Power of the Atom Podcast #610

Eye of the Storm

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• Invasion! Aftermath Extra!
• By Roger Stern, Graham Nolan, K.S. Wilson and more!
• From DC Comics's Holiday 1988 cover-dated Power of the Atom #8, plus Starman #6 & Invasion #3!

The Alien Alliance Invasion attempt has ended in victory for Earth. In Starman #6, Will Payton helps save the Sydney Opera House, then hears a voice of congratulation. The Atom soon grows to assign a face to the disembodied voice and shake the neophyte Starman's hand. The pair bond over being reluctant super-heroes who nonetheless served mankind when called upon. Will had heard about Ray's book and wondered if it had any heroism pointers, but Palmer admitted that it was more a blueprint for what not to do in the trade. Most especially, the Atom warned Starman against revealing his secret identity. Since both books were written by Roger Stern, Ray's voice was consistent, and since it was drawn by Tom Lyle, so was my level of enthusiasm for the art.

In a hard-sell of the Atom in his own book, the least effective was to entice new readers, the splash of Power of the Atom #8 tells everyone about how the Mighty Mite was first hero on the ground and among the last wrangling stragglers. I'm guessing Tasmania Devil doesn't count since he was beaten off-panel on his home turf. Anyway, Ray was floating on air currents, heard a cry for help, and lifted debris using his size and density altering powers as a wedge. A Khund took potshots during this effort, and Atom didn't like that, so a beating was delivered. The authorities took the Khund away in chains, so my first question was where did they come up with Khund-sized neck shackles, and my second was what happened to all those Alien Alliance P.O.W.s? Like, are they still here? Were they returned to the Khundian empire in exchange for Blasters? Were they repatriated to Australia?

Amid the rubble of Brisbane, Chronos was gathering alien weapons off the bodies of dead Khunds. A Thanagarian took offense to this, and took a shot. Chronos timed out on that, and when the Thanagarian landed to assess for presumed disintegration, David Clinton gave him that love touch. By which I mean Chronos touched his shoulder from behind and aged him to death. I have to assume Thanagarians never fully recovered from the Equalization Plague if one got outflanked in personal combat by Tricky Dick.

Power Girl and Green Lantern were also helping to shore-up the battle damaged Sydney Opera House, so that's probably how the Atom came to ride on Hal Jordan's shoulder back to a military base. Even got his costume repaired via power ring. Don't get used to palling around with old school Justice Leaguers, Ray. The quality of your team associations is going to drop markedly going forward. Soldiers look on at the desiccated corpse of the Thanagarian, pinned to a wall by his wings, tagged with the note "Atom-- The Truce Is Over. -C." It was really thoughtful of Chronos to sign the letter, given the breadth of the Atom's rogues gallery. Then again, he signed with the letter "C," and the entirety of them are c-list, so there's still some potential for confusion. When Ray accidentally pulled off Hawkman's honor wings a few issues ago, it was a set-up for this limp fakeout. Such is the sorry state of affairs known collectively by the title "Power of the Atom."

Meanwhile, Jean Hoban called Norman Brawler's house in hopes of an update on Ray, but Enrica Negrini answered. I swear that name sounds like something they'd come up with on a sitcom when a character's about to get busted for pretending to be an exotic foreigner. I don't remember answering phones while visiting other people's houses back in the cordfull days of landlines, maybe they do things differently in Italy, and Jean asks if this is Enrica who answered. She then does one of those drawn out "Yee-e-s" and identifies herself as "Doctor Negrini," so it's like the Donna Reed show where Jean Loring is playing both parts using mirrors. Dahwktoohr Negrini doesn't know anything, but wonders to herself if Jean is overly concerned about the well-being of a man that she swore to love, honor, and protect for the rest of her life and was still married to a couple or three years ago. I guess we're still two decades away from Silver Linings Playbook blowing away the myth that people still have feelings for their significant others after the end of a relationship. This one page went a long way in turning me off on Enrica Negrini, but I do have to remind myself that she was talking to Jean. Who knows what kind of crazy was coming across that doesn't translate to the page, or how much her being the worst brings out the worst in others?

Both Ray Palmer and David Clinton managed to separately make the 15-21 hour trip back to San Clemente, CA in the span of that conversation. When authorities refuse to investigate a power local figure on the say-so of a man who wears his underwear on the outside, the Atom commits the actual crime of breaking into Clinton's house. There's a gauntlet of technology and thugs in riot gear for the Tiny Titan to overcome while Clinton watches it all on closed-circuit television from his yacht. When that fails, as he surely knew it would, he just remote detonates his own house to get the Atom. How do you figure that turned out? Or when Chronos and his henchman buddy go to check the site of the explosion in full costume? Sure, Atom could have figured a away to follow the signal to the yacht, but instead he'll just let Chronos come to him and serve knuckle sandwiches at the picnic. And again, set up, Chronos eventually gets his hand on Atom's shoulder, which Atom rightly guessed would be immune to the rapid aging effect because of the white dwarf matter, based purely on a hunch. He offers no evidence as to why that would be, and it was an extremely stupid and dangerous way to bait Chronos into taking exactly one punch before his evading with time-jumping again, but comics. Bad comics. Anyway, a bomb goes over and fries Chronos' suit a few minutes into the future, and then catches up to Ray with an inverted final splash page explosion.

You can't say that DC didn't try to push the Atom during his brief and unexceptional run. The series tied multiple issues into the Invasion event, and as a reward, Bart Sears drew Atom on Superman's shoulder dead center on the cover of the final issue of the mini-series. I still manage to miss that fact nine times out of ten while looking at said cover, but I was actively looking for the perhaps too Tiny Titan this time. Twenty pages into the-- ugh-- third eighty-page issue, the Atom can be seen riding Amanda Waller's shoulder after dropping Chronos off at Belle Reve Federal Penitentiary in Louisiana. The negative-image gene bomb dropped by the Dominators causes humans with the metagene to trigger uncontrollable power spikes, compromising a prison filthy with them. As a dude who gets his abilities from a suit, the Atom gets drafted to help "neutralize" inmates "any way possible." When Task Force X voluntary agent Nightshade is affected, Atom asks "Ms. Waller" how she wants him to proceed. It's rendered moot relatively quickly though, as the affected metagene-actives soon grow gravely ill. It all gets resolve without any more Atom action to cover, so come back next week when I finally close the loop on April Fool's Month and my covering of this series up to my recent guest appearance on the Justice League International: Bwah-Ha-Ha Podcast...

Chronos,Jean Loring,POTAcast,Power of the Atom,Ray Palmer,Hawkman,Green Lantern,Nightshade,Power of the Atom Podcast,Post-Crisis,

Power of the Atom Podcast #609

Behind Enemy Lines!

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• Invasion! First Strike! Extra!
• By Roger Stern, Graham Nolan, K.S. Wilson and more!
• From DC Comics's Holiday 1988 cover-dated Power of the Atom #7, plus Invasion #2 & Hawk and Dove #1!

