The Atom #9

From DC's November 1963 issue, this entry in Ray Palmer's solo series pits the Atom against a chilling threat — his own double. The cover, penciled by Gil Kane and inked by Murphy Anderson, dramatizes the danger perfectly: a grim doppelgänger wielding an opal ring bears down on our red-and-blue hero, both figures rendered tiny against a giant rotary telephone and a stack of oversized books — that perfect Silver Age trick of making the miniature world feel enormous. The cover dialogue lays out the stakes with sharp economy, promising a story by Gardner Fox and Gil Kane that toys with identity, size, and what it means to exist in the real world.