Atom (Ryan Choi)

Atom
Ryan Choi as Atom Art by Eddy Barrows
Publication information
Publisher	DC Comics
First appearance	DCU: Brave New World #1 (August 2006)
Created by	Gail Simone Grant Morrison
In-story information
Alter ego	Ryan Choi
Team affiliations	Justice League Teen Titans Justice Foundation
Notable aliases	Lun Lun
Abilities	Ability to shrink his body to varying degrees (including the subatomic level) while manipulating his weight and mass to his advantage Genius-level intellect Size-shifting from nearly microscopic to ~100 feet gigantic (both at extremes) Ability to transfer his size-shifting ability to other beings and objects

Ryan Choi is a fictional superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. Created by Gail Simone and Grant Morrison, the character first appeared in DCU: Brave New World #1 (August 2006) as the third superhero character to use the Atom name in the DC Universe. He emigrated to the United States following the death of his mother, to take up his idol Ray Palmer's former position at Ivy University. He went on to become a member of the Justice League.

In the DC Extended Universe film Justice League (2017), Ryan Choi was portrayed by Zheng Kai, but his scenes were cut from the theatrical version. His appearance was restored for the 2021 director's cut of the film, Zack Snyder's Justice League. Osric Chau portrayed Ryan Choi in the Arrowverse crossover "Crisis on Infinite Earths".

Publication history[]

Ryan Choi first appeared in DCU: Brave New World and was created by Gail Simone and Grant Morrison. Choi, as described by DC solicitations, is "a young hotshot professor who's filling the extra spot on Ivy University's teaching staff... and who inadvertently ends up filling the old Atom's super-heroic shoes".^[1]

In a Facebook post from 2017, Simone claimed that Ryan Choi was entirely her creation: "Grant Morrison did NOT create Ryan Choi. I envisioned him, developed him and named him. I was given some rough story ideas by Grant, I am sure they were brilliant, but I didn’t read them. My entire Atom pitch was lifted from a pitch I wrote for Impulse that did not get used".^[2]

Choi makes his first appearance in the new Rebirth continuity in the Justice League of America: The Atom one-shot, by Steve Orlando and Andrew MacDonald. His suit is redesigned to resemble Ray Palmer's in the Arrowverse TV shows.

Fictional character biography[]

Born in Hong Kong, Ryan Choi was a longtime protégé of Ray Palmer who had been corresponding with him through letters. After Palmer's disappearance, Ryan moved to Ivy Town in America to assume his mentor's place on the staff of Ivy University. Following clues left by Palmer, Ryan discovered a "bio-belt", allegedly the size and density-manipulating device used by his predecessor, and became the new Atom with Palmer's apparent blessing. Though taken with the superhero lifestyle, Ryan is a scientist first and foremost and approaches many of his adventures from the perspective of scientific discovery and investigation.

Since taking his mentor's place, Ryan has found himself at the center of a conflict between the forces of science and magic. It has been claimed that the impossible feats performed by Ray Palmer during his superheroic career caused the very fabric of reality to warp in Ivy Town's vicinity, making it a nexus of paranormal activity. Many parties, including the ancient "Cancer God" M'Nagalah and the microscopic aliens known as "the Waiting", consider Ryan a key player in the war and have made attempts to recruit, capture, or kill him. He is advised by, among others, Ivy Town Police Chief Liza Warner (a.k.a. Lady Cop).^[3]

As the Atom, Ryan has faced numerous challenges, including the shrinking serial killer Dwarfstar, his strict and disapproving father, and being seduced, kidnapped, and even swallowed alive by the size-changing villainess, Giganta. Through it all, his ingenuity and keen deductive mind have served him in good stead.

