Given the scope of it all. Time. The Universe. All existence. It's easy to get overwhelmed. 
Captain Atom (Volume 3) #7 is an issue of the series Captain Atom (Volume 3) with a cover date of May, 2012. It was published on March 21, 2012.
Synopsis for "First Contact"
It is year, day, and hour zero; a temple is built in Nabta Playa, Ancient Egypt, and the clock of humanity starts ticking.
000:00:00:00
000:00:00:01
000:00:00:02...
It is "004:02:02:47 Year 6594". Future Captain Atom looks back through human history. He contemplates life in the form of a dandelion and dives into the sun.
Back in the present, the Clock reads "335:13:35:15 Year 6574". Captain Atom is watching a cancer-free Mikey Parker playing Frisbee. Michael is wearing a Captain Atom-styled shirt. Confident in his power, Captain Atom offers to fix Doctor Megala as he did Mikey, but Megala refuses.
Ranita Carter is back at work, and observes the instrument readouts for the particle accelerator, while Captain Atom observes the atomic collisions directly. The quantum energy causes him to begin viewing many Pre-Atom points in his life. Disparet times come together in tragedy. Birth. Death. Triumph. Failure. Finally:
The day of the accident, "123:14:12:55 Year 6571", Nathanial gets into Doctor Megala's dimension ship and they 'launch', but the ship slips out of position. Nathanial Adam loses control and vanishes. He is thought dead by all.
In the present, "335:19:46:33 Year 6574", Ranita Carter becomes alarmed and stops the tests. A few hours later, Captain Atom secretly watches Carter and Dr Alexander, until a distorted reflection in the restaurant window draws his attention away from the dining scientists.
Appearing in "First Contact"
Featured Characters:
- Captain Atom (Flashback and main story)
Supporting Characters:
- Continuum
- Doctor Megala (Flashback and main story)
- Doctor Carter
- Doctor Alexander
Antagonists:
Other Characters:
- General Eiling
- Michael Parker
- Isaac Newton (Flashback only)
- Gregor Mendel (Flashback only)
- Albert Einstein (Flashback only)
- Charles Darwin (Flashback only)
Locations:
- Continuum Lab
- Kansas City
- St. Petersburg, Florida (Flashback only)
- Nabta Playa (Flashback only)
Items:
Vehicles:
Notes
- The date code is read: "Day:Hour:Minute:Second on Year". Thus the date code of Nathaniel Adam's quantum accident - 123:14:12:55 Year 6571 - means Day 123 (May 2, 2008) at 2:12 PM. The corresponding Gregorian calendar year is given by subtracting 4563 from Captain Atom's clock.
Trivia
- "Nabta Playa" is a real archeological site in the Nubian desert, where the stone circle that Chrono Mota's followers build, was found. It is one of the earliest examples of a stone calendar circle. Nabta Playa at Wikipedia