COUNTDOWN # 40: "The Feature That Shouted Love At The Heart Of The Atom!" BY FREE STEVE CHUNG Last week in Countdown #40, Donna Troy, Jason Todd, and the New Atom were searching for Ray Palmer in the "Palmerverse." But who is this missing physicist? Why is he so important to the fate of the multiverse as we know it? What role will the Silver Age Atom play?
Thanks to a piece of white dwarf star matter and some sunlight, Physicist Ray Palmer is able to become the Tiny Titan known as The Atom. The Mighty Mite dedicates his size-changing abilities to fight crime and injustice. The combination of the physicist's brilliant mind along with the physical scope of his newfound power signaled the "Birth Of The Atom!"
Within a nuclear physics laboratory located at Ivy Town University, Experiment #145 begins when an ultraviolet light shines upon a polished lens. Beneath the ultraviolet ray, a chair soon becomes mere inches in height. When the light is switched off, the physicist awaits the reaction which has occurred on his previous experiments. BAMM! The chair blows apart, and Experiment #145 is a complete failure. Ray knows that in theory, matter can be compressed into a small space. If the atoms of three billion people could be compressed, the whole of humanity could fit inside a thimble. As the physicist turns on his tape recorder, he muses on the possibilities which matter compression has to offer. Farmers could grow a thousand times more on the same terrain, and one freight car could haul the bounty of a hundred such trains.
Three months ago, Ray Palmer had been working on the experiment with no success, when he saw a meteor falling from the sky. After digging deep, the fragment of white dwarf star matter was found. The physicist can barely lift it, and carries it to his car. The graduate student knows that since they are formed of degenerate matter, white dwarf stars are dense, and when stripped of electrons, are greatly compressed. Once he studied the fragment, Ray hoped to find out the secret of compressing matter without losing its physical and chemical properties. It was from that fragment that he cut and polished a reducing lens. After some experimentation, the physicist learned that by focusing ultraviolet rays through the lens, he could shrink inanimate objects.
Each time an object was shrunk, it would explode, and this was caused by the unstable compressed atoms. His experiment would not be a success until he learned how to return the compressed objects to their former size. Turning off the tape recorder, Ray is greeted by the arrival of his fiancée, Jean Loring. Since her case was adjourned in court, she's decided to join him on the nature club hike. The graduate student is ready with proposal number fifty-seven, but Jean reserves the right to answer the question at a later date. Jean's determined to prove herself as a successful lawyer before giving up her career and settling down into married life. Ray's also been trying to prove himself as a research scientist, and is glad that he's hidden his reducing lens. When he discovers the method of shrinking matter, it will be his surprise for his fiancée. The next hour finds the nature club making their hike into the country. The experiments are still on Ray's mind. He knows that Jean made it through law school in two years, and he's determined to make good on his own, too.
Inside Giant Caverns, Counselor Ray Palmer begins the exploration of the underground caves. After entering single file into the grottoes, the counselor asks what calcium deposits are called that hang from the ceiling, and which are the ones that are formed on the ground. It turns out that stalactite has a "c" for ceiling, and stalagmite has a "g" for ground. RRROAR! The passageway is blocked off when part of the ceiling caves in. After the rocks have stopped falling, and the dust has settled, Ray tries to figure a way out before the natural gas seeps up from the floor.
Unable to find an opening, Ray tells Jean to keep the children entertained until he finds a way out. With no one on the outside aware that they are trapped in the caves, it's up to Ray Palmer to get the nature club out safely. Thirty minutes later, Ray has found a tiny opening which only an ant could crawl through. This gives him an idea. After placing two flat rocks on two stalagmites, he places the lens atop the rocks, and prepares to stand under it. Before doing so, he leaves his diamond ring to one side.
Once the sunlight has struck the lens, Ray Palmer feels the energy shooting through him, and making him smaller. Each second finds him shrinking smaller until he races from beneath the beam. With only a limited amount of time before the explosion, Ray slips the ring over his shoulder, and heads for the cavern wall. At his current size, he sees plenty of places to climb. His strength is much greater at this size, and he hopes that he is able to help the children in time.
RASP! He uses the diamond to cut through the rocks. CRRACK! His muscles enable him to tear away several pieces of rock, enlarging the aperture. Feeling strange rumblings in his own body, Ray throws down the diamond ring, and leaps down after it.
The tiny figure runs back between the stalagmites and beneath the lens. He feels the shock as his body begins to grow, and he's back to normal. It appears that water from the rock ceiling was on the lens, and this may be why he failed to explode. Back in the grotto, the counselor tells the others about the tunnel he just found. Since she and Ray once explored the caves, Jean isn't aware of any such tunnel. Nevertheless, Ray points towards it, and insists that he enlarged it himself. He also hopes that his fiancée doesn't ask him how he was able to climb up such smooth walls.