Ryan Choi was involved in the search for the missing Ray Palmer, traveling into the restored Multiverse along with Donna Troy, Jason Todd and a Monitor nicknamed "Bob". Literally plucked back to New Earth, he leaves his role of dimension-hopper to Kyle Rayner, returning to defend Ivy Town from a monster invasion. Later he is led to a mistaken belief that Ray Palmer has become an egocentric madman, and Ryan himself may be only a pawn of his mad fantasies. This is later revealed to be a ploy by Ray's old nemesis, Chronos. The All New Atom series ended with issue #25,^[4][5] when Ryan, with some help from the returned Ray Palmer, is able to discern between the truth and the lies fed by Chronos and his new assistant, Lady Chronos, a former sweetheart of Ryan turned to crime. Ryan eventually discovers that Ray Palmer never knew of Choi: instead the bio-belt was a tainted gift from Jia, and the Ray Palmer letters a clever forging by Chronos, meant to force Ryan into accepting the Atom mantle, and taking the blame for the staging menaces sent against the city. However, due to Ryan's ability into sorting out the mess, besting the Chronos couple and restoring Ivy to normalcy, Ray finally gives him his blessing.^[6]

Ryan expresses his desire to find a new identity for himself, since Ray, despite giving him his blessing earlier, had resumed using regularly his Atom identity.^[7] In Justice League: Cry For Justice #1, Ray and Ryan are seen fighting Killer Moth together, and at the end of the battle both of them show respect towards each other, with Ray asking Ryan to continue using the Atom name.

Brightest Day[]

During the Brightest Day event, Ryan is murdered by Deathstroke and his new team of Titans during their first mission. His corpse is then delivered in a matchbox to Dwarfstar, who is revealed to be the person who hired the Titans.^[8][9] His death caused some minor controversy, given both its timing and the supposed "lighter" new direction of DC Comics.^[10] A short time after Ryan's death, Deathstroke is briefly shown dismantling his bio-belt for some unknown purpose.^[11] In an interview done during Comic-Con International 2010, Titans writer Eric Wallace stated that Choi's death would have major repercussions for the team, and would bring the Titans into conflict with the wider DCU.^[12]

Later, Ray begins an investigation into the disappearance of Ryan who, unbeknownst to the superhero community, has been murdered. Ray comforts Ryan's girlfriend Amanda, and muses that Ryan may be hiding out like Ray did after the events of Identity Crisis.^[13] Amanda Waller eventually tells Giganta about Dwarfstar's hand in Ryan's murder, though it is unknown if she revealed the involvement of Deathstroke and the Titans. After stealing Dwarfstar's belt (thus rendering him powerless), Giganta pummels him into submission and tapes his mouth shut, telling him that she plans on taking her time to torture him.^[14] Later, Ray discovers evidence that Dwarfstar had a hand in Ryan's death, and vows to find him and make him pay.^[15] Ray eventually finds Dwarfstar in a hospital, where he is recovering from the severe injuries he sustained from his torture at the hands of Giganta. Believing that it may lead to a lighter sentence, Dwarfstar confesses to hiring Slade to kill Ryan. Armed with this knowledge, Ray leaves to inform the Justice League, but not before telling Dwarfstar that Deathstroke will likely kill him for his betrayal.^[16] The members of the Justice League finally confront Deathstroke and Titans on their way back from a disastrous mission, intending to arrest them for Ryan's murder.^[17] Ray seriously injures Deathstroke for killing his friend, but the Titans ultimately escape due to the intervention of Isis and Osiris.^[18] After failing, Ray sets out to write the eulogy for Ryan's funeral, with encouragement from Superman. It is also revealed that Deathstroke dismantled Ryan's bio-belt to utilize the technology to revive his dying son, Jericho.^[19] Later, Ray, Amanda, the Justice League, the Teen Titans and numerous other heroes are shown at the funeral honoring Ryan's memory.^[20]

Convergence[]

At San Diego Comic-Con 2011, artist Jim Lee revealed that Ryan would be one of the members of the new Justice League title drawn by Lee and written by Geoff Johns. The undoing of Choi's death will be one of the numerous changes to DC's continuity caused by the Flashpoint event.^[21]

During the first story arc of the series, it is mentioned in passing that as a young graduate student, Ryan had helped design one of the components of Cyborg's robotic body.^[22]

In the Convergence crossover, when the alternate Brainiac miniaturized the universe of the New Earth, Ryan appears to be alive and confronts Ray Palmer, who was battling the Angor universe's Barracuda.^[23] Ryan reveals that after his death, his consciousness had survived in the universe where the Atoms' masses are shifted to whenever they change size. He later returns to the realm of the living after appropriating the flesh from Ray's severed hand to create a new body for himself. After Barracuda is defeated, the two Atoms work together to defeat Deathstroke, avenging Ryan's murder.^[24]

