I have a special affection for DC’s Atom stories. They developed and then occupied their own genre niche — one explored first by Doll Man and later by Ant Man.
The Atom’s singular powers put him in a position that had its own special appeal. He could travel in time, into subatomic worlds or instantaneously through telephone lines, but he could also slug it out with the kind of masked criminal gangs who kept the Dynamic Duo busy. Because of his small stature, even cat-costumed thugs could pose a credible threat against him.
“When the Atom discovered that he could retain his full 180 pounds even at peewee size, he also became an impressive action hero, bouncing off rubber erasers and wafting on breezes, then increasing his weight and driving his tiny fist into a crook’s jaw,” noted Will Jacobs and Gerard Jones in their book The Comic Book Heroes. “That was a godsend to Gil Kane; after years of DC pussyfooting with physical combat, editors were finally getting bold enough to let him strut his gift for action. Murphy Anderson’s inking, though, gave the violence a tidy, everyday flavor that accented the charm of the Tiny Titan.”
“Another aspect of the character which I think makes him unique is that his abilities simultaneously make him powerful and vulnerable,” Matthew Grossman observed. “He can ride through telephone wires, but water-filled sinks are a potentially deadly menace! The nature of Atom’s abilities requires intellectual planning by the hero to overcome challenges, which I’d say more than most firmly puts him in the Silver Age ‘scientific adventurer’ mold.”
Beauty and the Beast Gang (The Atom 27, Nov. 1966) was a human interest story against a superhero background. Ray Palmer’s shy friend, photographer Willie Farr, is hoping to take shots that will help his secret love, lonely Ivy Town secretary Dawn Hudson, win a beauty contest. But one of his infrared photos accidentally reveals the identity of a member of the masked Panther Gang, putting Willie in danger and getting the Atom involved. The Tiny Titan catches the criminals while managing to play Cupid.
We were getting peak Gil Kane in the Atom’s fights against the Panther Gang, with Kane’s lithe, balletic figures on full display.
“Gil Kane did a magnificent job on covers for the Atom series, by utilizing designs that would incorporate props accentuating the relative size of the hero,” wrote Vincent Mariani. ‘The concepts probably originated with Julius Schwartz or John Broome, but Kane brought them to life on these covers. The very first book (July 1962) featured the Atom struggling with a Venus Flytrap as the manic villain looms over the action.”
“I liked the Atom, especially for the Kane and Anderson art,” Joseph Lenius said, “But there were only so many times that the Atom’s deadly dilemma could be trapped in a watch, or in a light bulb, or stuck to a moving car’s tire, or going down a drain, or being at the mercy of a kitty cat, or …”
Over at Archie Comics, the Jaguar also fought a gang of cat-masked burglars in The Adventures of the Jaguar 13 (Aug. 1963).
About Author