Chronos broke off hostilities with the Atom to address the greater menace of thinly disguised Yellow Peril Fu Manchu E.T.s crossing the border into... checks notes... Australia? So it's definitely 1988, the year Wolverine was both the shrimp and the barbie. Chronos had popped in a VHS tape to record the Dominators and Khunds demanding Earth imprison its metahuman population, and if I recall correctly, Invasion! was where the term "metahuman" got popularized at DC Comics. There's also footage of the Alien Alliance surrounding the Earth with an armada of battleships, so Chronos tries to get Atom into shaking on a truce. Ray leaves Clinton hanging on account of that whole numerous murder attempts rap, which really puts Clinton out. Honestly, I think Chronos wanted his value acknowledged and to maybe even form a friendship with Atom, or else why keep making excuses for not just killing him when he had the chance? Ray Palmer is just not a forgive and forget kind of dude, and once he decides you're not worth messing with, he ain't gonna.

In one of those "Simpsons predicted the future" moments, when The Atom uses the branded phone of future DC overlords', that's AT&T-- reach out an touch someone. Reach out and touch... an Australian. Actually, there's aliens working the old-timey switchboards like Ernestine going "one ringy-dingy," allowing the Atom to drop his load in a Khundian earhole so deep, put his hairy butt to sleep. Also, on the floor, because that Knund was sitting on an office swivel chair before he passed out. This is the kind of insanity that doesn't get translated into the movies, folks.

The Tiny Titan dodged a laser blast from another Khund that barbqued a Citadelian that had tried to grab him, then shifted his mass to hit that Khund full force to lay him out. Chronos was still on the phone counting up to make sure the line was clear for Atom, so Ray picked up the phone just long enough to tell Clinton he'd see him after the war and hang-up.

Okay, so the book actually started with the Atom in the rafters of a warehouse, where Khunds are forcing Aussies to load a truck. The Tiny Terror shrank and dropped on the back of a Khund's neck, and that panel served as Atom's tiny cameo in the second issue of the Invasion mini-series, redrawn by Todd McFarlane. Reminds me of a cartoon from one of DC's free advertorial comics that had Jason Todd on crutches complaining that in his one chance to get drawn by John Byrne in his prime for Legends, he got beaten by a mob and left in a cast for the rest of the event.

The Atom grabbed a blaster pistol and shot another Knund in the nards, and the point of all this dirty pool is to show him as a no-nonsense warrior. That Amazing Heroes article I referenced last time made out like the book wasn't selling and these Invasion tie-ins were intended as a soft relaunch of the book. They had a new artist and a new attitude with the hope that the crossover would expose them to a broader audience. But again, the Sword of the Atom was whet with the blood of little, yellow, different, better aliens. Why were these cut-rate Klingons getting kid gloves with little tweeting birds circling the head of that dude who Atom gave that bop that make you break yo neck?

In a hash of U.K. cliche dialogue and one guy who is clearly Crocodile Dundee, the Aussies congratulate the Atom and ask what he's doing in Oz. Like when you tell someone "how ya' doin'" and they actually stop and tell you in detail exactly how, in fact, they are doing, Ray spends five pages telling them what I told you at the start, including the part about Chronos showing the video of the aliens making their demands like the Aussies didn't see the broadcast themselves before they were literally captured by those aliens and forced to work by them. Taking a page from John Oliver, it's like Dumb Inception. It's like Inception, but really dumb. You got my flashback in your flashback.

The Aussies decided to put on Khund armor and help the Atom infiltrate a labor camp. Should I add a "u" to "labour" when it's an Australian fictional alien labor camp? Also, why is there a superfluous "u" in "labour" but not in the Labor Party? I think the U.K. is just pulling one over on us Yanks with their notoriously dry wit, laughing at ever "u" and how Madonna used to try to pronounce them with her fake accent when she was married to Guy Ritchie. Also, why did people complain when Snatch was really similar to Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels but better and make Guy Ritchie self-conscious, so that he started remaking Italian dramas with Madonna instead of just doing more hyperactive and stylized heist movies, the thing he was actually good at. Where were we? Oh yes, Ray Palmer spending a page telling Crocodile Dundee his origin story again, plus a clumsy transition to Jean Loring-Hoben making her new husband Paul jealous by worrying over her ex fighting aliens. All of those theoretical new fans are going to be all over size-altering Al Bundy telling them about his four touchdowns in one game.

Chronos finally made it to Cape York Peninsula by this point, and used his timey-wimey aircraft to evade some Daxamites feeling themselves with new super-powers. On the ground, no matter what you think of Australians, they did not fool the Khunds for a second just by wearing their body armor. I remember fondly back to 1988 when I first encountered the Atom shrinking and altering his density so that he could fire himself like a bullet through a Khund's body. I mean, it was just the shoulder, but the Atom was like the Wolverine of non-lethal, impermanent trauma to an anonymous alien's non-vital appendage. DC Comics-- There's No Stopping Us From Being Milquetoast Until Dan Didio Turns The Entire Universe Into A Bill O'Reilly Wet Dream. Tell promotions to work on that tag line. A bit unwieldy and dated.

Chronos reaches the base that Atom called into, then uses his time-memory powers to see a flashback of the Atom narrating a flashback to when Chronos ran a tape flashing back to the aliens making their demands. Scintillating. Meanwhile, it's full revolt at the work camp, as men in torn shirts with purloined laser pistols and the aliens who had the legal right to own and carry said blasters shoot at each other until people die in a bloodless, Comics Code Authority approved manner. This gets the Atom so upset that he may have caused some aliens to accidentally run into each other which perhaps caused fatalities but remains open to interpretation. Also, his costume is strategically torn to show off a bit of man-boob and be easy to replicate across several guest appearances in other event tie-in titles. Oh, and Chronos finally reaches the labor camp, where the Atom continues to refuse to have anything to do with him, so Chronos fires a cannon at him that turns out to be directed at a Khund aiming at Ray from behind. The Knund is aged to dust by the blast. Kill of the week goes to Chronos. Good luck with reader retention on the strength of that. Speaking of crossovers, the Atom joins up with a host of other super-heroes to attack an Alien Alliance base in-- Melbourne, I think? Everyone assumes Australia is just one big Mad Max back lot, so wherever. In another flashback but from Hawk and Dove #1, Ray's palmed by Oberon, who seems quite pleased to tower over someone else for a change. These aren't the kind of cameos that do Ray any favors. He also gets another panel in Invasion! #2. Nobody thinks that Invasion was Todd McFarlane's best work, but when a paunchy red and blue bean bag goes flying past the Creeper during the super-heroic assault on an alien base in Melbourne, the Toddster gives Atom particularly short shrift.

Chronos,Jean Loring,POTAcast,Power of the Atom,Ray Palmer,Power of the Atom Podcast,Post-Crisis,

Power of the Atom Podcast #608

Time, Time, Time -- See What's Become of Me

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• Chronos strikes with art by a Legend!
• By Roger Stern, John Byrne & K.S. Wilson!
• From DC Comics's Winter 1988 cover-dated Power of the Atom #6!

I've been griping about flashbacks and recaps for seven straight episodes, so why am I so enthused about an issue that's pretty much nothing but that? Maybe because it's something of a greatest hits clip show drawn by one of the all-time greats? He's not great in this particular issue, and in fact it's so bad that I'm really questioning the skills of his inker on this, but even a bad Beatles number is going to be better than a good Yoko Ono one. I have to assume that this issue was drawn by single most popular artist in comics at the time, John Byrne, as some sort of personal favor to his old friend and collaborator Roger Stern. When Byrne finally quit Superman in a huff and passed on further work from the company, as he is wont to do, Stern took over writing that title. Presumably, Byrne's "World of..." mini-series had been scripted in advance, and he was already taking work on Marvel's New Universe line to dance on the grave of Jim Shooter's reign as editor-in-chief. I believe this was his last published DC job while prepping to take over Avengers West Coast and launch The Sensational She-Hulk, so he wasn't hurting for work.

