ATLAS

Real Name: Steve Rand

Identity/Class: Normal human

Occupation: Actor

Group Membership: None

Affiliations: None

Enemies: Buck Cowan, Simon Kolb, Werewolf (Jack Russell)

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: Hollywood, California

First Appearance: Werewolf By Night I#22 (October, 1974)

Powers/Abilities: Atlas was an extremely strong and powerful man who fought with the ferocity of a madman. He carried the jawbone of an ass, which he used as a melee weapon.

Height: 6'1" (approximate)
Weight: 210 lbs. (approximate)
Eyes: Blue
Hair: None, formerly black

History: (Werewolf By Night I#23 (fb) ) - Star of a popular series of sword-and-sandal movies, Steve Rand was considered to be the most handsome actor in Hollywood. He disdained awards, and considered his popularity his true success; his life's ambition was to have his name in the cement outside Mann's Chinese Theatre.

(Werewolf By Night I#23 (fb) ) - Cast in the movie Atlas and Bathsheba, Rand was introduced to Jimmy, a stuntman who would perform a dangerous stunt involving swinging on a rope over a flaming pit. The arrogant Rand insisted on doing the stunt himself, despite the stuntman's warnings; sure enough, the unprepared Rand misjudged his swing and fell face-first into the pit, leaving him hideously mutilated.

(Werewolf By Night I#23 (fb) ) - Rand awoke in the hospital; after hitting on his nurse, he took off his bandages. Seeing his ruined face, Rand went insane; it took four men to stop his subsequent rampage through the hospital. He was subsequently released and lay low for the next five years.

(Werewolf By Night I#23 (fb) ) - Now completely delusional and believing himself to actually be Atlas, his character in Atlas and Bathsheba, Rand donned a mask and began slaying people involved with the film's production using his own prodigious strength and his character's signature weapon, the jawbone of an ass. Before long, he'd killed five people.

(Werewolf By Night I#22) - Atlas broke into producer Simon Kolb's mansion; after cutting the power, he confronted Kolb, unmasking himself to show Kolb who he was. He slew Kolb with the jawbone; as he left the mansion, he encountered the Werewolf, who pounced on him. Atlas overpowered him, and tried to drown him in Kolb's fountain, but the Werewolf slashed his face; enraged, the delusional Atlas believed the creature to be Jimmy the stuntman; he brutally beat the Werewolf with the jawbone, then used it to crush his windpipe. He departed, leaving the Werewolf for dead by the fountain.

(Werewolf By Night I#23) - After killing Atlas and Bathsheba's leading lady, Atlas hunted down Buck Cowan, the movie's screenwriter. Before Atlas could kill him, Buck's friend Jack Russell (who Atlas again mistook for Jimmy the stuntman) transformed into the Werewolf. Atlas threw him out the window and chased him outside, ignoring Buck, who followed them. Atlas chased the Werewolf down Hollywood Boulevard to Mann's Chinese Theatre. The Werewolf retreated to the theatre's roof; while he was up there, Cowan tried to talk some sense into Atlas, but the madman turned his wrath on him. Defending his friend, the Werewolf leapt on to Atlas, but the muscleman shrugged him off and prepared to land the killing blow. Cowan, using the gun Jack had given him to defend himself from the Werewolf, shot Atlas in the back. Dying, Atlas fell face-first into wet cement intended to take the handprints of a celebrity later that day.

Comments: Created by Doug Moench, Don Perlin, and Vince Colletta.

Steve Rand is pretty clearly based on Steve Reeves, star of a ton of Italian-produced sword-and-sandal movies in the '50s and '60s. The last name Rand probably came from Ayn Rand, writer of Atlas Shrugged - but his first name presumably comes from Steve Reeves, not comicdom's most famous Rand devotee Steve Ditko.

Historical accuracy was never a hallmark of Reeves' movies, and Atlas and Bathsheba is no different - Atlas was a Titan out of Greek mythology who was condemned to support the heavens, and Bathsheba was the wife of King David in the Bible. Furthermore, the jawbone of an ass was used as a weapon by Samson, not Atlas.

Profile by Minor Irritant.

CLARIFICATIONS:
Atlas, vengeance-seeking Hollywood muscleman, has no known connections to:

• Atlas, Greek god @ Journey Into Mystery I#124
• Atlas, Olympian Titan @ Thor I#356
• Atlas (Erik Josten), size-changing Thunderbolt @ Incredible Hulk II#449
• Atlas Foundation, successor of Genghis Khan's empire @ Agents of Atlas#1
• any other jawbone-wielding maniacs

Simon Kolb

(Werewolf By Night I#22 (fb) ) - Hollywood producer Simon Kolb produced Atlas and Bathsheba, a sword-and-sandal epic that ceased production when its star, Steve Rand, was horribly disfigured.

(Werewolf By Night I#22) - After an angry phone conversation with an actor at his palatial mansion, Kolb ran into a giant masked figure, Atlas, who had broken in. He unmasked, revealing the mutilated face of Rand, and then killed Kolb.

--Werewolf By Night I#22 (22 (fb), 22

images: (without ads)
Werewolf By Night I#22, p9, pan2 (main image)
Werewolf By Night I#22, p10, pan1 (unmasked)
Werewolf By Night I#23, p3, pan6 (pre-disfigurement)
Werewolf By Night I#22, p8, pan6 (Kolb)