Hero Profile: The Atom

I need to admit something that may shock you. I have not kept up with Arrow. I’ll let that sink in for a second…. Alright, why is this relevant to today’s discussion on the Atom? Simply hat I haven’t been well-versed in the CW’s version of the size altering scientist. Other than the one The Flash episode in which he appeared in. And, just from that one episode I have to ask, why did they turn the Atom into Iron Man? Think about that, he’s rich, his costume is now more of a high-tech battle suit, and he flies. All that’s missing is a slightly dickish attitude. Which, is part of the fun of Iron Man, so now we just a nice guy Iron-Man-Atom. So weird. Well, let’s get to it.

Don't get lost in the lower intestine Dr. Palmer.

Raymond “Ray” Palmer started his career as a PhD Physicist working at Pace University in Ivy Town. He specialized in the study of matter compression. Basically he believed that if we could shrink stuff down we could fight things like overpopulation, famine and so on. Insane, I know, but this is the world of comics where crazy scientists’ theories can be proven, billionaires and lawyers can become vigilante ninjas, surgeons can become sorcerers, and housecats can become Avatars of Rage and Destruction. Not joking about any of those. The biggest breakthrough in Ray’s research came from the heavens, literally. He stumbled across a small fragment of a White Dwarf Star. He was able to gather together the fragment and was able to create a lens. To Ray’s astonishment, he could use the lens to shrink any object down by any degree he wanted. There was just one, small, teeny tiny issue with his lens. Shrinking something down destabilizes it’s molecular structure, which causes it to explode. SO yeah, not solving any world problems via shrinking yet.

A short time later he went on a spelunking expedition with his students and his girlfriend Jean Loring. Not a 100% on why a physicist is going spelunking for school, just saying. An accident occurred and the entire group gets stuck in a cave. Running short on air and time, Ray uses the lens to shrink himself down and crawls through a tiny hole in the fallen rocks. He then uses the lens in conjunction with the diamond engagement ring he was going to propose with to enlarge the hole and then himself. For some reason he didn’t explode. It’s first explained the there is something unique about Ray’s body that allows him to alter his mass without fear of explosion, but this is later retconned. Instead of being the lamest metahuman ever, Ray discovered a compression matrix, a specialize fabric that stabilizes the lens’ effects. After the cave adventure, Ray creates a superhero costume, a control belt, and equipment that let him alter his weight. He can reduce his weight to glide on the air currents or increase his weight to give him superstrength at micro size. Dr. Palmer takes on the alias of the Atom. Initially he used his powers to help his girlfriend win her cases. Huh, not sure how legal that is. After helping stave off an alien invasion or three he’s offered a spot on the Justice League and becomes good friends with Hawkman. While never a heavy hitter like Superman or Batman, the Atom was often a support character using his size altering specialty. Just going to ask, how often do superheroes need to shrink down to save the day?

So the Young Justice version is partnered with
a size changing young woman with a bee theme.
So, yeah, he's basically Ant-Man.

A short while later Ray had a sort of mid-life crisis. He divorced his wife, Jean, after she had an affair and became the champion of a tribe of six inch aliens called the Morlaidhans in South America. Ray decided to stay mini permanently and gave his equipment to Jean’s new husband Paul Hoben. The guy she cheated with. Personally, I’d have minimized the guy and stuck him in one of those insect observation things. But I’m a vindictive. Ray has a good time with the tiny aliens, until their village is destroyed by loggers. This is sounding awfully similar to that Ferngully movie… He escapes the destruction and returns to the US. He tries to get back to normal size, but gets stuck at only three feet tall. He gets some new materials together and make a new costume. He spent the next few years tracking down those responsible for the genocide of his alien friends, namely five CIA agents that called themselves the Cabal. Apparently their plan was to get Ray back from the Amazon and make him an agent for the Cabal. As payback he shrank them all down. The CIA then turned them into a pintsized version of the Suicide Squad called the Micro/Squad. Ray has battled the Micro/Squad on several occasions. He returned to the Justice League as a specialist, and helps various heroes with shrinking problems. No rest for the super scientists.

And Arrow's is basically Iron Man.
You have your own heroes, DC, use them.

Ray Palmer as the Atom has the power to shrink down to even the subatomic level while still retaining the natural strength of a full sized man. Early versions had him reliant on touching his belt to use his powers, but the modern character can change his size at will. His signature form of travel is to shrink down to the size on a molecule and ride the electrons of a phone line to his destination. Since the death of landlines, he’s been traveling through fiber optic cables. He’s even entered Superman’s bloodstream and manually rearranged the Big Blue Boy Scout’s molecules to create Kryptonite. Given the complexity of Kryptonian DNA, this is quiet the feat. For a while he could also grow to supersizes, but this was later dropped, probably due to being too similar to the other size changing superhero of Marvel’s Hank Pym. I know Ray Palmer came first, by a year, but growing into a giant has been Hank’s thing since the sixties.

The Atom made a few guest appearances on Justice League Unlimited. He first appeared in “The Return,” in it he’s enlisted to protect Lex Luthor from the Amazo Android that was returning from deep space. He first built a nanotechnology disabling laser, which fails, and then shrinks the two of them down to electron size. Amazo, who had gained near god like power in the far reaches of the cosmos, follows. It turns out alright, though. He also appeared in “Dark Heart,” where he’s enlisted to stop an alien grey goo called the Dark Heart that was attacking earth. He is able to disable the Dark Heart and thus save the Earth.

Ray was a background character in Young Justice. He’s recruited for the Justice League in “Usual Suspects,” just in time to be mind-controlled by the evil organization, The Light. He’s rescued along with the rest of the League in the following episode, “Auld Acquintances.” In season 2, he and lab assistant Bumblebee enter the body of Jaime Reyes, the latest version of the Blue Beetle. They try to remove the Scarab, the bit of alien tech fused to Jaime’s spine. The micro surgery is stopped when the scarab sends in antibodies to scare them off.

It's kind of been a while since we've seen an Atom this accurate.

In the third season of Arrow, Brandon Routh is introduced as Ray Palmer. In this version, Ray is a billionaire that bought out Queen Consolidated after Oliver was betrayed by his business partner Isabel Rochev. Over the course of the season he develops a super powered battle suit to fight crime, and develops a relationship with Felicity Smoak. He’s yet to show any size changing powers as of yet, though they teased the heck out of it in The Flash, when in the episode “All-Star Team-Up,” where he stopped in Central City to get the STAR Labs team to upgrade his suit. Again, right now he’s more or less a bland Tony Stark. This version of the Atom will also be appearing in another Arrow spin off show, Heroes of Tomorrow set to debut next year or so.

Ray is your pretty standard super scientist/superhero. He’s usually one of the smartest guys in the room, and his size changing abilities have been useful on more occasions than you might think. He’s largely a support character in all the things I’ve seen him in, and Arrow gets points for turning a traditionally background character into a major player. I’ll be binging Arrow season three sometime soon, so I’ll probably update this section after learning more about Arrow’s spin on the classic character. Next time, let’s keep the CW train going with Firestorm. 

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atom_%28Ray_Palmer%29

 http://youngjustice.wikia.com/wiki/Atom

 http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/67/Atom_%28Brandon_Routh%29.jpg

 http://dc.wikia.com/wiki/Raymond_Palmer_%28DCAU%29