Speaking of leaving titles abruptly with ill will, it isn't hard to read between the lines in an interview that remaining creative team gave to Amazing Heroes magazine. Editor Mike Carlin subtweeted that Dwayne Turner's replacement was "good, reliable, and cares about the job he's doing," implying that he hadn't. The new guy, Graham Nolan, was far less diplomatic. The transcript reads, "the stories were fun, but the artwork was really [makes rude noise] atrocious." I've judged Turner harshly on this podcast, but the truth is that he got a lot better after this first assignment, and whatever his failings, I think bagging on him in print is deeply unprofessional. Nolan also dismisses the value of his Kubert School education, seems to pointedly emphasize his preference of John Romita Sr. over his son's work, rips on the Carlin-edited Doc Savage book, and generally comes off as a jerk. I mean, we all know John Byrne is one of the biggest jerks in comics, but he's John Byrne. Graham Nolan doesn't get to swagger like this just because he got lucky enough to design a para-militaristic luchador for a well-publicized stunt that's netted him royalties ever since. I've bought comics because of Dwayne Turner and dropped them because of Graham Nolan. Dwayne Turner went on to work on a-list films, while Nolan just gets a contractually obligated thanks in the fine print of the ones with Bane in them.

Ray Palmer was enjoying a day out with Normal Brawler at the Ivytown Festival without getting swarmed by press, even though he had an entire C.I.A. detail following him unnoticed. Regardless, Ray got snatched in broad daylight out from under his noticed by men working for Chronos. Kept under sedation, Chronos seeks revenge by trying to emotionally break the Atom by forcing him to relive his most traumatic moments while in a dream state. They start with the rainy night he catches Jean Loring stepping out on him, then move to his childhood dog getting run over, his father's death by cancer while in his teens, the mission against Mr. Memory that saw him join the Justice League of America, his solo run-in with Dr. Light, his initial battle with Chronos, the destruction of New Morlaidh, and they even put a pin in his mother's death. Meanwhile, Chronos also recalls his early encounters with the Mighty Mite, and then a recent confrontation with Blue Beetle that left him stranded in the age of the dinosaurs. In an admittedly impressive move, Chronos cobbles together enough technology to put himself in intermittent stasis, roused at various points in history by equipment failures. Imagine all the untold stories of Rip Van Clinton scavenging for replacement parts in various ages. Never forget that Chronos looks like Richard Nixon but is named David Clinton. It's like that meme connecting Lincoln and Kennedy, except nowhere near as intricate or interesting. I apologize for bringing it up.

Ray Palmer's strong connection to Princess Laethwen and general lust for life break him out of his conditioning long enough for the Atom to shrink and extricate himself from the device manipulating him. The Tiny Titan then jumps around clobbering the fuchsia fascists working under Chronos in his sprawling headquarters. See, Chronos's stasis finally petered out seven years in the past, so he Biff Tannened himself a fortune on the speculative markets. Why he didn't shoot graduate student Ray Palmer in the head I'll chalk up to temporal paradox, but his not doing it while Ray was sleeping today is pure Dr. Evil nonsense. Anyway, Chronos had been called away from giving his archenemey...sad dreams... to hear about how Australia was being pummeled in an assault by an extraterrestrial alien alliance. Despite being at Rog 2000 drawing levels at best, Byrne's layouts and the traces of his style are just so much more dynamic and pleasing than the previous issues that it's enough for me to overlook how this issue does literally everything that I've been griping about on the story front. Kind of how Atom has to overlook being jerked around by Chronos so that they can team up to fend off the Invasion!

Jean Loring,Sword of the Atom,Ray Palmer,Chronos,POTAcast,Justice League of America,Power of the Atom,Power of the Atom Podcast,Post-Crisis,

Power of the Atom Podcast #607

Comings and Goings

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• Guest-Starring The Elongated Man, Maxwell Lord & Oberon!
• By Roger Stern, Dwayne Turner & K.S. Wilson!
• From DC Comics's December 1988 cover-dated Power of the Atom #5!

I somehow missed covering this story on Shag's Justice League International: Bwah-Ha-Ha Podcast this week. Probably on account of how I didn't do any research beforehand, only looked at the assigned issue the day of recording, and never read #5 before today. That'll do it. Maybe a week of daily podcasts has worn me down, but I just can't get mad at this one. Skipping the flashbacks in favor of editor's notes probably helps, but I figure it's mostly that I like the Atom hanging out with his old Satellite era Justice League buddies. The "bold new direction" horse is well out of the barn by this point, so might as well take comfort with the sheep on the pasture. Not like that. I'm clearly not good at metaphoring. Metaphorizing. Websters says "metaphorizing." Who knew that kid would pick up such big words around Alex Karras?

In this issue, Ray phones into the C.I.A. office of Everett Bailey, who freaked out over both the security breach and the prospect of having the perpetrator in his stable of operatives. However, Ray "nah dowgs" the C.I.A., then phones out with little explanation. Bailey pitches a fit, and lets slip that he might have had something to do with Operation Fireball in front of a non-corrupt subordinate. Scene shifts to the sunny beaches of San Clemente, California, specifically a cliff-side mansion. A mobster and his tower henchman make a bunch of time puns and prepare for a well researched confrontation with the Atom like we didn't already immediately know that this was Chronos. It's the only Atom villain that anyone can name, assuming they could name an Atom villain, which is not a safe assumption. You're more likely to get someone like Vandal Savage from a DC's Legends of Tomorrow watcher. It's been over a decade since the last attempt at an Atom ongoing series. If you don't teach your kids at home, there's no telling what they'll pick up on the streets.

The Atom next phones in to the New York Embassy of Justice League International, a call that startles Oberon right off his bar stool. Despite scoring a direct extension to the super-team at their current number, the Atom still plays off like "I don't recognize any of these team members" from the onscreen duty log. What, you couldn't ask Norman Brawler, "yo, who's J'Onn J'Onzz and the Batman been teaming with since I've been gone?" Plus, Ray's one of those "The Batman" people. Dude, you were never cool with Batman if you're "the"ing him. Fake familiar. Ray's all like "I'm just here visiting, not looking for a job, where's everybody and what's your 401k matching plan?" Also, Ray stays eye-to-eye with Oberon, which is courteous, except he instantly jumps up to full size the second Maxwell Lord walks through the door. I see you, Ray. Eyes on you, bruh.

Despite making all the overtures of being on the market, Max Lord is way too thirsty for the Atom. He's oily to begin with, but Ray has got to know by now that nobody that hot for the Mighty Mite is offering a good scene. Maxwell Lord once used his superhuman persuasion powers to force the Huntress onto the team, and her super-hero ability is crossbow. She can use a mechanized weapon from 650 B.C. I don't think she's a master with it or anything, and I think archers laugh at their accuracy, and there's barely a competitive sport for crossbow, so it's kind of like being able to set the recording time on a VHS at this point. Related: my father is too cheap to spring for broadband, and still uses multiple VCRs to tape his broadcast shows each night to avoid commercials. He's the Huntress of VCRs, but I'm not recruiting him for my super-team.

