Showcase Presents: The Atom, Vol. 2

I decided I didn't want to wait to read the rest of the collected earliest adventures of the world's smallest superhero, the Atom. After I read a Showcase Presents or Marvel Essential collection, I usually wait a while to read the follow up. Mostly, because these books are so hard to find and I enjoy them so much that I don't want to run out of adventures to read. But I had such an enjoyable time with Gardner Fox and Gil Kane's take on the diminutive powerhouse that I just couldn't hold it anymore.

Chronos, Doctor Light and the Floronic Man, Jason Woodrue, all make returns in hopes of enacting revenge on the Atom. There are a good 3 or 4 continuing treks through the Time Pool, sending the hero to solve an assortment of historical mysteries such as the only successful theft of England's crown jewels. Ray Palmer's relationship with Jean Loring advances, though still no wedding bells. Plus unlikely pal, Hawkman with his bride Hawkgirl make a few returns to Atom's burgh of Ivy Town.

This isn't to say that this whole second volume is a rehash of stories seen in the first anthology. Far from it. Justice League of America sidekick Snapper Carr is given a secret assist from the Atom. Then Earth-1 and Earth-2 combine when Ray Palmer meets the original Atom, Al Pratt, in not one but two team-ups between legacy characters. The Atom also adds some new rogue's to his gallery with the introduction of the Bug-eyed Bandit and the Bat-Knights.

The Bat-Knights seems like characters that should be a part of the Batman universe. Only, these fierce warriors are an ancient pint-sized race of people who fly atop bats when they feel endangered by the full-size humans who stumble upon their territorial lands. Two great stories involved these new creatures and their love/ hate relationship with fellow tiny hero, the Atom. 

The Atom also picks up an animal sidekick in the penultimate story. While in Cambodia assisting on an archaeological dig, Ray Palmer encounters an injured mynah bird. Once healed, Ray names him Major and uses the bird for winged treks. Sadly, Major's appearance in issues #37 and #38 would just about be the bird's only additions to the DC Universe.

I don't think sales were to blame for cancellation. Instead, it was ageism. In 1968, the year The Atom was 'cancelled', Fox and several other veterans were fired when DC enacted a policy to not provide insurance coverage for their elderly employees. I think Fox knew that his days were numbered as the tone of several stories in this volume drastically changed. Instead of straight forward storytelling, Gardner Fox began experimenting with quirky introductions, alternative perspectives and points of view and more hip slang that the average 1960s teen might use... badly. More than likely, Fox was doing a little employee improvement practice on DC's dime, as the writer's work temporarily imitates what Marvel was beating DC with at the time. 

After publishing a handful of novels, in the early 1970s, Gardner Fox would go on to work briefly at Marvel, perhaps boosted by his more modern resume. Unfortunately, Fox wouldn't be allowed to say a proper goodbye to his creation of the Atom. Neither would Gil Kane. Instead it would be written by Frank Robbins with starkly different penciling by Mike Sekowsky. Issue #38 would also be the final run of the first volume of The Atom. Sorta.

With issue #39, the series was re-branded The Atom and Hawkman. Hawkman's solo series was officially cancelled and the Thanagarian hero joined forces with the Atom. Hawkman's Joe Kubert led the creative team that replaced Fox and Kane. However, the teaming of feathered friend and tiny titan wasn't to be, as ultimately both heroes were cancelled before the new decade with issue #45. This book does not include those final 7 team-up issues.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.

Showcase Presents: The Atom, Vol. 1 (2024 Comic Book & Graphic Novel Reading Challenge)

When scientist Ray Palmer witnesses a meteorite crash on the outskirts of his hometown of Ivy Town, the event changes his life forever. Palmer determines that the fragment is part of an exploded white dwarf star. After several months of experiments, Ray makes a specially designed lens out of the material. When using light to focus the radiation from the meteor, it shrink objects down to about 6 inches in size. Unfortunately, after a few minutes, the shrunken item will inexplicably explode.

One afternoon, while spelunking a nearby cavern, a cave-in occurs, trapping Ray Palmer and some undergrads. Ray finds a escape. Only he's too big to make it through. Thankfully, Ray has his special lens with him and using sunlight pouring through the opening, Palmer is able to reduce his size and to create an escape for him and his students.

After the cave-in, Palmer develops a suit out of the remaining white dwarf material that allows him to shrink without becoming a human grenade. Palmer also equips the suit with a special control dial that not only shrinks him down to microscopic size, but controls his density. Now going by the name, the Atom: the World's Smallest Superhero, Ray Palmer fights crime with an ulterior motive - love. 

Ray's girlfriend, Jean Loring, is an aspiring lawyer. She refuses to accept Ray's many marriage proposals until she can make her name as a top defense attorney. Thus Ray will assist Jean secretly as the Atom in hopes that she'll eventually say yes. In order to finally obtain an 'I Do' from Jean Loring, the Atom will fight an assortment of small time crooks and advanced super villains. 

The Atom's early Rogue's Gallery will include the Floronic Man, Jason Woodrue, master of luminescence, Doctor Light and the time manipulating criminal known as Chronos. Sadly, Ray's relationship with Jean Loring and his battles with Doctor Light only happen to dredge up painful memories to devoted readers of the Atom, as later in pages of Brad Meltzer's Identity Crisis, the two characters in the Atom's life will be responsible for the tragic death of fan-favorite character, Sue Disney.

