Captain Atom #6 (1987)

Thomas Emery, decked in a suit based on the Rainbow Raider's technology, begins terrorizing the city of Tampa as Doctor Spectro. Using a combination of holograms and hallucinations, Emery steals some bank bags from a bank truck and escapes on a hijacked taxi cab. The news of Doctor Spectro's "reappearance" does not react well for General Eiling. He confronts his P.R. consultant, Theresa Delgado, who is responsible for creating the Captain Atom biography and Doctor Spectro. Delgado reassures Eiling that her people are investigating the matter, and also proposes to the General that they could turn the Spectro incident in their favor as the appearance of the real Spectro would legitimize the cover story. However, Eiling points out that the perpetrator posing as Doctor Spectro is undoubtedly aware of the deception. He then receives a call from Martin Allard, who informs him that the real Doctor Spectro is looking for him. Meanwhile, Captain Atom is entertaining some children patients at a hospital. The children were victims of Doctor Spectro's attack; in which Nathaniel felt partly responsible. Thus he is determined to capture the villain before he can hurt anyone else. Two days later, Eiling is at a remote forest in Northeast Colorado to meet with Doctor Spectro, who appears as a hologram. Emery states that he is aware of the Captain Atom story being a lie, but not the specifics, and he is not interested in continuing his Doctor Spectro persona. Instead, he wants to blackmail Eiling into paying him in government pay-roll that will be transferred to his Swiss bank account. Eiling, reluctantly, honors their agreement by paying him the first part of the money before paying the rest on their last meeting. After Eiling drives away from the meeting point, he is found by Captain Atom, who learned of the General's absence from Allard. Eiling tells Captain Atom about his ordeal with Doctor Spectro and the accident that injured those children were arranged by his P.R. people to lend authenticity to the cover story. Captain Atom is angered by Eiling's manipulations of the public and is all the more determine to stop Spectro despite Eiling's orders not to. Nathaniel goes to the Tampa police to examine the cab that was abandoned by Spectro. Although Spectro made a thorough effort from leaving any evidence behind, they discover mud accumulated inside the car's fender. With the help of forensic expert Hollis Uppert examining the mud, they now know where Spectro is hiding. Nathaniel appears outside of Emery's house and yells at him to surrender peacefully. Emery decides to escape on the Rainbow Raider's flyer with Captain Atom pursuing him. But when his blast hits through Emery, it turns out it is a hologram he is chasing while the real Emery has just left his house. Emery attempts to use his hallucinations and holograms against Captain Atom, but Nathaniel remains unfazed as he is prepared to counter this. Subsequently, Emery is defeated and captured while the entire event was captured on film by a nature documentary film crew. Eiling is pleased by the results and plans on eliminating Emery by using his contacts with organized crime. After surviving several attempts on his life, Emery is convinced that Roy Bivolo is wanting him dead for stealing his Rainbow Raider modus operandi and turns to Captain Atom for help. Rather than see another man die, Nathaniel agrees to Emery's pleas by appearing in prison and threatening the inmates from ever laying a hand on Emery.