Captain Atom allowed Power Girl (who was trying to kill him) to manhandle him. She was under Max Lord's mind control and he was trying to snap her out of it. Also, Booster Gold stated that if Atom tried to fight back (and go all out), Tokyo would be irradiated by his powers. I wouldn't count this showing, but it does show for Atom's durability, though.
As for the Mary Marvel instance, that's a horribly low (and inconsistent) showing. He's done better against other powerhouses. Majestic. Ultraa. Major Force. Wonder Woman (off-panel). Maul. Atom is usually more resilient than that, and physical blows don't breach his skin that easily. He even told Apollo that it would take hours to kill him with physical strikes.
@giliad_ said:
@larfleezy: Actaually no, he can and has shown to be able to absorb infinite amounts of energy if he moderates his intake examples of instances where he has quantum jumped involve absorbing the blast of Gog's spear (which had been artificaially altered by Maxwell Lord to be difficult to absorb and instabalise Cap, absorbing his powers from the OMAC and Major Force explosion... All of which are istances where either because of civilian or teammates he has been forced to hyper-absorb at an uncomfortable rate. In a 1 v 1 Cap'n could quite easily absorb over time. Quantity isn't a factor, it's rate of intake and in most circumstances that can be controlled.
To be fair, Captain Atom rarely, if ever, has absorbed infinite amounts of energy under normal conditions. Heinrich Megala stated that he could absorb infinite amounts of energy is he does regulate his intake, but he's never shown to do this alone save for one specific instance that didn't involve a large quantity of energy. In Zero Hour, along with other energy absorbers, he could have arguably absorbed infinite amounts of energy from Parallax's pocket universe, but that's only because he had other people helping him (The Ray, Darkstar). Then, as Monarch, he absorbed 51 Captain Atoms (that's lot of energy, if you think about it). But, under that moniker, Atom was more powerful than usual (possibly because he wasn't holding back). Besides the example in Generation Lost, with Max Lord creating energy specifically for Atom, he normally quantum jumps if absorbing too much energy, based on his showings. He's never been able to regulate the intake of vast amounts of energy by himself. At best, Atom has been able to absorb nuclear explosions without quantum jumping. But, nothing in upwards of that on his own. For example, in Batman-Superman, when he piloted that huge robot into that kryptonite meteor and absorbed all of the energy from the explosion, plus the kryptonite radiation, that (plus Void's essence after Void-Spartan's death) quantum jumped him into the Wildstorm continuity. There were some times when he was sent quantum jumping by explosions or amounts of energy less than nuclear explosions. That limitation has been used as a plot point many times, so that could be the reason as to why this limitation fluctuates from writer to writer.
@larfleezy said:
@giliad_: Doesn't Captain Atom quantum jump every time he absorbs too much energy?
Most of the time, yes. It was supposed to be if Atom absorbs too much energy at once, but writers have changed that left and right.
@giliad_ said:
I have always been under the opinion that Captain Atom absorbs and manipulates energy better than Norrin, I'm open to the notion of Norrin winning because he's physically superior, overall more versatile etc. But I think against Cap his energy capabilities can be mitigated and worked against him.
I think that Atom really only has an advantage over Surfer is physical strength, and possibly energy absorption (though I do recall something about Surfer stating that he could absorb near-infinite amounts of energy during his fight with Firelord). Besides that, I believe Surfer would take a majority. I think his energy output is just too much, blowing up planets and such, along with his versatility with energy and matter in general. Also, Surfer has shown the ability to manipulate Quantum energy and has even traveled to the Quantum Field under his own power, which is something that Captain Atom hasn't been able to do, consciously.
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