Lt. Christopher Kelly was the golden boy of the original NASA astronauts in the Megaton and Big Bang universes. The second man in space in the Mercury program, he was aboard a Gemini capsule that was struck by a radioactive meteor. The radiation killed his fellow astronaut, but Kelly survived re-entry to Earth where he was terminally ill with radiation sickness. Luckily, his body metastasized and instead of killing him absorbed the radiation, transforming it into energy. Kelly became a human battery: he was strong, invulnerable, able to fly, and many other powers manifested over the years. The press called him the “ultimate human being” and eventually Ultraman.
Unfortunately, his body burned the atomic energy and had to be periodically recharged by the Ultranium (ultra-uranium) meteor. At first it operated like Popeye eating spinach. Over time, he had to expose himself to larger and larger doses. It was during one of these sessions that something went drastically wrong and the meteor exploded, transforming Chris into a burning, mindless supercharged hulk. The accident also transformed his teenaged daughter Christie into Ultragirl.
With Matt “Megaton” Scott’s help, they stopped Christie’s dad. With the meteor destroyed, Ultraman discovered that there was no way for him to recharge his depleted powers except for draining it from Christie and possibly killing her in the process. Instructing Megaton to tell Christie that he had exploded so she wouldn’t try to find him, Ultraman retired and left to avoid the uncontrollable temptation to charge up.
The story began in Megaton #1 and concluded in #7. Butch Guice returned to provide the cover and the interior art was provided by Gary Thomas Washington. A bonus was a nice inside front cover illo by Bill Willingham and Rich Rankin. Ultragirl dealt with the “death” of her father and her infatuation with Megaton in the back-up story in issue 7, which was drawn by John Thompson who became a good friend and a big part of the Megaton gang during those last days and months when expansion to color and multiple books looked like a reality.
