DC Comics Presents #15 (1979)

Superman is about to end his latest monitor duty shift on the JLA satellite when his relief, the Atom arrives. However, the Atom is at his full sized Ray Palmer identity and reveals to Superman that he is giving up being the Atom. He explains to Superman that some nights ago, he and his wife Jean Loring were heading home when they spotted some thugs robbing a man in an alley. When Ray would attempt to activate his size changing belt to change into the Atom he would find that he was frightened to do so for some unexplained reason. Deciding to get involved anyway, Ray would attempt to fight off the thugs, but he would be outmatched. Ray would be saved from danger thanks to the fact that the man being robbed is really an undercover police officer. Finishing his story, Ray tells the Man of Steel that he cannot bring himself to shrink ever since he had a nightmare where the atom-effect that happens when he uses his shrinking power was crushing him to death. Superman decides to help Ray defeat his irrational fear by bringing him to the Fortress of Solitude, and so he contacts Batman to cover for Ray while they go and solve the problem. Putting on a spare, full-sized, Atom costume, Ray and Superman teleport down to the Fortress. There, Superman tells the Atom to look around while he tries to find some solution to the problem. Superman's investigation is interrupted when a ship carrying alien Sabromians land outside the Fortress. Before the two men can act, they are blasted clean out of Superman's sanctuary and into the cold outside. After super-heating Ray's costume to keep him warm, the two attempt to attack the ship, however Superman is bombarded with rays of a weapon that creates an energy field around him that blocks the suns rays, slowly weakening his super powers. Before the two can act, they are knocked out by another ray blast and taken prisoner aboard the Sabromian ship. Taken aboard the alien ship, the Atom notes the aliens gigantic size. They explain that they are going to destroy Superman's Fortress of Solitude as the first step in their world domination plot. With Superman powerless to stop them, he tells the Atom to stop them. Ray, frustrated at how powerless he is, strikes a panel on the wall denting it making him realize that he's been shrunken down to six inches and has his full 180 lbs of strength. Realizing that he's been Atom-sized since being taken prisoner, the Atom springs into action, attacking the Sabromians before they can charge up their solar-cannon to destroy the Fortress. Despite his best efforts at returning to full size, the Atom fails to stop the lead Sabromian from firing the weapon, however Superman appears in front of the blast, blocking it. Smashing through the ship, the Atom remarks as a miniature Superman easily knocks out the aliens. He explains that when they were initially "attacked", it was in reality a secret shrinking device set by Superman to shrink Ray down to size without his knowledge, so that Ray can realize it later and overcome his mental block with shrinking. As for shaking off the effects of the energy shield, he explains that the Sabromian solar cannon required a massive amount of solar power to operate, and that abundance of energy within the ship helped Superman's strength return and fight off the fields effects. With the battle over and Atom's problem solved, the two heroes return to their normal sizes and return to the Fortress of Solitude so that Ray can keep warm.