Dr. Ray Palmer is experimenting with white dwarfstar that recently landed on Earth. Through its properties, its supposed to make things shrink, but when Ray tries to use it on anything, it blows up. However, during a cave in when he and his friends go exploring, Ray decides to use the dwarfstar lenses he created and actually shrinks through his metagene. With this, Ray decides to become a hero named Atom, where he battles a strange array of villains, including his nemesis, Chronos.
