Comic Title: Showcase Presents:The Great Disaster Featuring the Atomic Knights TPB
Publisher: DC
Cover Date: 2014
On Sale Date: June 18, 2014 Direct Market Date June 18, 2014
Source: ComicList, New Comic Book Releases List for Wednesday, June 18, 2014

Direct Market Date June 18, 2014
Source: Previews, #306

Direct Market Date October 24, 2007
Source: Previews, Vol. 17 #7 (#223)

Cover Price: $19.99
Page Count: 576
Editor: Scott Nybakken

See Also: The Guide to Graphic Novels and Collected Editions

Title: "The Rise of the Atomic Knights"
Pages: 16

Feature(s):
Atomic Knights

Writer: John Broome
Artist: Murphy Anderson

Reprinted From:
Strange Adventures #117 (1960)

Feature Character(s)

• Atomic Knights (origin; next appearance in Strange Adventures #120)
• Atomic Knight (Sgt. Gardner Grayle; an ex-soldier; next appearance in Strange Adventures #120)
• Douglas Herald (a school teacher; next appearance in Strange Adventures #120)
• Marene Herald (Doug's brother; next appearance in Strange Adventures #120)
• Hollis Hobard (an ex-soldier; next appearance in Strange Adventures #120)
• Wayne Hobard (an ex-soldier; next appearance in Strange Adventures #120)
• Bryndon Smith (a scientist; next appearance in Strange Adventures #120)

Villain(s)

• The Black Baron and his henchmen (no further appearances)
• A gang of looters (no further appearances)

Other Character(s)

• Various survivors of post-World War III America (no further appearances)

Comments:
This story reveals that World War III took place from October 9, 1986 to October 29, 1986, lasting just 20 days.

As revealed in DC Comics Presents #57, the post-World War III reality within the Atomic Knights series is a computer simulation run by the real Gardner Grayle. However, Hercules Unbound #10 links the Atomic Knights to Kamandi, Omac, and Hercules. Therefore the events depicted in the series must have happened outside the simulation, but probably at some future time, rather than 1986 as shown in this story. How exactly the events depicted here are tied in with Earth-One continuity has never been explained.

Synopsis:
Gardner Grayle, a man who is statistically the average soldier, has survived World War III, which lasted only 20 days. In the post-holocaust world, all plant and animal life has been destroyed. The only remaining food supplies are being hoarded by a tyrant called the Black Baron.

Grayle is attacked by looters trying to rob him. He escapes, then helps another man, Douglas Herald, fend off the attackers. Grayle and Herald discover a set of six medieval suits of armor that have become resistant to radiation. The two men decide to use the suits to attack the Baron's stronghold. They recruit three other men to join the fight, leaving the last suit of armor behind because it is too small.

The five men assault the Baron's stronghold wearing the armor which resists the tyrant's raguns. The Baron nearly kills Grayle, but he is rescued by an unknown person wearing the sixth suit of armor. After the Baron is defeated, the sixth knight is revealed to be Marene, Herald's sister. The six knights agree to stay together to fight for justice in the post-apocalyptic world.