Al Pratt is a character in the DC Comics Universe, the original hero to fight crime as the Atom. He first appeared in All-American Comics #19 (Oct. 1940). He initially had no superpowers; instead, he was a diminutive college student and later a physicist, usually depicted as a "tough-guy" character.
The character of the Atom (Al Pratt) would seem to be influenced heavily by the life story of Joe Greenstein, a Coney Island strongman known professi...
more
Al Pratt is a character in the DC Comics Universe, the original hero to fight crime as the Atom. He first appeared in All-American Comics #19 (Oct. 1940). He initially had no superpowers; instead, he was a diminutive college student and later a physicist, usually depicted as a "tough-guy" character.
The character of the Atom (Al Pratt) would seem to be influenced heavily by the life story of Joe Greenstein, a Coney Island strongman known professionally as "the Mighty Atom". Both the real-life Greenstein (at 5' 4" and 140 pounds) and the fictional Al Pratt were unusually short and had self-trained at boxing and bodybuilding to overcome poor health during childhood.
Initially a proverbial 98-pound weakling, bullied at school and unable to impress the girl of his dreams, Mary James, the 5' 1" Al Pratt was trained to fighting condition by ex-boxer Joe Morgan (the same man who trained Pratt's fellow mystery men, Wildcat and the Guardian). Pratt soon became a founding member of the Justice...
less
