managed to regain a human form through his willpower alone. He soon discovered that he had powers to manipulate atomic particles. Using his new powers, he began fighting crime.
On an interesting note, Doctor Solar didn't get a superhero costume until the 5th issue of his comic. Furthermore, "Doctor Solar" was his 'real' or 'civilian' name. When he went into action, he was known as "The Man of the Atom". His costume was intended to shield others from his radiation. Also, when he went into action and 'powered up', his skin turned green.
His original run lasted 27 issues, from October 1962 to April, 1969. In the early 1980s, the series was resumed with issue #28 and lasted 4 issues.
Valiant Comics
In the early 1990s, the rights to Doctor Solar, Turok, and Magnus, Robot Fighter were purchased by Jim Shooter, who planned to use the character as a part of his new superhero line, Valiant Comics. A number of changes were made to the character and his back-story. The new version (now known simply as Solar) was a physicist named Phil Seleski. Phil was a fan of the Gold Key line, especially the adventures of Doctor Solar. One day, Phil Sileski and his colleagues were testing a new type of fusion reactor. When an accidental breach threatened to decimate the entire area, Dr. Seleski rushed to shut down the reactor. He succeded, but he was exposed to lethal doses of radiation in the process. Amazingly, the exposure didn't kill him. Instead, it gave him an ability to manipulate energy. Phil Seleski tried to use his powers for the good of mankind. He became determined to destroy the world's supply of nuclear weapons. The US government tried to stop him. Unfortunately, their efforts caused Phil to lose control of his powers, which in turn caused Earth to fall into a giant black hole.
Phil Seleski wound up thrown several weeks back in time (or so he thought). The guilt over his role in destruction of his world caused him to split into two beings: Doctor Solar, who believed himself to be Phil's childhood hero; and Phil Seleski, who retained all the memories of the original. Phil sought to prevent an accident that gave him powers from taking place. His efforts were complicated by the presence of Doctor Solar, who was convinced Phil was a dangerous criminal. Eventually, Phil managed to convince his alter-ego that they needed to work together. They fused with the past version of Phil Seleski and prevented the accident. In the process, they discovered that Phil's fusion reactor was actually a "wish machine" that allowed anyone within close proximity to change the universe in any way they saw fit. Before the original accident, Phil wished that he could become his childhood superhero. As the result, the reactor simulated the events that gave the original Dr. Solar his powers. Phil also found out that he didn't travel to the past. After falling into a black hole, he tried to recreate his universe. For the most part, he succeeded. However, there were several important differences, the most important of which was that Earth was now populated by a large number of super-powered beings.
The revelations inspired Phil Seleski to take up the mantle of his childhood hero. He became known as Solar, Man of the Atom.
Solar went on to have many adventures, fighting a wide variety of threats, from Spider Aliens to malevolent Harbingers to Mothergod. He survived for many centuries. He blew himself up in an effort to stop the Spider Alien invasion of 4000 AD.
Acclaim Comics
When Acclaim Comics restarted all its properties from scratch, Solar was left untouched. In a four-part limited series, it was revealed that the Acclaim Universe was an alternate Valiant Universe timeline that was accidently created by Solar. He sought to erase the Acclaim Universe from existence, but was opposed by the Seleski twins, alternate versions of himself. He departed from the Acclaim Universe, leaving a portion of his powers to the Seleski twins.
Unity 2000
During the Unity 2000 crossover, Solar rallied heroes from VH-0 Universe to stop Acclaim Universe's Master Darque from causing a multiverse-wide disaster. According to the series plot, the other heroes would eventually discover that Solar had his own malevolent agenda in mind. Since Unity 2000 wasn't published beyond issue 3, this never came to pass.
Current status
In 1994, Valiant Comics found itself buried in debt. It was purchased by Acclaim Entertainment, a video game company. After some initial success, Acclaim suffered from a series of major flops. In 2004, the company filed for bankruptcy and put its assets up for auction. The rights to Solar reverted to Western Publishing, the original owner of Gold Key. They licensed Dark Horse Comics to reprint the original series in form of a hardcover anthology series, similar to the DC Archive series. The series should be completed by the end of 2005.
Volumes published/planned:
- Doctor Solar, Man of the Atom ISBN 1-59307-285-6(reprints #1-7)
- Doctor Solar, Man of the Atom ISBN 1-59307-327-5 in July (reprint #8-14)
- Doctor Solar, Man of the Atom ISBN 1-59307-374-7 in Sept (reprints #15-22)
- Doctor Solar, Man of the Atom IBSN ?? (reprints #23-31?)