Atom (character)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Atom
Publication information
PublisherDC Comics
First appearancePratt:
All-American Comics #19
(October 1940)
Palmer:
Showcase #34 (Oct. 1961)
Cray:
Suicide Squad #44 (August 1990)
Atom One Million:
DC One Million 80-Page Giant #1,000,000 (August 1999)
Choi:
DCU: Brave New World (2006)
Created byPratt:
(writer)
(artist)
Palmer:
Julius Schwartz (editor and co-plotter)
Gardner Fox (writer)
Gil Kane (artist)
Cray:
John Ostrander
Choi:
Gail Simone
Grant Morrison
Atom One Million:
Grant Morrison
In-story information
Alter egoAl Pratt
Ray Palmer
Adam Cray
Ryan Choi
Team affiliationsPratt:
Justice Society of America
All-Star Squadron
Black Lantern Corps
Palmer:
Justice League
Teen Titans
Indigo Tribe
S.H.A.D.E.
Cray:
Suicide Squad
Black Lantern Corps
Choi:
Teen Titans
Justice League
Atom One Million:
Justice Legion Alpha
AbilitiesAll-except Pratt and Atom One Million:
Ability to shrink and grow his body and other objects to varying degrees (including the subatomic level) while manipulating his weight and mass to his advantage
Maintains strength of normal size in shrunken state, Superhuman strength and speed, Expert hand to hand combatant

The Atom is a name shared by five fictional comic book superheroes from the DC Comics universe.

The original Golden Age Atom, Al Pratt, was created by writer and artist and first appeared in All-American Publications' All-American Comics #19 (October 1940).[1] The second Atom was the Silver Age Atom, Ray Palmer, who first appeared in 1961. The third Atom, Adam Cray, was a minor character present in Suicide Squad stories. The fourth Atom, Ryan Choi, debuted in a new Atom series in August 2006. Another Atom from the 853rd Century first appeared as part of Justice Legion Alpha in August 1999.[2]

The Atom has been the star of multiple solo series, and four of the five have appeared as members of various superhero teams, such as the Justice Society of America, the Justice League, the Suicide Squad, and the Justice Legion Alpha.

Fictional character biographies[]

Al Pratt[]

The original Atom, Al Pratt, first appeared in All-American Comics #19 (October 1940).[3] He initially had no superpowers; instead, he was a diminutive college student and later a physicist who was depicted as a tough guy, a symbol of all the short kids who could still make a difference. Pratt was a founding member of the Justice Society of America, later gaining limited super-strength, and an energy charged 'atomic punch'. He died in the charge against Extant during the Zero Hour.[4]

Ray Palmer[]

The Atom introduced during the Silver Age of comic books in Showcase #34 (1961) is physicist and university professor Raymond Palmer, Ph.D. (He was named for real-life science fiction writer Raymond A. Palmer, who was himself quite short.) After stumbling onto a mass of white dwarf star matter that had fallen to Earth, he fashioned a lens which allowed him to shrink down to subatomic size. Originally, his size and molecular density abilities derived from the white dwarf star material of his costume, controlled by mechanisms in his belt, and later by controls in the palms of his gloves. Much later, he gained the innate equivalent powers within his own body. After the events of Identity Crisis, Ray shrank himself to microscopic size and disappeared. Finding him became a major theme of the Countdown year-long series and crossover event.[4]

Paul Hoben[]

Prior to Ray Palmer's trip to the Amazon Jungle, he learns his wife Jean Loring has had an affair with her colleague, Paul Hoben. Palmer and Loring got a divorce. Later, Palmer offers his blessing to the couple when they marry, and he offers Hoben his size-changing belt so that Hoben can protect Ivy Town after Ray returns to the Morlaidhans. Adam Cray would later steal this belt; Hoben never uses the costume or name of the Atom.

Adam Cray[]

Adam Cray, Suicide Squad #46.

