During the eighteen years in which Adam is gone, Eiling marries his wife and acts as father to his two children. Eiling manipulates Captain Atom into serving the military. His first attempts, a chance for Adam to view his children in exchange for retrieving a lost submarine, falls apart. This embarrasses Eiling in front of his superiors. The same issue details the cover story for Captain Atom that Eiling helps create, one that is, in his words, "a scenario just far-fetched and hokey enough to sound authentic". Eiling would also form an intensely adversarial relationship with Megala.