Atom, The
Entry updated 1 July 2024. Tagged: Character, Comics.
A DC Comics Superhero. The original 1940s version of the hero was simply a short man without superpowers who like many of his era decided to fight crime by putting on a colourful costume and punching out evildoers. But when the character was recreated by Gardner F Fox in the 1960s, undoubtedly inspired by the success of another diminutive hero from the 1940s, Quality Comics's Doll Man, he was reimagined as a genuine superhero who could shrink indefinitely but normally appeared as a man six inches high (see Miniaturization). He debuted in Showcase #34 (October 1961) before graduating to his own title. Physics professor Ray Palmer (named after the longtime editor of Amazing Stories, Ray Palmer, who was a very short man) discovers a meteor from a white dwarf Star that provides him with his shrinking powers. He was imaginatively given unique abilities: he wore his superhero suit at all times, but the threads were invisible when he was of normal height, and only appeared when he was six inches tall. (It was not explained what happened when he shrunk to microscopic dimensions, when he would logically be smothered by the now all-enveloping fabric). He also had the innovative power of travelling long distances by making a phone call and having his tiny self dispatched along the phone lines to his destination, an ability now rendered useless by the ubiquitous use of cell phones. And since he could adjust his weight as well as his size, he could become lightweight and glide for short distances in the manner of a flying squirrel, and display a sort of super-strength by increasing the weight of his hands.
The Atom was quickly admitted to the Justice League of America, but this tended to diminish his stature instead of enhancing it: since he could not interact with fellow members at his normal size because that would reveal his civilian identity (unlike his counterpart, Marvel Comics' Ant-Man, whose ability to maintain his costume at all sizes was unexplained and unquestioned), he was forever destined to be the tiny comrade of normal-sized superheroes. Thus, he was given a small hovering chair to participate in group discussions, and Wonder Woman had the habit of picking him up and letting him ride in her tiara, so he was literally being treated like a toy. While a few adventures highlighted his special contributions to team adventures, he soon was being featured less and less. In his own comic, a Scientist friend gave the Atom access to his Invention, a small "Time Pool", that enabled him to travel into past eras (see Time Travel) and interact with historical figures like Benjamin Franklin and Edgar Allan Poe (see History in SF; Icons); he also regularly partnered with another superhero, Hawkman, who briefly co-starred in his comic before it was cancelled.
As inevitably occurs when a superhero is no longer popular, the Atom has been subject to tumultuous changes in recent decades. Among other developments, he was once transformed into a teenager so he could serve as a member of the Teen Titans: he married but later divorced his girlfriend Jean Loring; he travelled to the Amazon jungle, encountered a Lost Race of Aliens living there, also six inches high, and long remained with them and had a relationship with one of their princesses while establishing himself as a master swordsman; and he was sequentially replaced by three different characters (one female) all calling themselves the Atom. Equally inevitably, however, Palmer has also made return appearances, and he has regularly been featured in various live-action and animated television shows and Videogames, always as a supporting character. Perhaps the recent prominence of Ant-Man in the Marvel Cinematic Universe will spark renewed interest in DC's comparable character. [GW]
see also: The All-New Super Friends Hour; Alex Toth.
further reading
- Gardner F Fox. Showcase Presents: The Atom, Volume 1 (New York: DC Comics, 2007) [coll: graph: pb/Gil Kane]
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