Ivy Town
From DC Database
- "All I know for sure is, the weirdness factor of Ivy Town seems to be back to normal. Of course, I mean... you know... Ivy normal."
Official Name: Ivy Town
Nicknames: No known nicknames
Former Aliases: No known former aliases
Other Current Aliases: No other known current aliases
Contents |
Location Details
Universe: Multiverse
Galaxy: Milky Way Galaxy
Star System: Sol system
Planet: Earth
Country: United States of America
State: Connecticut
Identity: The existence of this location is known to the general populace of Earth.
History
History: In the year 1708, many of the religious leaders from the small Southeastern Connecticut town of Calvin City broke away from their Protestant forbears and established their own community across the Housatonic River, which would come to be 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 material 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 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 the years passed, the strange nature of Ray Palmer's experiments, the bizarre science of his shrinking abilities and his tampering with the time stream, gradually transformed the town. 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, a veritable magnet for time vortexes and quantum irregularities. Its various neighborhoods have descended into their own special forms of psychosis. It has become a critical nexus for the forces of magic and science, both of which seek to claim the town as their own.
Characteristics
Area/Dimensions: Area or Dimensions unknown
Population: Approximately 50,000 year round; 100,000 during the school year
Points of Interest
- East Street
- Housatonic Bridge
- Housatonic River
- Ivy University
- Long Island Sound
- Watkins Industrial Park
- West Street
People
The following is a list of people who have either been born and/or spent an extended period of time in Ivy Town.
- Alpheus Hyatt
- Atom (Ray Palmer)
- Atom (Ryan Choi)
- Dean Mayland
- Doris Zuel
- Enrica Negrini
- Helmond Kettering
- Jean Loring
- Martin Campbell
- Panda Potter
- Thomas Dinawa
- Copernicus
- Ebenezer Heath
- Edwin Katz
- Gordon Doolin Heath
- Jia Choi
- Marcus Silas Watkins
- Paul Hoben
- Terkel Hall
Notes
- Ivy Town was created by writer Gardner Fox and artist Gil Kane.
- Ivy Town first appeared in Showcase (Volume 1) #34.
Trivia
- Ivy Town earned its name due to an epidemic growth of ivy vines throughout the surrounding neighborhoods.
Recommended Readings
- Atom (Volume 1) #1-45
- Atom Special #1
- Atom Special #2
- All-New Atom #1-present
- Power of the Atom #1-18