Adam Cray, son of the murdered Senator Joseph Cray, first appeared as the Atom in the pages of Suicide Squad #44 by John Ostrander (August 1990). Cray was initially believed to be Ray Palmer in disguise by members of the team. Cray had been recruited by Palmer (who faked his own death) to apprehend the Micro Squad, a group of villains that had been reduced in size. Palmer intended to use Cray to uncover a shadowy government cabal which was using Palmer to discover the secret identities of other costumed heroes (Palmer's own identity no longer being secret). While Palmer infiltrated the Micro Squad, Cray would attract the attention of the Cabal as the new Atom so that no one would notice Palmer assuming the identity of a fallen Micro Squad member.

Adam Cray remained with the Suicide Squad briefly, serving as a secret weapon whose existence was unknown to others of the Squad. Cray saves Amanda Waller from a group of assassins. At one point, Cray approaches Deadshot about his role in Senator Cray's murder. Later, Cray is impaled through the chest with a screw by Blacksnake, a Micro Squad member who believes him to be Palmer.

After the unanticipated murder of Cray, Palmer reveals himself and defeats Cray's murderer. The ruse ended, Palmer explains himself to the Justice League, who had been searching for him after hearing rumors of a new Atom.

During the events of Blackest Night, Adam's corpse is reanimated as a member of the Black Lantern Corps alongside several other fallen Suicide Squad members.[5] Following his reanimation, Adam and the other Black Lanterns travel to Belle Reve and attack Bane and Black Alice.[6] Adam is apparently destroyed by the Manhunter's self-destruct mechanism, unleashing an explosion of Green Lantern energy that eradicates the Black Lanterns.[7]

In DC Rebirth, Adam Cray is the son of Senator Cray and Ryan Choi's roommate at Ivy University. Senator Cray also attended Ivy and expected Adam to attend Ivy as well. He first meets Ryan when he walks into their dorm with heavy luggage and kindly introduces himself. Adam teaches Ryan how to play rugby and video games.

Ryan Choi[]

Ryan 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".[8] This new Atom is based on a redesign by Grant Morrison. He debuted in the Brave New World one-shot, a preview of projects, and then appeared in the series The All-New Atom, written by Gail Simone. He is later murdered by Deathstroke and his Titans.

Rhonda Piñeda/Atomica[]

In September 2011, The New 52 rebooted DC's continuity. In this new timeline, a new, female Atom is introduced, Rhonda Piñeda, a Hispanic American college student from Ivy Town.[9] She is revealed to be working as a reluctant spy for Amanda Waller and Steve Trevor, gathering intel on the new Justice League recruits. She is noted to be "the most important member of the Justice League of America" by Steve Trevor.[10] At the conclusion of the "Trinity War" storyline, she is revealed to in fact be betraying both teams; she hails from the alternate universe of Earth-3, where she is a member of the Crime Syndicate operating under the name Atomica. She also reveals that by placing a sliver of Green Kryptonite in Superman's optic nerve, she caused him to accidentally kill Doctor Light, with the added effect of severely weakening and almost killing Superman over time.[11]

Atomica originally worked on Earth-3 with Johnny Quick as a thief and killer. One night after killing two cops, they are cornered on the roof of S.T.A.R. Labs during a storm. Lightning hits a satellite, electrocuting Johnny and granting him speed powers. Rhonda falls inside the building and lands near Ray Palmer's Atomico work, gaining size- and density-changing powers.[12] During the final battle with the Crime Syndicate, Atomica reduces her size and is killed when Lex Luthor steps on her.[13]

Following the reboot of the multiverse after Dark Nights: Death Metal, a new Earth-3 and Atomica are created. Atomica is the lover of speedster serial killer Johnny Quick and accompanies him on his high-speed murder spree across Central City.[14]

Atom One Million[]

An unnamed scientist in the 853rd Century performed experiments in superstring theory that creates a singularity and whose radiation alters his physical make-up. When the singularity threatened to expand and destroy his universe, he enters it in an attempt to save the universe but instead finds himself on an interdimensional bridge to another universe as his own is wiped out, unable to stop it. At the end of the bridge, he finds Superman Prime who came to help but was too late. Stranded, he searches this universe for remnants of the one he lost, in time taking the name the Atom and joining the Justice Legion Alpha when he helped them defeat the Bizarro-Legion. This Atom's powers differ from his predecessors in that he doesn't shrink but breaks up into several smaller duplicates of himself divided amongst his mass. At atomic size, these duplicates can mimic elements such as gold and oxygen.