Most of the JLI are in outer space trying to fly to Apokolips, which seems inefficient, and that's what Oberon tells Ray. Mike's Amazing World then lost its mind over the glaring continuity error of only part of the team being in space and the other part staying on Earth to fight Lobo and don't even get him started on the European team, I guess. Whoops, JLE forms after Invasion, so my joke has a glaring continuity error. Calm down Mike. When people ask me how I'm doing, I don't bring up my hemorrhoids acting up because of all the time I spend sitting to work on podcasts. Thank you for your interest, but the League is in outer space at this time. That's all you have to say. We'll pass a message to Martian Manhunter when he gets back, because The Batman damned sure won't be calling.

Ray's still playing off the "Who's this Captain Atom that stole my name while I was gone" despite knowing he came out a year-and-a-half after the Charlton hero, but "I don't know him," right? Despite there being a perfectly good phone that he came in on, the Atom has to walk out the front door of the JLI Embassy in front of a gaggle of reporters camped out there and still be like "no comment." You know what you're doing, Ray. "Oh these paparazzi follow me everywhere I call to tell them where I'll be. Everybody wants desperately to work with me according to my solo title and nowhere else." The Atom is the Lindsey Lohan of super-heroes over here.

Ray Palmer then goes to a diner with a hat on, pretending that he hopes not to be recognized while racking his brain for anyone else who might be excited that he's back, and could tell him how much they enjoyed his biography before he pulled a Greta Garbo. "Oh, don't speak of my New York Times bestseller, I only want to live my life in anonymity while seeking out publicly known super-heroes to be photographed with." He peruses a newspaper, which I guess is like the MSN homepage, but nobody who looks at the MSN homepage hasn't held a newspaper before, probably that very morning at Denny's. There's an article about how the Elongated Man and his literal better half who everyone prefers to him are vacationing in Florida, so Atom makes some more phone calls. Slag on the Tiny Titan all you want, but instantaneous transport by telephone is one of the best powers. I've been on a plane for a literal day. I'll take that over eye beams, thanks.

Ray finds his old pal Ralph Dibny, and asks how he deals with being a celebrity without a secret identity. Ralph explains that he's a fame whore who married a rich debutante who leaks is vacation itinerary to the media and will happily upend his life and move to France at Max Lord's beckoning in a few months. Ralph is named Ralph. Why even try to front. Elongated Man and the Atom team-up to confront parrot smugglers on the high seas. You think I'm kidding. Like me, the writer has given up any illusions that Power of the Atom will last much more than another year, so we're going with armed parrot smugglers who wear Penny Loafers. Ray Palmer isn't looking for fame, so he keeps his name out of the papers when the Dibnys are interviewed on the dock with the perpetrators in Dockers. I'm sure that was entirely down to privacy concerns rather than not wanting to be associated with parrot pushers in print like sad, desperate Elongated Man. And talking on sad spectacles, the issue-closing teaser is tubby middle-aged Chronos burning his old clown costume in favor of a bland tunic that hides his spare tire. Not gonna lie, I'd wear it, too.

Ray Palmer,Chronos,POTAcast,Power of the Atom,Elongated Man,Justice League International,Power of the Atom Podcast,Post-Crisis,

Power of the Atom Podcast #606

What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life?

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• Featuring Hawkman and Hawkwoman!
• By Roger Stern, Dwayne Turner & K.S. Wilson!
• From DC Comics's November 1988 cover-dated Power of the Atom #4!

Years ago, my buddy the Irredeemable Shag bought a set of Power of the Atom off eBay or something and tried to blame me for recommending them when his read-through fared poorly. I've never read this series before. What I have read, I would never recommend. When I made a guest appearance on his Justice League International: Bwah-Ha-Ha Podcast this week, he also tried to take me to task for slagging Roger Stern's work on the Will Payton Starman series. I read a few issues of each, they were lousy, and I frankly don't need to eat the entire meal if the first few bites taste like a dish sponge pulled out of a drain in a truck stop diner kitchen. The issue we're covering today is one of the ones I bought decades ago, when I was collecting Hawkman appearances. To say that it was better on the second read is damning with faint praise.

I had my own Hawkman reboot and redesign in mind way back in the day. My take was an acknowledgement of previous continuity, but with a new Hawkman in a different setting with a redesigned costume. Focus on telling stories that I felt were clearer, isolating the hero from the greater DC Universe to explore what I felt were his strengths. Boil off the accumulated crud and get back to the inherent appeal of the property.

Not so much with the Atom. Besides never having a multi-arc "run" on a series in mind, the truth is that I don't think the Atom property has inherent appeal. Pop culture was filthy with shrunken people narratives in the 20th century, and there's a good half-dozen tiny super-heroes to choose from. The Atom only matters because of who his creators were, and when he was created, and how he was one of the foundational Silver Age science heroes when Julie Schwartz offered the first true shared universe of DC properties in the 1950s. If you're not emphasizing Ray Palmer's unique flavor of shrinking heroes and his connections to the Justice League of America, there's not much else to sell readers.

So the issue opens with Ray Palmer telling the story of how he was warned as a child of a dangerously rocky gorge near a waterfall in his home town that he could now safely dive into because he was action figure sized. It's a nice human moment, but also has this weird meta quality of making The Atom feel like a trifling figure in a shallow pool. Three pages of story are devoted to Potter's Gorge, as Ray somehow fails to recognize that the low-flying bird he bounded out of the water to ride is in fact a very large and muscular man with a bird-themed helmet who co-starred in the same comics as Atom's for decades. It makes Ray look incredibly dense in a non-white dwarf matter way, and Hawkman having his honor wings ripped out of his helmet for the entire appearance does him no favors either.

I read the Shadow War of Hawkman mini-series, the one-off special that followed, and about half a year into the ongoing series before losing interest. That volume of Hawkman last one issue less than Power of the Atom, so I wasn't the only reader who felt that way. I would have benefited from a few pages of recap of the Hawk's Shadow War and the resolution I'd missed. We got three pages of recap alright-- but of the previous Atom issues instead. Apparently, all those Hawkman fans that powered a whole seventeen issue run a year earlier would require orientation on the four glacially paced stories of this run, as if there was no crossover between the Hawkman and Atom audiences. What's worse is Hawkman keeps talking about all they'd lost and how ashamed they were of their home world of Thanagar, without readers ever being context of what events led them to that state. Frustration and apathy were probably not what the creators of this title should have been shooting for.

Ray Palmer's life was a mess of his own creation because he'd outed his double life most publicly, and he was seriously considering taking the C.I.A.'s offer as their agent under a new identity. Hawkwoman especially thinks its a terrible idea, as the couple had just broken ties with an authoritarian regime that they'd disagreed with. At least, that's what I could gather from the context in the dialogue. Anyway, the Hawks had been staying at a friend's place in New Orleans while on vacation from having a title, though they were appearing in Justice League International by this point. It would have been a really good idea to discuss their experiences with the JLI, but everyone gets distracted by their room getting tossed by crooks. Among their missing belongings were their melee weapons and a pair of spare flight belts.

