Showcase Presents: The Atom #1

In "Birth of the Atom!", scientist Palmer faces a life-or-death moment when he and his students are trapped in a cave-in. Desperate to save them, he uses his experimental reducer lens on himself—only to discover he’s not destroyed, but transformed into a human atom. The story follows his shocking transformation and the immediate aftermath, as he grapples with his new form and the lens’s mysterious power.

In "Prisoner in a Test Tube!", a master spy infiltrates a scientific lab by posing as a respected researcher, all to steal the secrets of Professor Loring’s super weapons. When Jean uncovers the deception through fingerprints, Ray Palmer calls in a favor—and The Atom answers, teleporting to Budapest to confront the real Professor Kraft. With quick thinking and his size-shifting powers, The Atom must outwit a trap-laden lab and subdue the spies before they escape with their prize.

In "The 'Disappearing Act' Robberies!", Ray's proposal to Jean takes a backseat as a series of baffling jewelry heists plague Ivytown—each crime committed with no trace, no witnesses, just empty displays. The Atom attends a high-stakes chess match, using a platinum set as a cover, only to vanish mid-game inside a rook, his disappearance mirroring the thefts. With the help of a mysterious journalist and a clever trap, he uncovers a mind-bending criminal using stolen science to bend reality—but even his victory can't sway Jean’s hesitation.

In "The Riddle of the Two-Faced Astronaut!", Ray Palmer—now the Atom—finds himself drawn into a mystery when his old friend Wizardo’s latest stage illusion takes a strange turn. With an astronaut-costumed assistant at the center of a string of mysterious thefts, the Atom must separate illusion from reality before the truth is lost among the stars.

In "The Highwayman and the Mighty Mite!", the Atom journeys through Professor Hyatt's Time Pool to 1739, where he discovers a surprising twist: his own ancestor was the legendary outlaw Dick Turpin. As he navigates a past both familiar and foreign, the hero confronts a legacy that challenges everything he thought he knew about his lineage.

In "Voyage to Beyond!", Ray Palmer finds himself adrift on a luxury ocean cruise when Jean Loring and every passenger suddenly disappear—replaced by eerily perfect duplicates from the mysterious dimension of Randath. As the ship's isolation deepens, Palmer must unravel the strange shift in reality before the boundary between worlds collapses entirely.

In "I Accuse Ray Palmer — of Robbery!", the Atom finds himself wrongly implicated in a high-stakes coin heist he didn’t commit, forcing him to use his size and wits to prove his innocence before the law closes in. With the evidence pointing squarely at him, Ray Palmer must outthink both the authorities and the real culprits to clear his name.

In "Illusions for Sale!", Jo stumbles upon a bizarre invention that can generate vivid, reality-bending illusions—just as two criminals set their sights on stealing it for their own gain. With Ray Palmer’s help, Jo must protect the device before it falls into the wrong hands, but the line between what’s real and what’s imagined begins to blur.

In "The Super-Safecracker who Defied the Law!", the infamous Hyper-Thief challenges the Ivy Town police with boasts of hyperspace travel and invincible theft, but the Atom steps in to expose the truth behind the flashy claims. Written by a noted hand and illustrated with crisp precision, this 12-page tale pits wits against illusion in a showdown that redefines what it means to be truly unstoppable.

In "Fate of the Flattened-Out Atom!", scientist Andrew Frost stumbles upon a strange connection between the Atom’s shrinking abilities and his own emerging precognition. When he captures the Atom and locks him away, Frost begins to wonder how far his newfound visions will take him—before he realizes the true cost of seeing the future.