Atomic Skull (June 8, 1976) This Day In Comics
The Albert Michaels version of Atomic Skull first appeared in Superman #303 (June 8, 1976).
The Atomic Skull was a super-criminal with the power to release bioelectric blasts through seizures. As the leader of SKULL, he was an enemy of Superman.
Michaels was a brilliant but genuine unfriendly scientist-administrator at S.T.A.R. Labs with a rare nervous system disorder that short-circuited the electrical impulses in his brain, creating painful and uncontrollable seizures.
When he could not find a cure, he secretly contacted the criminal organization SKULL, and they implanted him with a radium-powered device designed to harness his neural disorder into deadly atomic “brain-blasts” in exchange for him becoming their agent. However, these mental blasts were difficult to control and only made his condition worse, a situation he blamed on Superman after the Man of Steel captured the only SKULL scientists who could have cured him.
Swearing revenge, the evil genius donned his distinctive yellow and green costume with its visored cowl-topped skull mask and eventually became the organization’s leader, flying around in a sleek skull-shaped hovercraft of his own design assisted by his similarly costumed lover Felicia who was a panther he had artificially evolved into human form. Michaels can deliver powerful energy bolts through the visor of his mask. The energy blasts have been described as powerful brainwaves, heat vision, & atomic blasts.
