The Atomic Knights made their debut in 1960’s Strange Adventures #117, which introduced the team with a hyperbolic caption: “World War III — the great Atomic War — is over… and in it’s wake lies an Earth in ruins!” Written by John Broome and penciled by Murphy Anderson, “The Rise of the Atomic Knights” reads like a standard bit of Cold War era apocalyptic fiction. Atomic weapons have bombed the world back into the medieval period, a wasteland in which (according to the narration), “Might makes right!”
Under the leadership of Gardner Grayle, the Atomic Knights donned armor that had been irradiated for centuries to defend the powerless. They faced off against giant salt creatures and devolved cavemen, and rode on giant mutant Dalmatians. These stories have a certain Silver Age charm to them, but despite co-creating the Hal Jordan Green Lantern and the Barry Allen Flash, John Broome was never the most inventive writer. While the Atomic Knights concept had value, Broome really needed an artist like Gil Kane or Carmine Infantino to bring them to life.
So it makes sense that DC would come back to the Atomic Knights time and again, trying to find a place to plug them in. DC enfolded the Knights into Jack Kirby‘s post-apocalyptic Kamandi stories, which made them a popular background characters. Grayle went toe-to-toe with Hercules in a story by Cary Bates and Walter Simonson and occasionally crossed paths with Superman and Wonder Woman.
Grayle was later reimagined as a modern-day soldier in the U.S. Army who uses a suit developed by STAR Labs to become the Shining Knight of the reformed Seven Soldiers of Victory and then a modern day Atomic Knight, where he crossed paths with the Outsiders.
As a weird Silver Age concept with connections to Jack Kirby, the Atomic Knights are also favorites of Grant Morrison, who reimagined them for his (still underrated!) Final Crisis event. Led by yet another take on Gardner Grayle, the Atomic Knights patrol Nightwing’s city Blüdhaven, after it gets destroyed in an attack by the supervillain Chemo. Written by Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti and penciled by Dan Jurgens, the 2006 miniseries Battle for Blüdhaven portrays Grayle and the Knights as heroes defending the citizens of the irradiated city against various forces, including the secret organization SHADE. However, this version of the Knights gets devastated by a corrupted Mary Marvel in Final Crisis.
Since then, the Knights have made background appearances alongside Kamandi and other figures from the Great Disaster, and Grayle did pop up in an episode of Black Lightning (played by Boone Platt). But outside of reoccurring in the Convergence crossover, Creature Commandos is the first major Knights appearance in almost two decades.