The Atom was created by Gardner Fox, who frequently claimed that his ideas came to him in his dreams. A legacy character, the Atom was a Silver Age re-imagination of a diminutive powerhouse member of the Justice Society of America with the same name. The Silver Age character was designed by Gil Kane with Ray Palmer's features based on Hollywood actor Robert Taylor in his younger days. The Atom debuted in the September/October, 1961 issue of Showcase. The Atom would star in issues #34-36, before being awarded his own title in the summer of 1962. 

The first of two volumes of Showcase Presents featuring the Atom; this collection was published in 2007. It collects those trio of appearances in Showcase along with the first 17 issues of The Atom. Readers will delight in the hero's first of many iconic team ups with Hawkman. The Atom also has meetings with several important historical figures in a series of time traveling adventures. Referred to as ' Time Pool Stories ', the Atom frequently traveled through a time vortex, unbeknownst to a colleague of Ray Palmer's. In the past, the Atom would assist Henry Hudson, Edgar Allen Poe and others as the pint-sized hero solved some of history's greatest mysteries.

Gardner Fox wrote all of the scripts with Gil Kane as sole artist. Duties on inker were primarily achieved by Murphy Anderson, with Sid Greene as a substitute.

Completing this review completes Task #34 (Written by Gardner Fox, Gil Kane or George Tuska) of the 2024 Comic Book and Graphic Novel Reading Challenge.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

Green Lantern #36

Hal Jordan rejoins his brothers to celebrate Christmas. 

Wait a minute! I thought Hal Jordan was Jewish! In 2016, it was revealed that Hal's dad was Catholic and mom was Jewish. This issue took place in 1993. So technically, when Hal was converted in the pages of Justice League: The Darkseid War: Green Lantern #1, nothing altered the possibility that the Jordan family could have celebrated both Christmas and Hanukkah. It's possible that that year's Festival of Lights had ended days prior and so when Hal was able to come home, it was for Christmas festivities only. 

This issue has a lot of other things going on that I wasn't really aware of. For one thing, Doctor Light had at one point died and as a sort of passive aggressive punishment, was turned into a wave of light by a demon. Then for some reason, Hal Jordan no longer works for Ferris Air and has become a taxi pilot. Now Hal has always been flighty when it comes to working at Ferris as he keeps leaving and returning. But now Carol Ferris is no longer with the company and is instead working for Hal's small business. That sort of career move doesn't make any sense to me. Obviously, a lot transpired in the issues prior. 

That's a real problem with holiday issues that occur in the pages of a regular non-humor series. There always seems to be a lot of talk about past problems that had transpired in the last couple of issues. And if you aren't a regular reader of those books, you're often in the dark trying to understand what happened. 

This sort of thing doesn't deter me from wanting to own holiday themed comics. But it does move me to lower my rating as I feel that books that take place during Christmas, Halloween or even St. Swithin's Day, should be self-contained because these type of issues have generally been the introductory pieces for comic collectors. I can't tell you the number of posts I see on social media of fans pointing to a holiday themed book being what got them into reading and collecting comics. Sure, this issue is nearly 30 years old and there's nothing that can be done to fix it. However, this is definitely a lesson that all comic book publishers should learn from going forward.

Festive. Adventuresome. But full of drama that really doesn't help move the story along very much without confusing the casual reader.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 7 out of 10 stars.

Justice League International #54

In one of the better story-lines in the entire 1990s Justice League gambit, the Leaguers are undergoing some strange changes. Powergirl’s no longer pregnant. It takes Flash almost 8 minutes to run to Scotland from London. And Doctor Light is horny as all get out.

An intriguing story with a great mystery that’s solved in the cliffhanger. It’s a quality tale that puts the static Leaguers into some very refreshing different lights.

It makes the reader anxious to know what happens next- and fast!

Worth Consuming.

Rating: 10 out of 10 stars.

Justice League International #58

The wispy fading visages of Doctor Light and Metamorpho seem to indicate that this story is a continuation of the previous issue (of which I wasn’t a huge fan of.) Alas, that’s not the case.

But the League is having to deal with this mysterious gang of reincarnated gods and it’s getting very confusing figuring out whose of who’s side and so forth.

Not bad story, but it has some very tangled story lines that need tying up badly.

Worth Consuming.

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

Justice League International #52

Doctor Light and Power Girl lead the way to the slums of India in order to free Maya from this mysterious group of cultists first introduced in issue #51. Along the way, the mystery of Power Girl’s pregnancy is explored, but there’s more questions than answers by issues end.

The plot is getting a little convoluted and I don’t enjoy the way some of these mysteries are being handled. Usually, with a suspenseful plot-line, you gradually answer some questions while opening new cans of worms. Here, nothing is being answered. It’s just mysteries heaped upon mysteries and I am just not a fan of how the writers have handled it.

A good story when it involves actually saving Maya AND the art is top notch. But, other than that, it’s a very confusing issues.

Worth Consuming.

Rating: 7 out of 10 stars.