Uncle Rog,

I was a big fan of your Power Of The Atom series (the character was a special favourite of mine when I was little), and have always been curious about something ...

POTA was promoted by DC as a specifically Post-Crisis series. I remember the house ads running at the time showed the new first issues of Superman, Wonder Woman, Justice League, "and now ... The Atom gets the same treatment" (the ads said something along those lines).

But you didn't restart the Atom from scratch, instead you picked up his storyline from where he had been left Pre-Crisis (including all the Sword Of The Atom stuff) and took him forward from there. Was this your decision or DC's? If yours, why did you choose to play the series that way rather than a complete reboot? I liked it very much, but it seemed like your Atom would have worked equally well even if there had been no Crisis at all.

Oh, so you're the one who was buying it!

'Twas all my idea. I had always liked the Atom, from his very first issue of Showcase (which I tracked down at the old bus station spinner rack in my hometown).

I didn't think there was all that much about Ray that needed fixing, aside from bringing him back to America and juicing up his size controls.

Alas, there weren't enough readers who agreed.

-- Uncle Rog

I still have every issue, Roger. I thought it was a very inventive run!

Well, thank you. Brother Peyer did a good job, too.

-- Uncle Rog

As I've said at ComicBloc, if it wasn't for your POWER OF THE ATOM #1, I may have never gotten back into comics. It was a great way to learn along with Ray what the DCU had become after Crisis. His reaction to Captain Atom is one of my favorite PotA memories, "I'm gone for a few months and someone steals my name?!"

Were the last few issues all done by Tom Peyer, or was he working from your plots? If he was, was it your idea for Ray to hunt down the CIA and shrink'em?

What other classic DC characters were involved (or would you involve) with Gestalt besides Darwin Jones?

Humbug! One of the most innovative villains at the time! I really hope you do something with him again, he's just too cool of a character to fade into obscurity. Heck, I even liked "that Strobe guy". ^.^

What did you think of John Ostrander tying up the loose ends of PotA in the SUICIDE SQUAD with "The Mystery of the Atom"? I really liked Adam Cray, personally...

By any chance what did you think of the Atom's de-aging from ZERO HOUR and him leading the TEEN TITANS? I kinda always had a feeling Ray would eventually age back to his 30-something self, so I sat back and enjoyed his adventures...

Oh yeah, was it your idea to have Ron's daughter become Glorith (and eventually the Time Trapper?) in Legion, or was that all Tom?

Thanks for everything, Rog - no matter who scribes the Atom, to me you'll always be the true master of size and weight!

I bought it too, Unc. Twice!
Once to read and throw on the shelf, and once again 'cause I couldn't find it on the shelf a year later and my LCS had the whole series in one bag for a few bucks.
That makes at lest 4 copies in this thread alone.
Don't spend all that royalty money in one place.

That was all Tom.



The rest of Gestalt was going to be made up of new folks.



Yes, there's plenty to be done with Humbug. but I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for Yours Truly to get a platform to use him.



Sorry, but I don't remember anything about the Suicide Squad stories.



I didn't quite get the Titans stories. I could understand Ray's getting younger, but couldn't figure out why he became less mature. That's really not a function of age.



Must have been Tom. I don't remember anything about that.



Then how come I'm not taller?

-- Uncle Rog

You can count me in as the other one in line. I truly enjoyed POTA. Another fine character that I felt never got his due.

And that makes 6 of us. Is that all of us?

I only read Marvel at the time.

I have the first two issues. I don't remember ever seeing any others. In the days whenI didn't live near a comic shop, I was at the mercy of the local newsstand, so maybe it just didn't get ordered.

Well, that was the period where DC seemed to be giving up on newsstands.

-- Uncle Rog

I should've read POTA when it came out. I had no interest in the Atom back then. Only later did Ray Palmer seem interesting (not because of what people after Roger had done with him, just the concept of the character).

Anyone have a POTA run they wanna sell, cheap?

I think I must be number seven. I have a complete run, loved it.