The Atom #32 (DC)
Gardner Fox (w) Gil Kane & Sid Greene (a)
One of my favourite DC heroes in my childhood was The Atom, the diminutive crime fighter who I always thought was somewhat underused and certainly didn't last long in his series a mere 38 bi-monthly issues until his "merger" with another favourite, Hawkman for a further 8 editions until #45.
Nevertheless these comics are highly entertaining and I have a few of which this is my latest purchase. This tale The Up and Down Dooms of the Atom sees a laboratory accident caused by his long term girlfriend (and later villianess) Jean Loring get hit by a beam leading Ray Palmer to save his own life by shrinking down a microscopic size where his white Dwarf powered suit can keep him alive.
As is always the case The Atom finds himself not just on a microscopic world in another universe the inhabitants also happen to be oppressed and using his size changing device becomes their world's largest hero.
One of those nice little Silver Age adventures where no one gets killed but the invaders defeated without any real bloodshed. So unlike today's dark stories. No wonder Superboy Prime went mad. He's back in Shazam soon.
An enjoyable read for what it is and of course Ray finds his way back to our reality miraculously cured as was the way back in the day!
6 years for a solo series back then was a solid run. But my perspective may be skewed as my formative comic reading years were in the early to mid 70's when so many titles barely made it to double digits...
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