Ivy Town

Ivy Town is a fictional location featured in comic book titles published by DC Comics. It is located in the U.S. state of Connecticut (though this has often been changed) and is known as the base of operations for the size-changing superhero known as The Atom. It first appeared in Showcase #34 in October, 1961.

History
In the year 1708, many of the religious leaders from the small Southeastern Connecticut town of Calvin City broke away from their protestant forbearers and established their own community across the Housatonic River now known as Ivy Town. Although separated from their Calvinist cousins, the people of Ivy Town maintained a strong anti-British sentiment – a bias that ushered many young men to volunteer for the Colonial army at the onset of the Revolutionary War.

By the 1800s however, Ivy Town grew into one of the most flourishing industrial centers in all of New England. An inventor named Marcus Silas Watkins financed the establishment of a strong scientific community, and by 1883, the fortune he had earned from various manufacturing patents laid the foundation for the building of Ivy University. Ivy University opened its doors in 1885, and has remained one of the premiere scientific institutes in the United States, rivaled only by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Ivy Town gained prominence in the late 20th century when a young physicist named Ray Palmer discovered a piece of white dwarf star matter. Ray focused the power of the celestial mineral through a specially designed lens, and discovered that he could shrink himself in size down to the subatomic level. Fashioning the lens into a belt, Ray donned a costume and became the super-hero known as the Atom.

Ray worked at Ivy University alongside a scientist named Alpheus V. Hyatt. Professor Hyatt discovered a microscopic quantum singularity in Ivy Town, through which matter could traverse backward and forward through time. Dubbing the singularity the Time Pool, Hyatt often aided the Atom in sending him into the time stream on various adventures.

As years passed, Ray Palmer's tampering with the time stream, as well as his frequent scientific experiments proved harmful to the community at large. Little by little, the very laws of physical nature began to erode until finally breaking altogether. Today, Ivy Town exists as a living contradiction to the laws of science. It is a veritable magnet for time vortexes and quantum irregularities. People and creatures from different timelines and dimensions can gain easy access to Earth via Ivy Town. The upheaval in Ivy Town has become so severe that it has now attracted the attention of the Linear Men.

Residents

 * Jean Loring