In this incarnation, the Hawks were sleuths who'd once had a perch in Detective Comics, but here they just follow the energy signature on their belts. You'd think we'd get some aerial combat with crooks wearing the belts, but when the Hawks locate the thieves, a positive-gravity trap is sprung instead. Their old foe I.Q. had planned the whole thing as a booby trap, but had not reckoned with their having the Mighty Mite in tow. Despite his advanced technology and presumed high intelligence, the Tiny Titan suckers I.Q. into damaging his own equipment and leads him right into the Hawks' custody. Even though I.Q. dressed like a dandy pre-World War II aviator, I'm still going to claim this as another case where the Atom fights dudes with weapons in street clothes.

Cut to another page of mildly homoerotic foreshadowing of disgraced former president Tricky Dick Nixon and his lumbering houseboy planning a confrontation with the Atom. Cut back to our heroes, also in casual wear, just spending the day together. Shayera Hall and Ray Palmer are a couple of jokesters gently ribbing unyielding rigid straight man Katar Hol, and that's the best part of the book. Ray expresses that the Halls' open cooperation and understanding is in sharp contrast to his own failed marriage, and that as part of his desire to emulate their healthier lifestyle, he would also try to do the work of navigating his new life as a public figure. Frankly, as expected, the combination of the Atom and the Hawks as old friends was greater than the sum of the parts of another low stakes outing in this title.

Chronos,Hawkgirl,Hawkman,Ray Palmer,POTAcast,Power of the Atom,Power of the Atom Podcast,Post-Crisis,

Silver Age (July, 2000)

In Central City, early in their careers O.G. science bros Barry Allen and Ray Palmer double date with Iris West and Jean Loring at a local diner. The nerds dominate the dialogue, leaving the lassies to pass out in each others' arms. A radio broadcast is interrupted by word of a Mr. Element sighting in the diamond district, giving our heroes another excuse not to deal with their issues with women. The Atom and The Flash suit up, and the Tiny Titan is swiftly playing punch face with his foe Chronos. The time bandit marched on, however, and joined Mr. Element in crafting a particularly nasty hourglass-themed trap for the Scarlet Speedster that the Mighty Mite had to smash like a bullet. It all proves to be a distraction, as the Atom is immobilized by a pair of tiny energy bubbles. "What's the matter, Atom? Can't reach your glove controls? How do you make a clock ineffective, little man? You take away its hands!"

The aliens Sinestro and Agamemno were also party to this villain shindig, all part of a plan to swap bodies between members of the Justice League and their best known antagonists. The champions are briefly jailed at the Secret Sanctuary, but soon escape to plot against themselves to prevent the compromised Justice League from using their revered status to infiltrate global powers. The Atom/Chronos is the most on board with Batman's plan to frame the "Justice League" and smear their reputations, specifically pointing out the resources afforded to Superman/Lex Luthor in that department. (Silver Age #1, by Mark Waid, Terry and Rachael Dawson.)



Chronos/Atom proves himself among the least polluted ersatz Leaguers. He vomits on Element/Flash's back after a super-speed jaunt, and peeks under the mask to learn Atom's secret identity, but otherwise is fairly well behaved. Chronos/Atom locates Jewel Kryptonite sought by Agamemno in a shrunken Daxamite city held by a deactivated Briainiac on an underwater ship. "Three-time loser David Clinton" is distressed by his being hero-worshiped by the Daxamites, who see "The Atom" as their last best hope to return to normal. Chronos/Atom is unwilling to abandon them once he's served Agamemno's plot, as he's "a thief-- not a monster!" However, Lex Luthor/Superman has no qualms about massacring the entire city under his boot of steel to prevent any other super-beings showing up on Earth, and Clinton is ultimately shamed into joining in on the stomping.  
(Silver Age: Justice League of America, by Mark Millar, Scot Kolins and Dan Panosian.)



Snapper Carr alerted contemporaneous heroes about the Secret Sanctuary jailbreak, as the "Justice League" was preoccupied with completing their nefarious missions for Agamemno. Word reached Challengers Mountain, where its defenders used the internet and closed-circuit cameras to locate the Flying Sundial of "Chronos" as he's breaking into Ivy University. Ray Palmer was looking to use Professor Hyatt's time pool, which would require shrinking himself, but he inadvertently shrank the Challengers when they crashed into his lab. Even at doll size, the team prove a headache to "Chronos," until the Challengers' brain Walter "Prof" Haley determines through his delicate resistance that they had actually been fighting The Atom! Ray declares Haley the smartest person in the world, and they'll need it. The Challengers had only 15 minutes to return to normal size or else they'd explode, plus creatures from the future had begun crawling out of the time pool! The latter problem is resolved, but not with enough time to fix the former. Yet, the time pool is on their side, as "Chronos" lowers the Challengers into it to buy time. The heroes are restored, but not before seeing visions of their (sometimes dire) future selves, as well as the strange, unfamiliar heroes who will help them combat the body-swappers.
(Silver Age: Challengers of the Unknown by Karl Kesel, Drew Johnson & Randy Elliot)



Chronos in the Atom's body joined the majority of the "Justice League" on a trip to Thanagar to acquire the Absorbascon. They were attacked by "Sinestro," who managed to use the Oan central power battery to cause the heroes and villains to revert back to their original bodies. Unfortunately, this also provided the Injustice League access to connect the Absorbascon to the power battery, which through the engineering of Lex Luthor and Chronos, allowed the villains to overcome Hal Jordan and the entire Green Lantern Corps.
(Silver Age: Green Lantern by Kurt Busiek, Brent Anderson & Joe Rubinstein)

Dr. Light joined the majority of the "Injustice League of America" on a trip to Rann to bind their acquired artfacts into a new body for Agamemno. While Rann suffered their presence, on Earth, Deadman gathered a team of previously unaffiliated period heroes into a 7 Soldiers of Victory revival to address this building crisis. Arthur Light was seen taunting and shattering the shield of Gardner Grayle during his lone adventure billed as "Shining Knight." Metamorpho came to the rescue, replacing Grayle's shield and activating a freeze ray built into his unfamiliar power armor that incapacitated the cowardly Light. However, Chronos and friends continued to utilize the artifacts to thwart capture and to betray Agamemno, claiming his power as their own.
(Silver Age: Showcase by Geoff Johns & Dick Giordano)



Flashback: Prior to the start of the event, Agamemno watches the Justice League of America on an alien world to determine their mettle. The Atom was paired with Aquaman, who was concerned about leaving Earth protected in the League's absence. Ray offered the Doom Patrol as at least a temporary substitute, but Aquaman dismissed them even more quickly than he did Atom's concerns that what Arthur was about to dive into might not be water as we know it. Aquaman soon went missing, leaving the Mighty Mite alone to locate another Leaguer. He finally found Black Canary, who attacked him until she realized Despero doesn't change sizes. For the record, she's not a natural blonde. Soon enough, the real Despero was located, a Canary Cry destroyed his means of teleporting away, and the Tiny Titan delivered the knock-out punch. None of this is particularly relevant to the larger story, but Atom doesn't have much to do in the resolution of that, and I wanted to add another nice picture before we wrapped this up.
(Silver Age Secret Files & Origins #1 by D. Curtis Johnson, Michael Collins & Vince Russell)

The nigh-omnipotent Injustice League threatened our heroes' loved ones, so among others, Jean Loring was rushed to Gorilla City in Africa for hiding. When that failed, the heroes went on the offensive, but a miniaturized Elasti-Girl & the Atom couldn't even overcome a mouse trap constructed by Catwoman's new purple power ring. Near defeat, the vision of future heroes finally came true, as Martian Manhunter brought Robby Reed and his magical H-Dial to transform the League into new identities. The Atom became the robotic Mod-Man, and Thanagarian Wingmen also joined the fray, but the day was mostly won by J'Onn J'Onzz, Deadman, and a revived Green Lantern Corps.
(Silver Age 80-Page Giant #1 by Mark Waid & Eduardo Barreto)

