Atom #7

Issue Details

Synopsis

When the Earth is plagued by a series of strange tremors that also effects the migratory patterns of birds, it gains the attention of Ray Palmer and Jean Loring (both avid bird watchers) and Hawkman who is alone following Hawkgirl briefly going to Thanagar to report on their progress on Earth. As Ray stops some crooks who use helium balloons as getaway methods as the Atom, Hawkman determines that the cause of all the trouble is caused by radiation which has been given off by a weapon known by Thanagarian science as a Cosmitron device. After the Atom busts up most of the crooks, a few manage to get away on a boat, and Atom goes after them by making himself light enough to travel on the sea breeze. However the breeze works against him, but he is saved in the nick of time by Hawkman, who lets the Atom round up the last of the crooks together. When Hawkman finds the Cosmitron, he is attacked by it's owners: aliens of the Thalen race, who invented the device which absorbs radiation from a planet. It also allows them to take pictures that can be put together to make a scale model of the planet in question. Any damage done to this replica are mirrored on the Earth. Completing a model of the Earth, they threaten to destroy the planet unless the leaders of the Earth surrender, to which the world leaders refuse. Hawkman sends the Atom to the Thalen's ship and stops them from destroying the Earth. They then return to the Earth's surface and battle the Thalens there and recapture the Cosmitron device. They reverse all the damage done to the Earth before destroying the Cosmitron. Later by coincidence, the Atom and Hawkman meet again but are unaware of it because this time they meet in their civilian guises. Ray Palmer, Carter Hall, Jean Loring and Sheira Hall all go bird watching together, and become fast friends.