Fortunately, it doesn't matter to Jean how he managed to find the tunnel, and as long as everyone gets out safely. Back at the lab, the research scientist is in for a surprise. BAM! Placing the water onto the lens didn't prevent another inanimate object from exploding. The physicist muses that something in his own body must have enabled him to regain his former size. With more experimentation, he should be able to overcome the problem. Now that he's able to turn into an Atom, who knows what may come next?
The birth of the Atom took place in Showcase #34 (September/October, 1961) by Gardner Fox, Gil Kane, and Murphy Anderson.
Years later, when the Batman's body is found brain-dead due to an electrical shock, it is renowned physicist Ray Palmer from Ivy University who is consulted on the case. He agrees with the doctor's findings that the Masked Manhunter's brain impulse is gone, and only his will is keeping his heart beating for a while longer. With the life of an innocent girl hanging in the balance, the Professor tells the Commissioner that he'd like to stay behind and pay his respects.
Taking a miniature TV camera and receiver set, Ray places the tiny TV camera eye on the Darknight Detective's chest, and holds onto the receiver with one hand. His other hand presses his belt, and thanks to the white dwarf star fibers in his belt controls, the six-foot-two scientist becomes the Atom. Even then, he becomes smaller, and smaller until he is able to enter through Batman's ear.
The Mighty Mite passes through the stirrup, the hammer, and the anvil, which are the basic parts of the middle ear. After more shrinking, he heads for the Batman's brain. Now at molecular size, nerves are the size of ropes, while cells are as large as lily pads. Just ahead is the medulla oblongata or brain stem. Since the brain stem is the communication center, and governs life functions such as breathing and heartbeat, the Atom stimulates the oblongata with some fancy footwork.
As the Atom continues inside the skull of his fellow Justice Leaguer, he sees the arteries are pulsating, and the blood are a brighter red with higher oxygen content. With heartbeat and breathing almost normal, the Mighty Mite heads for the thinking part of the brain, the cerebrum. A half inch is as a mile when the Atom reaches his goal, and gives Batman the "idea" to get up. The still figure rises from his final repose. Thanks to the TV receiver in his possession, the Atom can see what the camera on the Masked Manhunter's chest "sees". Now, off to the cerebellum.
With the cerebellum, equilibrium and coordination are controlled. Batman is able to leave the hospital through an open window, and walks off into the night. Unable to reconstitute the Darknight Detective's consciousness, it is up to the crimefighter's subconscious to lead him back to his last known location, and the hideout where Debbie Manton is being held.
As Batman walks up towards the abandoned police station, the Atom races back to the cerebrum, and give him another idea. The electrical current dissuades the Mighty Mite from this course of action, and cowled heads prevail. Once inside, things will no doubt get tougher.
One of the hoods sees the dead Batman coming towards him. The Atom tickles the cerebellum to get the Caped Crimefighter to follow after him. Unfortunately, it's the wrong hand that swings out a punch. Since the right side of the brain controls the left side of the body, the Mighty Mite jumps onto the left lobe. WHOK! Contact and a TKO. The Batman continues up the stairs.
The approaching footsteps are heard. WOK! Finding himself on the thalamus, the Atom tunes in, and gets a shot of the ceiling. He sees the thug about to finish what he just started.
THUD Another hood goes down due to two blue boots in the belly. After a run from the cerebrum to the cerebellum, Batman is given another message. The Cowled Crusader stops in his tracks, a threat is perceived, and the Tiny Titan can only see an empty hall on his TV receiver.
By the way the picture is tilted, the Atom figures that there's something being shoved against the right side of his friend's head. As he gives the left lobe cerebellum a tickle, the zombie-Batman turns, and the Mighty Mite sees the shotgun aimed towards his head. With both of their lives in danger, the Atom plants another idea into the cerebrum, and makes contact with the thalamus.
BLAM The lifeless figure springs into action. KWAAM A back-flip and one blue boot to the jaw sends the shotgun wielder to the ground. The second barrel puts him out of his misery. With little time left, Debbie must be found now.
Through one last door, the brain-dead Batman makes his entrance, and the gunman has got the girl covered. Even as the Atom makes one last desperate dash, the armed hood prepares to shoot his hostage, and the Darknight Detective falls over.
