Real Name: Jimmy Everett

Identity/Class: Human mutate (1940s era)

Occupation: Elementary school student, lab assistant

Group Membership: None

Affiliations: Dr. Harold Schmidt

Enemies: None

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: Microman (see comments)

Base of Operations: Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America

First Appearance: Human Torch Comics#2/4 (Fall 1940)

Powers/Abilities: Ten-year-old Jimmy Everett was quite an energetic and nimble boy; he was able to climb nearly anything he could get a foothold or handhold on.

After drinking Dr. Schmidt's shrinking potion, Jimmy's size was reduced, and he became smaller than a nickel (perhaps 0.5" height). Shortly afterward, he was restored to his normal stature by an antidote.

Height: 4' 7"
Weight: 74 lbs.
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Blond

History:
(Human Torch Comics#2/4) - Bored with inaction, Jimmy Everett decided to visit his neighbor Mr. Schmidt. As he crawled through the hedge that separated his house from the old chemist's lab, Jimmy spotted a black ant on the ground--he whimsically wished he were as small as the insect, then he could find a lot of new things to do.

   When Jimmy entered Schmidt's lab, the elderly scientist was mixing a potion. Jimmy inquired what Schmidt was working on, and the elderly chemist told him it was a fluid that would make a person smaller--the boy's interest was immediately piqued.

   Mr. Schmidt was out of tobacco, so he gave Jimmy some money to buy him some more, plus an extra nickel for the boy to keep--all the while, Jimmy curiously eyed the bottle of shrinking potion, then went to run the errand.

   Some time later, Jimmy returned to Schmidt's lab with the tobacco, and he found the old chemist dozing in a chair. While Mr. Schmidt slept, Jimmy's grabbed the bottle of shrinking potion and took a taste of the old chemist's new discovery. Suddenly, Jimmy began to get smaller and smaller--soon, the bottle of potion was too big for him to hold. As his size continued to dwindle, Jimmy regretted drinking the fluid, because now the nickel was too big and heavy for him to hold. Jimmy attempted to call Schmidt for help, but the snoozing scientist didn't hear him. Finally, the boy's reduction ceased, and he was left even smaller than the nickel.

   Then Mr. Schmidt awoke and noticed the nickel laying on the floor--the old chemist picked it up, not noticing the tiny Jimmy clinging to the coin's face. Schmidt put the nickel in his vest pocket, alongside his watch, still unaware of the shrunken Jimmy's presence.

   Within Schmidt's pocket, Jimmy was nearly deafened by the chemist's pocket-watch, because its rhythmic ticking sounded like exploding dynamite to his tiny ears. Jimmy squeezed out of the pocket and started climbing across Schmidt's vest by using the watch chain, then he dropped to a tabletop. The tiny boy shouted again for help, but the old scientist was hard of hearing.

   Mr. Schmidt happened to pick up his magnifying glass, so Jimmy ran under it--this finally alerted the scientist to the shrunken boy's predicament. Correctly surmising that Jimmy had imbibed his shrinking potion, Schmidt grabbed the bottle of antidote, then used an eyedropper to dispense the fluid to the tiny boy. Jimmy drank from the "huge" droplet of antidote and slowly regained his normal size, but as he did so, Mr. Schmidt scolded him ("That's what happens when little boys do things they shouldn't.").

   When Jimmy was back to his usual stature, he proposed the idea that he could be Schmidt's laboratory assistant.

Comments: Created by Paul Quinn and Harold DeLay.

Jimmy Everett had a profile in Marvel Mystery Handbook: 70th Anniversary Special, from which some of this information (Jimmy's age and physical statistics, Dr. Schmidt's first name, etc.) was taken.

And despite the promise of the caption in the last panel--NEXT MONTH DR. SCHMIDT STARTS A STRANGE EXPERIMENT WITH JIMMY--this would be the first, last, and only appearance of this character.
In regards to "Microman": Beyond the title of this 6-page story, Jimmy was never actually referred to by that moniker; presumably, if this feature had lasted longer, he would have adopted that sobriquet.