Enemies[]

Each of the versions of Atom have their own enemies:

Golden Age enemies[]

  • Black Dragon Society - A Japanese saboteur organization.[15]
  • Blackie - [16]
  • Cootie Gang - A gang who stole a solvant that can dissolve metal from a science lab.[17]
  • Dude Henwick - A gangster who led his gang in robbing an ice cream parlor.[18]
  • Emperor of America - [19]
  • Lefty Lou Albano - [20]
  • Perry Poodle - A baseball player who invents a machine that would enable him to cheat at baseball even when two criminals take advantage of him. Atom exposed to Perry what the two criminals were doing behind his back and defeated them. Some of the money Perry made was split between the donation to the Policeman's Ball and to Perry and his impoverished mother.[21]
  • Rattlesnake Pete - [19]
  • Raymond Macum - A science fraud.[22]
  • Scrime - [23]
  • Stroehm - A gangster who framed Mr. Baker for arson in order to get to the copper deposit on his property.[24]
  • Tusk - John Brandt is a criminal with tusks on his lower jaw.[25]

Modern enemies[]

  • Bug-Eyed Bandit - A scientist who controls robotic insects.[26]
  • Calculator - A criminal genius.
  • Chronos - A time-traveling villain.[27]
  • Dean Mayland - The dean at Ivy University who dislikes Atom.[28]
  • Deraegis - A Katarthan chancellor.[29]
  • Doctor Light - A light-themed villain who is usually an enemy of the Teen Titans.[30]
  • Dwarfstar - A size-shifting supervillain.[31]
  • Floronic Man - A plant-controlling botanist.[32]
  • Giganta - A size-shifting supervillain who is usually an enemy of Wonder Woman.[33]
  • Lady Chronos - A Chinese woman who came across Chronos' research.[34]
  • Strobe - A criminal who stole an experimental suit that grants him energy projection and photokinesis.[35]
  • Thinker - A telepathic supervillain. He once fought both Atoms during one of his illegal activities.[36]
  • Waiting - A microscopic race who have their cities on the back of dogs.[28]
  • Weapons Master - A supervillain from the year 11,960 who is an expert at mechanical engineering.[37]

Foes of lesser renown[]

