Early on, I realized that on subatomic worlds, the Atom could as easily become a giant as a tiny hero. So I was pleased to see writer Gardner Fox and artist Gil Kane explore that possibility in The Up and Down Dooms of the Atom (The Atom 32, Sept. 1967).
Paralyzed in a scientific accident, Ray Palmer recovers his power of movement by shrinking to a subatomic world where he finds a cure for his malady even as he stops the subjugation of the Palond tribe by the savage Honds.
“A giant Gulliver Atom in the land of Lilliput!” wrote Texas reader Don Akers. “Quite a contrast to the normal Lilliputian properties Atom himself assumes! It’s different! I like it!”
Such one-note superheroes require versatility. The Atom used size in the way the Flash used speed, developing all sorts of uncanny applications for his power.
“Great use of size and spatial relations,” noted comics historian Matthew Grossman. “Another aspect of the character which I think makes him unique is that his abilities simultaneously make him powerful and vulnerable — 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.”
The Atom could have spent a lot of time exploring such subatomic worlds, but he didn’t, as comics historian Michael E. Grost observed.
“(Editor Julius) Schwartz had two science fiction magazines for which Fox frequently wrote,” Grost noted. “Mystery in Space tended to deal with stories set in outer space, while Strange Adventures tended to be based on Earth, and have tales grounded in daily life. There is something of a similar dichotomy between Fox’s two science fiction series for Schwartz, Adam Strange and The Atom. Adam Strange was set on another planet, while the Atom was set on the daily life of Earth.”
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