1999 Hasbro Justice League of America Monopoly Game Atom “The Batcomputer” Cards

It's been a lot of years since I missed my opportunity to buy the swell JLA-themed Monopoly game at a reasonable price, and it's even been over three years since The Irredeemable Shag did a spotlight article on his copy. The Atom didn't have a major role in the game, which stopped at the inclusion of the first expansion member Green Arrow, but I figure it's about time to do a post on his appearances on its “The Batcomputer” cards. The Super Friends equivalent to “Community Chest” cards offer the Tiny Titan to "Referee the Race of the Century," and enjoy when a "Grateful Millionaire Makes Donation in Your Name," plus Hawkman and Chronos are worked in on "Help Bring a Villain to Justice." They're pretty boss, and hey, if you really want to play the game as the Mighty Mite, you can always throw this guy on the board. Speaking of which, you can see all of Shag's tubular scans here!

2013 The Atom Movie Fan Casting: Brad Dourif as Chronos

One thing I've tried to do with these POTA fan-casts is to be economical and nerdy. Casey Affleck isn't a big name or a big guy, but I think he'd be a swell Ray Palmer. Christina Ricci and Mel Gibson are both just famous enough to keep the movie premiere out of the Redbox, but are affordable and bring the right kind of baggage to their parts. With Chronos, I wasn't as picky, since there isn't a lot to the character on the page beyond the resemblance to Tricky Dick. I wanted an atypical pick-- someone believable as a criminal of science, and I could go older since the role wouldn't be physically demanding. Brad Dourif is best known as the voice of Chucky in the Child's Play series, but he's a fantastic character actor with a wide range of roles under his belt (my favorite being Doc Cochran on Deadwood.) I think he'd have great chemistry with Affleck, which to me is more important than how he'd look in green & yellow with vertical striped leggings.



Diabolic Movie Fan Casting

• The Cheetah @ Diana Prince is the New Wonder Woman
• Commander Blanx @ The Idol-Head of Diabolu

The Atom Special #1 (1993)

Professor Alpheus V. Hyatt created the Time Pool, a portal to the past "the size of a medium pizza." Ray Palmer was a natural choice to explore the potential of the diminutive doorway, and had in many Silver Age adventures. Unfortunately, Hyatt was never able to expand the size of the Time Pool, and instead busied himself with miniaturizing the hardware that produced it. Hyatt had it down to the size of a VCR when one day, a hand holding an old fashioned alarm clock appeared out of the Time Pool. The numbers and hands fired out of the clock and into Hyatt's face, leaving him bleeding and unconscious.

The Loaded Dice Mob had supposedly given "the Justice Society a very small amount of trouble back in '43," but the geriatric precursors to the Royal Flush Gang were down to knocking over a local fast food joint. The Atom stealthily showed up to unleash a grease trap on one, swat guns away from others, and straight up deck the last old man standing. At one point he did almost get swatted by a spatula into a deep fryer, but he adjusted his weight to coast on heat fumes and recover. The cause of this brief slip in aptitude was a vision of Laethwen burning to death on a gas range. "He can't see her. He can't hear her. But he can still smell her flesh cooking. That was no hallucination. Was it?"



In the aftermath, a rude cop ribbed the Atom about his tell-all memoir, his lack of friends afterward, and news of Hyatt's hospitalization. "Officer... don't take this the wrong way, but... shut your big mouth before I float inside and rip your molars out." The Atom traveled by phone line to Ivytown General's Intensive Care Unit, only to find Jean Loring and Norm Brawler waiting in the lobby. Norm had gotten into an argument with Hyatt's doctor over his unwillingness to even attempt to remove the intricate time bomb attached to Hyatt's face, while the physician pointed out that this was all the fault of their association with the Atom. Brawler shrank away from the point. "Hyatt needs a hero... and the only one we know ratted out on us." Brawler wanted to kick Ray's butt for making "noble speeches" about it being to dangerous for him to stay in Ivytown, then leaving his friends in the lurch. "He's just too immature to stay around and clean up his own messes!" Proving the point, Ray tied Norm's shoelaces together and knocked him over.



Ray had a discussion about microsurgery with the doctor, and then went in to Hyatt's room to visit his cantankerous friend. In his place, Ray saw his father on his deathbed, began crying, and then screamed in a panic "I need a doctor! Now! He's dying" Everyone rushed in to find Hyatt wondering what all the fuss was about. The doctor politely told the Atom not to worry about performing that surgery after all, while quietly wondering about the effects of all that size changing on the brain. Ray's best friend Norm and ex-wife Jean then left Palmer to join Paul Hoben at a bar to bitch about Palmer behind his back. In a book heavy with exposition related to the Mighty Mite's continuity, this was where the levee broke. Ray's origin was retold... His turning his back on civilization to live with a six inch barbarian culture in the Amazon, including his lover Princess Laethwen... the fire set by the C.I.A. to smoke Palmer out that destroyed this new life... Ray's revenge of shrinking the rogue unit down and trapping them... Paul was as usual a jerk, especially when his affair with Jean that broke up her marriage to Ray came up. Palmer, who had been spying the whole time, finally revealed himself by dousing Paul with his brew. Ray then discussed his short time living a normal life as "Professor Don Shuffler," his setting up Adam Cray as a new Atom serving the Suicide Squad, and Cray's murder as a result. Palmer was filled with self-pity and regret, which Norm brusquely attempt to snap him out of. However, Ray stated "I'm going to help Hyatt. Then I'm getting out of your lives for good."



Outside the bar, Ray was confronted by the image of the rainy night he caught Jean and Paul making out in a car. Ray shook it off, then tried to get an operator to connect him to the Hanesworth Estate. The Atom had to show up on her desk, spouting about his (expired) JLA membership to finally get through. Ray figured all of his circumstances added up to his archenemy Chronos, including apparitions of Adam Cray getting stabbed through the back with a nail in the estate's shag carpeting. While distracted, a cat swiped its claws across the Atom's back, so he sent it flying with a judo maneuver. That move kind of blew his cover, and one of Chronos' men escorted Ray to his master. However, the Gene Bomb set off by the Dominators during an alien invasion of Earth had left Chronos in a coma.

Within the speck upon a fork, the Atom built a home away from home out of molecules where he could hide from the world. Still, even on a bit of food debris, a man's got to eat. Ray grew off the fork into Hyatt's dining room, then raided his fridge. Norm began to knock on the front door, and when Ray tried to ignore him, beat down the door. Once inside, Brawler phantoms of Ray's dad in the deathbed with tiny Adam Cray getting impaled on the sheets and the Princess was cooking on the stove while Jean and Paul made out on the couch. Norm was flabbergasted, but once Palmer got over the shock, he was thrilled to learn the ghosts were not figments of a delusion as he had feared. "You saw them? You saw them, too? All right... all right... we're going to figure this out." If someone could make the Atom's fears manifest, they could surely fake Chronos in a coma (I know, I know, it's serious...)