  • Bat-Knights - A group of six-inch high warriors from the tribe of Elvana who ride on bats. They were manipulated by a crook named Eddie Gordon until he was defeated by Atom.[38] The Bat-Knights were manipulated by Eddie again when he escaped from prison.[39]
  • Big Gang - A gang who uses big gimmicks and target big items in their heists.[40]
    • Big Head - The mastermind and leader of the Big Gang.
    • Big Ben - The Big Gang's timing specialist.
    • Big Bertha - The Big Gang's strongest member.
    • Big Cheese - A member of the Big Gang who uses specially-made cheeses that have different properties.
    • Big Deal - A magician and card trick specialist who is the latest member of the Big Gang.
    • Big Shot - The Big Gang's marksman.
    • Big Wig - The Big Gang's master of disguise who utilizes different wigs.
  • Billy Knolles - A toymaker who poses as a handyman to map out rich people's houses for his heists.[41]
  • Black Phantom - A costumed criminal who leaves a thumbprint as his calling card.[42]
  • Blacksnake - A CIA Agent.[43]
  • Cannoneer - A human cannonball who turned to a life of crime and fought Atom and Batman.[44]
  • Carl Ballard - A criminal who took advantage of the alien Kulan Dar.[45]
  • Druid - The ruler of the sub-atomic world of Catamoore which is governed by magic. He is also an old enemy of Zatara.[46]
  • Eddie Gordon - A criminal who manipulated the Bat-Knights into doing his bidding until he was defeated by Atom.[38] Eddie later escaped from prison and manipulated the Bat-Knights into working for him again thanks to the invention of the criminal scientist Luke Preston who was his cellmate.[39]
  • Elkins - A man whose camera hypnotizes people into doing his bidding.[47]
  • Gestalt - A group of elite scientific thinkers.[48]
  • Humbug - An artificial being created by the thoughts of the members of Gestalt.[48]
  • M'nagalah - A shapeless alien life form who was an old enemy of Swamp Thing.[31]
  • Man in the Ion Mask - William Jameson is a man who uses an ionic ray in which anyone in the vicinity of him would be temporarily paralyzed so that he can rob them.[49] Man in the Ion Mask resurfaced years later where he collaborated with Bug-Eyed Bandit, Floronic Man, Panther, Thinker, and Wizardo in attacking the Lighter Than Air Society.[50]
  • Oscar D. Dollar - A gentleman who blames himself for his Silver Dollar causing trouble. Atom discovered that the Silver Dollar in question was made from a chunk of White Dwarf Star Matter.[45]
  • Panther - A black panther-themed villain and leader of the Panther Gang.[51] Panther resurfaced years later where he collaborated with Bug-Eyed Bandit, Floronic Man, Man in the Ion Mask, Thinker, and Wizardo in attacking the Lighter Than Air Society.[50]
  • Smarts - A colector and master planner.[52]
  • Sting - An old friend of Blacksnake who controls robotic bees.[53]
  • Swan Maiden - Dorothy Briggs is a swan-themed villain who used special effects and a slight disguise to pull off a trick where an actual swan robbed a bank. Her ruse was exposed by Atom who secretly recorded her confession.[54]
  • Toyboy - A criminal who uses his psychic power to animate toys and also possesses super-strength. Atom and Hawkman discovered that this was the evil side of Johnny Burns that manifested due to an exposure to the Photonoscope and a device that Ray Palmer was analyzing which affected his mother who worked as Ivy University's cleaning lady. When both Burns' were in the same area, the nice Burns disappeared and overcame the bad side in one body. After surrendering and being handed over to the police, Johnny was released into his mother's custody.[55]
  • Wizardo - Howard Crane is a magician, theater owner, and former quick change artist who performed a trick that enabled him to pose as astronaut Peter Venner and frame him for the crimes that he committed.[56] Wizardo resurfaced years later where he collaborated with Bug-Eyed Bandit, Floronic Man, Man in the Ion Mask, Panther, and Thinker in attacking the Lighter Than Air Society.[50]

Other versions[]

The Dark Knight Strikes Again[]

Frank Miller portrayed Ray Palmer as a major player in Batman: The Dark Knight Strikes Again. He was taken prisoner by Lex Luthor and made to live in one of his own petri dishes for a period of months until his rescue by Catgirl. He was then instrumental in the liberation of Kandor.

Tangent Comics[]

In the Tangent Comics imprint, the Atom is "Arthur Harrison Thompson", a subject of radiation testing on human beings.[57] The first hero in the Tangent timeline, he inadvertently caused the Cuban Missile Crisis to escalate into a limited nuclear exchange that obliterated Florida and Cuba in 1962, unknown to his fellow Americans. Thompson was succeeded by his son, who was killed by the Tangent Comics version of the Fatal Five, and a grandson named Adam, who, in Tangent: Superman's Reign, is being held captive by Superman.

It is suggested in the Tangent series that the Atom's name was at least in part chosen because of the abbreviation of his full name "Arthur Harrison Thompson" on his barracks door to simply "A. Thom."

Also in the Tangent series, the Atom's presence as America's first superhero during the 1960s has led to a huge cultural impact, and in this world many significant points in pop culture have been effected by his presence; for instance The Beatles choose to be called "The Atomiks", further more TV shows such as The Beverly Hillbillies became The Superman Hillbillies, The Dick Van Dyke Show became The Dick Van Hero Show and Get Smart became Get Powers.