So whatever happened to Jimmy Everett/Microman? He would have been an adult by the 1950s, so maybe he worked with the First Line (If Roger Stern and John Byrne remembered an obscure character like the Eternal Brain, I'm surprised they forgot about little Jimmy); or maybe he worked with Jimmy Woo's "G-Men"; or maybe he turned traitor and eventually became the Worm Man.

Profile by Ron Fredricks.

CLARIFICATIONS:
Jimmy Everett/Microman has no known connections to:

Dr. Harold Schmidt has no known connections to:

Dr. Harold Schmidt

An eccentric and elderly chemist, Schmidt was visually shortsighted and slightly hard of hearing.

Schmidt's laboratory was next-door to Jimmy Everett's home, and the boy would sometimes run errands for the old scientist.

One day, Jimmy came over just as Schmidt was mixing his shrinking potion. Since Schmidt was out of tobacco, he gave Jimmy some money to buy him some more, along with a extra nickel for running the errand. While Jimmy went to purchase the tobacco, the old chemist settled in a chair a dozed off.

But when Jimmy returned and found Schmidt asleep, the boy drank some of the shrinking potion and was reduced to a tiny size.

Schmidt eventually awoke and spotted the tiny boy with his magnifying glass. The elderly chemist dispensed a droplet of antidote to Jimmy. While the boy slowly regained size, Schmidt scolded him for his mischievous behavior.

When Jimmy had grown back to his normal stature, the boy proposed the idea of him being Schmidt's assistant.

(Comment: He was referred to as just "Mr. Schmidt" twelve times in the story, but the final caption referred to him as "Dr. Schmidt". Possibly Schmidt's shrinking potion utilized what would later be known as the size-altering Pym Particles.)

--Human Torch Comics#2/4

Shrinking potion

It was a fluid created by chemist Harold Schmidt; when imbibed by an individual, it could reduce that person (along with their clothing) to a miniscule size.

Jimmy Everett drank some of the potion, and his size was reduced to smaller than a nickel.

Jimmy eventually returned to his normal height when Schmidt administered the antidote, which counteracted the effects of the shrinking potion.

--Human Torch Comics#2/4

antidote

A liquid solution created by chemist Harold Schmidt, it counteracted the effects of his shrinking potion.

When Jimmy Everett drank some of the shrinking potion and was reduced to tiny size, Schmidt eventually used an eyedropper to dispense the antidote to the boy--at his reduced size, the droplet of antidote was huge in comparison to Jimmy.

After drinking from the droplet, Jimmy slowly regained his normal size.
 
--Human Torch Comics#2/4

images: (without ads)
Human Torch Comics#2/4, p1, pan1 (Main Image - shrunken Jimmy Everett climbing on flower)
Human Torch Comics#2/4, p2, pan5 (Headshot - Jimmy Everett decides to drink shrinking potion)
Human Torch Comics#2/4, p3, pan6 (Jimmy Everett, shrunken smaller than a nickel)
Human Torch Comics#2/4, p5, pan5 (shrunken Jimmy Everett, climbing across Dr. Schmidt's vest on pocket-watch chain)
Human Torch Comics#2/4, p1, pan4 (in his lab, Dr. Harold Schmidt, holding bottle of shrinking potion in his left hand)
Human Torch Comics#2/4, p5, pan2 (Dr. Harold Schmidt, putting fallen nickel in his vest pocket)
Human Torch Comics#2/4, p6, pan2 (Dr. Harold Schmidt uses magnifying glass to see shrunken Jimmy Everett)
Human Torch Comics#2/4, p2, pan1 (Dr. Schmidt tells Jimmy Everett about his shrinking potion)
Human Torch Comics#2/4, p3, pan1 (after drinking shrinking potion, shrinking Jimmy Everett holds "giant" bottle)
Human Torch Comics#2/4, p6, pan4 (Dr. Schmidt uses eyedropper to extract antidote from bottle)
Human Torch Comics#2/4, p6, pan5 (shrunken Jimmy Everett drinks from "huge" droplet of antidote)

Appearances:
Human Torch Comics#2/4 (Fall 1940) - Peter Quinn (writer), Harold DeLay (pencils and inks), Joe Simon (editor)

First Posted: 08/09/2020
Last updated: 08/09/2020

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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