Atom A.I.
Dr. Alexander Atom
In the 1930s, Alexander Atom was a brilliant scientist, inventor, and adventurer. He went to places most people barely imagined and achieved more with his life than most could ever know. Even death hardly slowed him down. Before his physical death, Doctor Atom transferred his intellect, memories, and personality into an incredibly advanced computer system of his own design.
He lives on as a disembodied intelligence “inside” a virtual world of his own making. This has not only given Doctor Atom a kind of immortality but, more importantly, allows him to continue his work and care for his beloved grandchildren.
These days, Doctor Atom is confined to the computer system in the Nucleus, the Atom Family’s home in Freedom City, but his mind can roam the virtual world and he can project a holographic image of himself anywhere within the Goodman Building. Sub-space communication implants also allow Doctor Atom to communicate with the rest of The Atom Family, no matter where they are, from Midtown to the depths of the Terminus. This allows him to constantly observe and advise his grandchildren and their guardian.
Although he’s gotten a touch crotchety in his old age, Doctor Atom still has his dry wit and caring nature. He loves his grandchildren dearly and treats Jack Wolf like the son he never had. Most other people find him pleasant enough (for a hologram) but sometimes find his leaps of logic and his jargon-filled speeches difficult to follow
Mental characteristics
Personal history
Alexander Atom earned his first PhD (in physics) at the age of 15, and went on to earn the title “Doctor Atom” several times over. At home in a laboratory or research library, Dr. Atom was not content to simply theorize or study the discoveries of others. An explorer at heart, he traveled to the farthest-flung reaches of the world, becoming a renowned scientific adventurer.
Dr. Atom worked with the Liberty League during the Second World War, although he was not a regular member of the team in the field. He did go on missions behind enemy lines, such as in occupied France. As the war went on, his efforts were increasingly involved in weapons research, including the Manhattan Project, where “Dr. Atom” again earned his name.
After the war, Alexander Atom married his lab assistant Anne and the two of them had a daughter, Andrea, in 1959. In 1961, Dr. Atom purchased the Goodman Building and moved there with his family. Anne Atom later died of inoperable cancer in 1972, one of Dr. Atom’s greatest defeats as a scientist. From then on, he raised his daughter alone and never remarried. By the late ‘70s, Dr. Atom was the “patriarch” of a family of young heroes: his daughter Andrea, his ward Jack Wolfe, and the young psychic named Mentac the Magnificent.
Dr. Atom is the very model of a brilliant, but often distractible, scientific genius. He’s capable of spending days on end in his lab working on a particular project or trying to solve some scientific puzzle. On the other hand, he’s also a man of action, and likes to get into the thick of things, although tempered by more wisdom than in his youth. Still, there are moments when things get tough one can spot the young man from a rough-and-tumble neighborhood glimmering in Dr. Atom’s eye. He adores his daughter and is terribly proud of her intellect and capabilities. He loves both Jack and Mentac for different reasons, and manages to ignore their mutual affection for Andrea most of the time.
Dr. Atom has access to a wide range of equipment, along with the ability to whip up most anything he might need in short order.
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