Atom #36

Issue Details

Synopsis

A college Physics professor, Al Pratt, is set up on a blind date, by his married friend, Betty Roberts. Roberts, and her husband, drive Pratt out to the Thayer mansion, in the swanky section of Calvin City. Upon meeting his date, Marion Thayer, Pratt is aghast to discover that she is a woman in her late 50's/early 60's. Taken aback by Pratt's obvious shock at her appearance, Thayer glances at herself in the mirror, and is, herself, horrified to see her aged face. A scream from Roberts, draws Pratt's eyes away from Thayer. Roberts, too, has suddenly grown old. Pratt's keen hearing detects a strange electrical sound, emanating from another room in the Thayer mansion. Pratt decides to investigate, in his guise as the Atom. He spies two men cutting into the wall safe with laser weapons. The Atom leaps into battle, easily defeating the two would-be thieves. Confiscating one of the laser guns, Pratt returns to his laboratory, at Calvin College, to study the weapon. He discovers that there is no correlation between the gun and the aging effects. Pratt brings the weapon to a local police precinct. There he overhears a desk sergeant taking in multiple calls, from women who have all, too, mysteriously aged. Pratt decides to journey to "Earth 1", a parallel world to his own. As events on both worlds happen with a great degree of similarity, Pratt hopes to arrive before the onset of the aging effect there, and possibly ferret out the root cause of it.Meanwhile, on "Earth 1", that world's Atom, noted physicist Ray Palmer, is in the process of taking down a quartet of thieves. As the last crook falls, Palmer is suddenly unaware of why he'd been fighting the men. He has no recollection of his identity as the Atom, and is mystified at the costume he's wearing. Moreso by his diminutive size. Palmer races back to his home, hoping he can determine some way to return himself to normal size, before his date that night, with Jean Loring. Palmer finds Pratt, in his Atom costume, waiting at...