DC Rebirth[]

Ryan makes his official debut in the new DC Rebirth continuity as a teenage^{[citation needed]} genius Ivy League college student tutored by Ray Palmer. Palmer reveals his identity as the Atom and enlists Ryan's help in fighting crime, talking to Ray from his lab in a tech support role.^[25] One day, after many adventures together, Ray goes missing. A week later, Ryan finds a message from Palmer along with one of his size-changing belts, asking the youth to come find him in the Microverse because he got stuck there when exploring a change in time and space.^[26] After receiving another scolding from Dean Plumm, Ryan heads back to the lab, using the bio-belt that Ray gave him to travel there through the Wi-Fi. When he arrives, he is met by Batman and Lobo who are there to recruit Ray Palmer into the new Justice League of America. Discovering that Ray is missing, Batman decides to leave until Lobo asks Ryan if he wrote down various equations to update the bio-belt on a blackboard. Impressed, Lobo decides that Batman should recruit Ryan, despite Batman not wanting to put him in danger. Lobo says it is Ryan's choice, and Ryan joins the JLA and sometime later, heads to the City of Vanity, Oregon, to recruit the Ray into the team.^[27]

Collected editions[]

In other media[]

Television[]

Animation[]

• The Ryan Choi version of the Atom appears in Batman: The Brave and the Bold, voiced by James Sie. The Atom helps Batman stop evil sorcerer Felix Faust from opening Pandora's Box in "Evil Under the Sea!". He re-appeared along with Aquaman to save Batman from a virus created by Chemo in "Journey to the Center of the Bat!". The mind-controlled Atom appears in "The Siege of Starro! Part One", demonstrating the ability to grow to giant sizes, which he uses to prevent Batman from destroying a signal leading Starro to Earth. He also appears in the teaser for "The Criss Cross Conspiracy!", where he, Batman, and Aquaman battle the Bug-Eyed Bandit. In "Sword of the Atom!", Ryan is coerced out of retirement by Aquaman into helping Batman find Ray Palmer. At the episode's end, Ryan re-dons the Atom mantle.
  • The character has a Crime Syndicate counterpart named Dyna-Mite (not to be confused with the Marvel Comics character of the same name or Dan the Dyna-Mite), also voiced by James Sie. He appears in "Deep Cover for Batman!". The Blue Bowman has him spy on Owlman.

Arrowverse[]

• The character is mentioned in the season five premiere of the live-action series The Flash by Nora West-Allen as the creator of Barry Allen's future Flash suit.^[28]
• Ryan Choi made his live-action debut in the 2019 Arrowverse crossover "Crisis on Infinite Earths", played by Osric Chau.^[29]

Film[]

• An alternate universe version of Ryan Choi appears in Justice League: Gods and Monsters, voiced by Eric Bauza. He was seen encouraging Ray Palmer about a presentation on molecular miniaturization as seen when he holds one of Ray's shrunken horses.
• The Ryan Choi version of the Atom appears in Lego DC Comics Super Heroes: The Flash, voiced again by Eric Bauza.

DC Extended Universe[]

• A hidden Easter Egg in the live-action film Justice League listed the character as a S.T.A.R. Labs scientist, possibly partial to Cyborg's technology.
• Director Zack Snyder revealed via his personal Vero account that he intended Ryan Choi to play a role in Justice League. Actor Zheng Kai was cast in the role. His appearance was filmed, but later removed from the final cut of the film in post-production, although photos of the scene have been released to the public online.^[30] He appears in the director's cut Zack Snyder's Justice League which premiered on HBO Max in 2021.^[31]

Video games[]

• The Ryan Choi incarnation of the Atom is a playable character in Injustice 2, voiced by Matthew Yang King. He appears as part of the "Fighter Pack 3" DLC. In his single-player ending, he upgrades his abilities with Brainiac's technology to go subatomic and into the Microverse to rescue his mentor Ray Palmer.^[32]
• The Ryan Choi incarnation of the Atom appears as a playable character in Lego DC Super-Villains, voiced by Jason Marsden.

References[]