The physicist deduced that Chronos had used the clunky old Time Pool generator to find and steal the portable new one. The original filled the better part of Hyatt's office, so it remained accessible to Palmer, who figured out how to use it to connect to the location of the current model. The Atom thanked Norm for saving his mind, then dived into the Time Pool. Meanwhile, Norm was drugged and kidnapped by a henchman. Chronos had set a trap for the Tiny Titan as well, involving "weird temporal/spatial advances" that knocked him out. Ray Palmer woke up at six inches tall and stripped down to his boxers. Chronos had his costume, and joked about spicing the drab thing up with pinstripes. See, Chronos really was in a coma, but his younger self had managed to travel through time to reverse his fate. He'd used the Time Pool to steal itself, but Chronos had to learn how to use Atom's size altering belt before he could exploit it. Threatened with the possible execution of Norm, Ray relented to giving Chronos what he wanted... seemingly.

Norm's head had been shoved into the Time Pool, and while Chronos and his men were distracted extracting it, Palmer used a metal stirrer to pole vault to the compact generator. Activating it, Ray tossed the device through the Time Pool it created. Chronos objected, but was stabbed through the hand. The device landed on a vanity table in 15th century France. Chronos blindly reached into the pool to try retrieving it, but instead knocked it off the tabletop. The device broke as it hit the floor, the Time Pool immediately dried up, and Chronos' severed right arm landed on the vanity. His wristwatch was still in fine working order though, so the French made the best of this unexpected treat. "Henri! Pour me a brandy and dispose of the arm!"



Chronos was screaming bloody murder and going into shock, but while the Mighty Mite was trying to save his life, Chronos was still ordering his henchmen to attack. The mobile lab everyone was in was somehow contained in a limousine, so Brawler performed a running headbutt on the driver, who skidded into a tree. Everyone ended up at the hospital, and while police congratulated Norm as a hero, he acknowledged being heartened by the Tiny Titan proving his own heroism once again. The Atom payed Hyatt a visit, and against the objections of his doctor, cockily performed successful microsurgery. The Atom returned to his cabin on the fork, and kicked it down, recognizing that he could no longer hide from his problems. "Goodbye, Laethwen, Adam, Dad. Rest in peace. Please." Ray Palmer grew up, tossed the fork in the garbage, and joined a homecoming party in his honor. Enrica Negrini worked in a cameo.



"Shrinking From The Past" was by Tom Peyer and Steve Dillon. I read this a year or two after it was released, when I was actively exploring the greater DC Universe after abandoning Marvel Comics and moving beyond Batman/Superman/New Titans. This came out during the death and rebirth of Superman, which was noted by Jean during the exposition fest. I thoroughly enjoyed hearing about the weird winding course of the Atom's travels for the first time. I knew the character from cartoons and team books, but had no idea he'd gotten up to such shenanigans, and the material covered here was mostly just late Bronze Age. It was much darker and more violent than I expected, and unlike the deconstructed icons of the Chromium Age, that suited the Atom. Compared to DC's other Silver Age revivals, The Atom was definitely the most action oriented book, as if a pint-sized hero took the edge off all those brutal blows in a time of speed tricks and lantern constructs. Sword of the Atom was gory as hell, which made sense for a quasi-barbarian saga, and it was only natural for Ray to take some of the jungle with him back to the States. I like how Peyer used ambitions of a mental breakdown to regress Palmer back to his insecure days in the '70s Justice League, only to work him over to the smug fighting form of his earliest adventures by the end of the tale. I absolutely love Steve Dillon's art on this, as his thoughtful faces and bursts of savagery are well suited to the character, and I can't think of a single super-hero he's ever nailed so fully (Punisher included.) Dillon was unquestionably better off on Hellblazer, but it's still a shame this creative team never made it to series. As a more knowledgeable Atom fan, this comic doesn't hold up that great, but it's still an ideal primer for neophytes.


Join the Spooktacular Samhain Celebration at this coven of blogs!

GHOSTS ANNUALS

1. "Bough Breaks" @ Batman: Gotham Knights Online
2. "Haunts" @ The Flash: Speed Force
3. "Dead Calm" @ The Aquaman Shrine
4. "The Distance Gone" @ Diana Prince is the New Wonder Woman
5. "Ghosts' - The Corpse Corps!" @ Green Lantern: Corps Conjecture
6. "The Death Sentence" @ Superman: Great Krypton!
7. "Heart's Afire" @ Martian Manhunter: The Idol-Head of Diabolu
8. "Life Itself" @ The Captain's JLA Homepage

HALLOWEEN HEROES

• "Shrinking From The Past" @ Power of the Atom
• "Ragman - Ripped to Shreds!" @ DC's Tatterdemalion of Justice
• "Legend of Driq" @ Indigo Tribe
• “Zor!” @ The Spectre of Siegel & Shuster: Mythmakers
• "Shoe Shine.. Back from the Dead" @ Firestorm Fan
• "Role Model" @ The Vixen of Justice League Detroit
• "Seeing Ghosts" @ Boosterrific
• "Swamp Thing's Ghost Dance" @ The BLOG from the BOG
• "What Creeps Out The Creeper?" @ DC Bloodlines
• "Happy Halloween" @ I Am The Phantom Stranger

DCU Heroes Secret Files & Origins #1- Atom Profile Page (February, 1999)

Click To Enlarge


I bought most of the SF&O books as they came out as a matter of course. Since Zero Hour, I'd made a deep investment in the Post-Crisis history of the DC Universe. It isn't like I didn't care about continuity before, but DC made a real effort to solidify it in a quantifiable way that turned on the history buff inside of me. A major part of that were the Timelines that ran in most volumes, breaking down who was where by a fluidly subjective but still relevant chronology. Let us examine...

Prehistory:
After a quick battle, Walker Gabriel (Chronos) strands serial killer Hayden Glass in the age of dinosaurs.

48,000 B.C.:
Chronos aids fellow time traveler Rip Hunter in finding his way back to his home era.

1464:
Chronos meets Jason Sangue (Blood) in Florence, Italy. During an altercation in that same era, Chronos gains his time-travel powers.

1641:
Captain Fear rescues the drowning Chronos from the waters off the Florida Keys.

1789:
Chronos is present for a "resurrection" of Ra's al Ghul in the African desert.

1873:
A time-stranded Chronos is taken in by the Clark family of Smallville, Kansas; while there, he meets a band of time-traveling gypsies.

1943:
Chronos gets caught between Allied and Axis forces on an island filled with dinosaurs.

1952:
Chronos competes with Thomas Wayne for a young socialite named Martha.

2113:
Chronos aids in the capture of Hayden Glass, a shape-changing serial killer whose trademark is JLA-themed murders.

22nd Century:
Chronos and his nemesis Vyronis narrowly avoid capture by the lion men of the wastelands.

27th Century:
Chronos steals John (Flash) Fox's time gauntlets.

853rd Century:
Chronos travels to the future, only to meet himself

Now you may be asking yourself why I spent all that time listing time traveled by the Atom foe Chronos. The answer is, I didn't list a single appearance by the nefarious David Langhorn Clinton. They're all about this guy...

