Mary James Pratt
Residence: Calvin City
Occupation: College student and school journalist, later unknown
First Appearance (Golden Age):All-American Comics #19 (October 1940)
First Appearance (Post-Golden Age):DC Comics Presents #30 (February 1981)
History
Mary James was likely born in the winter of 1921 to an upper class family in Calvin City, Little is known of her early life until 1939, when she enrolled as a freshman at Calvin College in her hometown. Pretty and popular, she was immediately popular with other students, especially the boys who vied furiously for a date, Unknown to her at the time, her haughty vanity played a seminal role in history when she scoffed at the entreaties of Al Pratt and her rejection inspired him to improve his physique, starting the process that led him to become the Atom (All-American Comics #19).
During college, Mary lived off campus at her family home at 88 Cedar Street in Calvin City (All-American #26). When Al returned to college again in 1940, she continued to be scoff his advances and generally preferred the company of "Truck" Tarbell, a frat leader and scion of a dairy executive (All-American Comics #22-24). She eventually relents and goes on a date with Al Pratt but they stumble upon fur thieves and she ends up kidnapped and rescued by the Atom (All-American #28).
In part due to her impetus nature and in part due to her desire to get close to the Atom, Mary found herself no shortage of trouble. This includes her attempt to extract a confession from a framer at gun point (All-American Comics #27), snooping on Nazi saboteurs at a steel mill (All-American Comics #29) and helping the Atom thwart defense bond counterfeiters (All-American Comics #34). In her most outrageous case occurred in 1943 when she was selected by Wonder Woman to lead a charge of women dressed as their heroic love interest against Brain Wave to try to save the Justice Society. They are captured but manage to free themselves and when the Justice Society actually arrives, Brain Waves flees and falls to his apparent death (All-Star Comics #15).
Mary's heart eventually softened to Al and when she attends the school prom as class president, she claims to be proud to have him as her date (All-American #43). By the late 1940's, they settle into a comfortable relationship often centered around outdoorsy things like sailing (Flash Comics #97), crabbing (Flash Comics #104) or skiing for Mary's birthday (Flash Comics #92). Mary's major at Calvin College is unknown but her involvement as a reporter for the Calvin College Bugle suggests journalism or literary arts (All-American Comics #60)
Mary's life in the 1950's and 1960's is largely unrevealed. She is known to have eventually learned that the Atom and Al Pratt were one in the same, tho when this occurred is unclear. Atom was apparently single in 1968 when he went of a date with Marion Thayer at the behest of two friends (Atom #36). Whether he and Mary had wed and were separated or if they had not yet wed is unclear. In roughly the same time frame, Al Pratt became the godfather of Al Rothstein, grandson of Terry Curtis, the misadventurer known as Cyclotron from the 1940's. Mary's role in Rothstein's life has not been described, It is known that she and Pratt were happily married in 1981 when the action of Mallo the Balancer temporarily gave the Atom the powers of his Earth-One counterpart (DC Comics Presents #30). The ultimate fate of Mary Pratt on Earth-Two remains to be revealed.
Prior Earth-0
The history of Mary Pratt up until the late 20th century is thought to have largely similar to her Earth-Two counterpart. She is known to have died by the early 1990's while the JSA was in limbo (Justice Society of America #3) but the cause was not revealed. Later, Vandal Savage claimed to have used Mary as a surrogate to give birth to a genetically modified human who became the hero Damage using DNA from cell samples collected from a number of JSA heroes, She was murdered after giving birth but would have be in her late 60's when this occurred and given Savage's propensity for deceit, this account may not be factual (Damage #12). While the exact circumstances of her death remain unclear, it appears certain that the Mary Pratt of this timeline is deceased.
Appearances
All-Star Comics #3, #15
All-American Comics #19-23, #25-35, #43-45, #55, #58,# 60 and #72
All-Star Squadron #13 and Annual #1
Comic Cavalcade #23
DC Comics Presents #30
Flash Comics #83, #87, #89, #91-95,# 97, and #104