It seems that Batman's borrowed time has run out, and so has Debbie Manton's. TZOK Moving at invisible speed, the Atom delivers a solid punch with the force of a bullet to the thug's jaw. With the hood out cold, and the girl fainting from shock, the Mighty Mite was forced to leave Batman's brain in order to save the day. With his departure, the Masked Manhunter's tenuous lease on life was lost. If he had remained inside his friend's skull, Batman would have a second life, but the life of Ray Palmer would be over.
In a cramped hospital room, doctors are trying to figure out how a man dead on arrival managed to get up, and save a girl's life. They watch as his brain wave pattern returns to normal, with breathing and heartbeat stabilizing as well. They are unaware of the single "atom" of life which enabled the stimulation that reversed things, and caused a happy miracle. As he leaves the hospital zone, the physicist watches as Debbie Manton kisses Batman, and figures that she might not want to kiss a fellow who is only six inches tall.
The Atom made his incredible odyssey through "The Corpse That Wouldn't Die" in The Brave and the Bold #115 (Oct-Nov, 1974) by Bob Haney and Jim Aparo.
Although his career as a super-hero sent him to other worlds, Ray's work as a physicist wasn't faring as well. When someone else gives an identical paper at the International Physical Year Symposium, Ray leaves the symposium without having read his paper, and throws himself into his work
The situation worsens when the physicist fires his assistants, locks his lab door, and doesn't return home until later at night. By the time, Hawkman and Jean Loring are able to reach the lab at Ivy University, the Atom has truly thrown himself into his latest experiment, and disappears for parts unknown.
In addition to Katar Hol, Batman, Red Tornado, Green Arrow, and the Black Canary follow after their friend on his journey through the microcosmos.
The JLAers temporarily lose their memories on this trip, but by the time they recover, the identity of that world's giant from beyond has been revealed.
It has only been 2.4 seconds since Jean Loring watched the Justice League go off in search of her husband, and their abrupt return has her dreading the results. Since time passes at a different rate in the microcosmos, Ray Palmer feels like he's been away for a century. Things look happy for the married couple, but it would not last.
The JLAers went "Into The Microcosmos" in Justice League of America #213 (April, 1983) by Gerry Conway, Don Heck, Romeo Tanghal, John Costanza, Anthony Tollin, and Len Wein.
Ray and Jean separated. They collaborated with author Norman Brawler on a book about their lives. Exposure to white dwarf radiation threatened the Atom's crimefighting career and Ray's life. He had chosen to live with Laethwen and her alien culture in South America, permanently at his six-inch size.
When some agents of the C.I.A. burned down Laethwen's entire village to recruit the Atom, the physicist managed to cut them down to size.
After putting the costume away, and using some government contacts, Ray Palmer set himself up as "Professor Don Shuffler," an upstate Physics teacher. In order to divert attention from himself, he set up a kid named Nate Cray as the Atom. Cray joined up with the Suicide Squad, then lost his life when the killer mistook him for Palmer.
Following the events of Zero Hour, Ray Palmer was regressed mentally and physically to the age of seventeen. He would soon be leading a new team of Teen Titans.
When the identity of Sue Dibny's killer was discovered, Ray Palmer left his Justice League signal device in the hands of a doctor at Arkham Asylum.
He had to get out. And get away. By himself. The revelation of his best friend's murder left him feeling smaller than ever.
What has happened to the physicist since then, and how he will react to this latest crisis remains a mystery at the moment.
posted
Um, no. I didn't lose interest near the end. There are big pieces missing from my comic book collection, unfortunately.
I read and used to have the Sword of the Atom series. Since I didn't have it in my possession, I had to rely on memory and summaries from Who's Who #1 and The Atom Specials #1 and #2.
I vaguely knew about the Nate Cray Atom from issues of the Suicide Squad, and knew that Ray was aged to a teenager in the pages of Zero Hour.
Darned if I remember when he got turned back into an adult.
Also, I didn't want to ruin the story for anyone who hasn't already read Identity Crisis, and wasn't aware of who killed Sue Dibny.
The Silver Age Atom is an interesting character and I first came across him in a 1975 World's Finest issue where the Man of Steel is about to smash him with his super-fist.
Posts: 3532 | From: San Bruno | Registered: Aug 2002
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posted
The coverage of the article was kinda strange: the best known stuff about the character (origin & powers) and one minor derivative adventure were well covered. The rest of the stuff that I wanted to know more about was glossed over (marriage, divorce, time with the little people, second run at being a teenager). The JLA adventure was covered so broadly that I wasn't sure what the heck significance it had or even exactly the challenges/drama of the adventure.
Posts: 22 | From: Seattle, WA | Registered: Jan 2002
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