Click To Enlarge

Now:
Walker Gabriel becomes the new Chronos and travels through time, discovering Chronopolis

This guy starred in twelve issues of his own comic, which was cancelled the same month DCU Heroes Secret Files & Origins #1 was released. In his entire existence, Walker Gabriel appeared in less than twenty comic books, but received twelve bullet points for his adventures. Meanwhile, the Ray Palmer Atom was one of the few (relatively) iconic DC heroes whose continuity was untouched by Crisis on Infinite Earths and only lightly scuffed by Zero Hour. Almost fifty years of unbroken continuity, and let's face it, Ray also spent an awful lot of his solo series deep in the past, thanks to Professor Hyatt's Time pool. Let's see Ray's timeline...

35 Years Ago:
Ray Palmer is born in Ivy Town.

9 Years Ago:
Discovering a fragment of a white dwarf star, Ray Palmer becomes the Atom. He later joins the JLA.

The Atom and Hawkmam form a lasting friendship, often working together to fight crime.

5 Years Ago:
Atom marooned in Amazon jungle, where he joins a society of miniaturized natives.

3 Years Ago:
His Amazon village destroyed by the CIA, the Atom returns to America.

Suicide Squad re-forms under Amanda Waller-- members will later include Nightshade and the Atom.

Ray Palmer fakes his own death to uncover government operatives trying to kill him. He gives his size-reducing belt and "Atom" identity to Adam Cray.

Adam Cray killed by assassins; Ray Palmer resumes role of Atom.

The Atom temporarily returns to the JLA, helping the team defeat Dr. Destiny and free the Martian Manhunter from the Bloodgem.

2 Years Ago:
Zero Hour-- Ray Palmer de-aged to teenager, joins newly re-formed Teen Titans.

1 Year Ago:
The Atom helps Superman put down an uprising in the bottle city of Kandor

Now:
Time Pool technology accidentally reduces Atom and Impulse to infancy. Waverider of the Linear Men saves the duo.

The Atom and Teen Titans help Superman battle the Millennium Giants.

Ray Palmer's normal age and powers are restored. He returns to Ivy University.

Ray Palmer has appeared in over a thousand comic books, with better than seventy-five bearing his name in the title, and he got two more bullet points than the Walker Gabriel Chronos. Little things like his Golden Age predecessor, his entire supporting cast/rogues gallery (including the original Chronos) and his marriage/divorce don't rate mention, but I'm so glad to know when that crossover that re-integrated Supermans Red & Blue took place. The Atom's history as presented here is as a footnote in other titles, most published Post-Crisis. Years ago, I tried to create a cross-referenced database of all these timelines, but the folly was staring me right in the face. A DC Comics so enamored with an insignificant moment in their history as the 1998 Chronos series could and would inevitably drop another hard reboot that rendered virtually everything I just typed entirely moot. That deep investment I talked about earlier? Gone. Never to return. But hey, here are some nice pin-ups; The Atom's written by Matt Brady with art by Georges Jeanty and Jason Martin, while Chronos's was written by John Francis Moore with art by Paul Guinan & Steve Leialoha.

Second Third Secret History of the DC Universe

• Aquaman @ The Aquaman Shrine
• The Atom @ Power of the Atom
• Doctor Fate @ Tower of Fate
• Firestorm @ Firestorm Fan
• Green Lantern @ The Indigo Tribe
• Hawkman @ Being Carter Hall
• Martian Manhunter @ The Idol-Head of Diabolu
• Renee Montoya @ Who is the Question?
• Phantom Stranger @ I Am The Phantom Stranger
• Steel @ DC Bloodlines
• Suicide Squad @ Subject: Task Force X
• Supergirl @ Supergirl Comic Box Commentary
• Wonder Woman @ Diana Prince
• Zatanna @ Justice League Detroit

1996 Rogues Gallery #1: Chronos by John Van Fleet

In 1995, Skybox produced a card set consisting of paintings of super-villains.
In 1996, DC released a pin-up book consisting of paintings of super-villains.
One of these things is very much like the other.

Chronos started out as a timepiece-themed thief in about the gaudiest costume imaginable. By 1996, Chronos had one arm left, an almost all black costume, and was using his control over temporal energy to age members of the Legion of Super-Heroes at will. In a few more years, an anti-hero would be jumping around time under the Chronos banner in his own series, and a few more years later, Chronos would be a Chinese woman. What a long strange trip...

I'm not the only blogger relishing New Year's Evil this week. Find more malicious pin-up fun at the following:

• Cheetah by Cliff Nielsen @ Diana Prince: Wonder Woman
• Dementor by Ray Lago @ DC Bloodlines
• Killer Frost by John Hanley @ Firestorm Fan
• Mongul by John Hanley @ The Idol-Head of Diabolu

1991-92 Impel DC Cosmic Cards #87- Chronos

Ah, the first ever DC Universe spanning trading card set, meant to ape the far more popular Marvel Comics set, right down to the hideously drab gray borders. I believe they were originally going to be metallic ink, but somebody went cheap, to the horror of all. Chronos here was given the gift of Kane, but Gil didn't seem to grasp the concept of trading card art. Instead of supplying a spotlight figure, you can see he went all out with the giant clock and the street scene with fleeing bystanders and Chronos riding a dinosaur that could receive UHF signals (loved Land of the Lost, hated Minilla.) Clearly Kane's art was cropped all to hell, and the image reduction surely lost some detail. Is it just me, or did Kane "sign" his work by putting himself on that billboard?

More Impel DC Cosmic Cards Posted Today

• Amazo at Justice League Detroit
• Ares at Diana Prince: Wonder Woman
• Eclipso at DC Bloodlines
• Vandal Savage at The Idol-Head of Diabolu

The Top Ten Chronos Covers

Chronos is among the worst dressed super-villains in comic book history, and attempts to make him more fashionable have tended to fail miserably. Still, the guy is the closest thing the Atom has ever had to an arch-villain, so prepare your eyes for motion sickness at the sight of those leggings and color combinations.

10) Legends of the DC Universe #40 (May, 2001)

Why are you hitting yourself? Why are you hitting yourself? Why are you hitting yourself? Why are you hitting...

9) Chronos #6 (August, 1998)

I know they're shooting for somber, but it still looks like the anti-heroic Walker Gabriel is mourning his favorite luchador, El Timexico.

8) Super Friends #22 (July, 1979)

Laying the Time-Net on the Man of Steel! Impressive!

7) Blue Beetle #10 (March, 1987)

Fist-fighting with an acrobatic pugilist is stupid, but evoking Dali makes up for it.

6) The Atom #3 (November, 1962)

Chronos debuts with a clever cover, but he's just a watch-themed crook at this point.

5) The All New Atom #24 (August, 2008)

Lady Chronos has a fistful of Choi!

4) Justice League Adventures #6 (June, 2002)

You’re face to face with the man who sold the League. A get-up like that fares so much better in animation.

3) World's Finest Comics #321 (November, 1985)

Menacing Superman and Batman together in one of the final issues of their legendary team-up book is impressive. Pulling off such a feat in those tights is phenomenal.

2) The Atom #28 (January, 1967)

Has Chronos ever been so maniacal? This cover was swiped for an issue of Power of the Atom linked below, but both characters are in their then-current crappy costumes.

1) The Atom #13 (July, 1964)

Chronos seems extra creepy with that earlier model mask, plus his using a timepiece as a weapon recalls his original conception.

Honorable Mentions:
DC Universe Special: Justice League of America #1
Legion of Super-Heroes #75
Legionnaires #32
Power of the Atom #6
Silver Age: Challengers Of The Unknown #1
Team Titans #14
Wonder Woman #220