Nuclear Family

A family of robots intent on creating their own nuclear wasteland.

Description[]

The Nuclear Family are a group of six androids that have the appearance of an all-American family (two grown-ups, three children and a dog) of the 1940s or '50s except that their clothes are decorated with the atomic symbol. Their skin is damaged in places to reveal the metal surface underneath and their eyes and mouths glow green in the dark. They act as though they are an ideal family and call themselves "automated Americans", but are self-conscious about being mere "robots" and react violently when they are called that.

Professor Stein knows them beforehand and warns that they are dangerous. He tells us that they were created by a Dr. Eric Shanner as static dummies to show the terrible effects on real people of an atomic bomb blast. However, the explosion instead energised them so that they developed a will of their own and various powers, and escaped into the outside world where they remained at large, squatting in places with an 'atomic' connection. The family tells us that their goal is to create a radioactive wasteland that they can settle in as their home. Unfortunately, this involves causing a nuclear meltdown at a power plant that will devastate half an American state.

The Family's powers are mainly the ability to shoot green ray blasts from their hands or sometimes their eyes and mouths. This is used either for combat (with the rays sometimes spinning forwards in a spiral) or for triggering a reactor overload. They also have the ability to expand the size of their furniture (in a 1950s style?) to decorate their home inside the power plant, but it is not clear if these are created from nothing or are carried around in a miniaturised form. As they like pool parties, they treat the reactor cooling water tank as their swimming pool.

Because their origin and powers seem similar to those of Firestorm, the Family considers itself to be related to him. Firestorm is less sure but humors them by suggesting that they share the same parents (nuclear explosions?). Despite their violent hostility, Firestorm eventually sympathises with them and, hugging them in a group, shrinks them into a bottle with a miniature house and pool to keep them content.

Dad is the head of the family and the most vocal, and considers himself to be "the master" in combat, being almost able to overcome Firestorm. He insists on calling the latter "Sparky".