Character/DC

Gardner Grayle

leader of The Atomic Knights

Gardner Grayle first appeared in Strange Adventures #117 (1960-06), published by DC. 63 appearances are indexed across 36 series.

Original history: When the Army discovered that mentally and physically Sgt. Gardner Grayle was exactly average, he was dubbed Mr. Average Atomic-Warrior. Grayle was one of the lucky ones who survived World War III relatively unscathed, only initially suffering from memory loss. He remembered that the first atomic bomb fell on October 9, 1986. He then found a newspaper dated October 29 that indicated that the war had lasted for only 20 days, with Washington D.C. reported being destroyed. He joined forces with five others, who all donned suits of armor that were capable of acting as a shield against nuclear radiation. They formed The Atomic Knights to help bring order to a post-apocalyptic society. On Pre-Crisis Earth-One, Gardner Grayle had volunteered for a virtual reality computer simulation to observe how people would react to a post-nuclear war situation. Grayle's mind manufactured adventures of himself as leader of The Atomic Knights. Grayle was eventually rescued from the simulation by Superman and Marene Herald of S.T.A.R. Labs. Grayle soon began having dark visions of the future. He took a battle suit from S.T.A.R. Labs and became The Atomic Knight in an attempt to prevent the nuclear catastrophe that he saw. On Post-Crisis New Earth, years before Gardner Grayle had become The Atomic Knight, Deadman possessed the body of Dr. Bryndon so that he could speak to Grayle and recruit him for the new Seven Soldiers of Victory. Deadman convinced Grayle to don the high-tech armor that Bryndon was working on, becoming the new Shining Knight. In the Post-Crisis Earth-0 reality, Chemo was dropped into the heart of Blüdhaven by The Society, contaminating the city. The federal government sealed off the city to contain the toxic environment. A resistance group known as Roundtable formed The Atomic Knights, led by Gardner Grayle, to act as a type of underground railroad, aiding the oppressed citizens.