Elseworlds[]

  • Some other re-imaginings of the Atom include an appearance in League of Justice, a story portraying the Justice League in a The Lord of the Rings-type story where the Atom was recast as a wizard/fortune teller called "Atomus The Palmer".
  • Al Pratt as the Atom was one of the three heroes who chose to work at the side of Senator Thompson in The Golden Age. When Al discovers that Thompson is really the Ultra-Humanite, he joins the other heroes against the villain and Dyna-Man.
  • The Al Pratt Atom appeared in JSA: The Unholy Three as a post-WW2 intelligence agent with transparent atomic flesh and a visible skeleton.
  • JLA: Age of Wonder where Ray Palmer worked with a science consortium whose numbers at one point included Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla.
  • JLA: Created Equal, after Ray Palmer is killed in the cosmic storm that nearly wipes out the rest of the male population on Earth, a graduate student named Jill Athron is given a research grant to study Palmer's white-dwarf-star-belt. She becomes the Atom and joins the Justice League.
  • Atom evolved from a hawkman that had evolved from Robin in the Just Imagine... comic book.[58]

52 Multiverse[]

In the final issue of 52, a new Multiverse is revealed, originally consisting of 52 identical realities. Among the parallel realities shown is one designated "Earth-2". As a result of Mister Mind "eating" aspects of this reality, it takes on visual aspects similar to the pre-Crisis Earth-2, including the Atom among other Justice Society of America characters. The names of the characters and the team are not mentioned in the panel in which they appear, but the Atom is visually similar to the Al Pratt Atom.[59] Based on comments by Grant Morrison, this alternate universe is not the pre-Crisis Earth-2.[60]

In Countdown #30, the Challengers from Beyond encountered Earth-15, a world where the sidekicks had taken their mentor's places. On this Earth, the Atom is Jessica Palmer, a genius who graduated from MIT at age eight. The Search for Ray Palmer - Red Son features the Ray Palmer of Earth-30, an American captured by the Superman of a communist Russia. Countdown: Arena also depicts the Ray Palmer of Earth-6, who through unknown circumstances now has the powers and title of the Ray. The Search For Ray Palmer: Superwoman/Batwoman briefly features a female version of The Atom. On the newly introduced Earth-52, Atomarsupial is one of the metasimian Primate Legion [61]

Collected editions[]

Ray Palmer[]

Title Material collected Pages ISBN
The Atom Archives, Vol. 1 Showcase #34-36, The Atom #1-5 208 1-56389-717-2
The Atom Archives, Vol. 2 The Atom #6-13 208 1-4012-0014-1
Sword of the Atom Sword of the Atom #1-4 and Sword of the Atom Special #1-3 232 1-4012-1553-X
DC Comics Presents: The Atom Legends of the DC Universe #28-29 and 40-41 96

Ryan Choi[]

Title Material collected Pages ISBN
My Life in Miniature The All-New Atom #1-6, Brave New World #1 160 1-4012-1325-1
Future/Past The All-New Atom #7-11 128 1-4012-1568-8
The Hunt for Ray Palmer The All-New Atom #12-16 128 978-1-4012-1782-2
Small Wonder The All-New Atom #17-18 and 20-25 192 978-1-4012-1996-3

In other media[]

Television[]

Live-action[]

  • The Atom appeared in "The Roast", the second of two 1979 live-action TV specials aired under the umbrella title Legends of the Superheroes. In "The Roast", the Atom (played by Alfie Wise) is engaged to marry villainess Giganta (played by actress A'leshia Brevard).
  • The Atom appeared in the 1997 live action TV series pilot, Justice League of America played by John Kassir.
  • Atom (Al Pratt) appears in the Smallville episode "Absolute Justice" played by Glenn Hoffman. He is a super hero in the 1970s and a physics professor at Calvin College, who was arrested during a student protest and framed for the crime of fraud by the government in a mission to take down the JSA. However, he was never convicted of any crime. As the law was now aware of his superhero identity, Pratt retired from heroics. As Doctor Fate later stated, "The Atom split".

Arrowverse[]

The Ray Palmer and Ryan Choi versions appear in the Arrowverse portrayed by Brandon Routh and Osric Chau respectively.

Ray Palmer[]
  • Ray Palmer first appeared as a recurring character in Arrow's third season. He is introduced as a brilliant scientist with an I.Q. of 140, 4 PhDs, and the CEO of Palmer Technologies, which used to be Queen Consolidated before Ray bought and rebranded it. After his fiancé, Anna Loring, was murdered by Deathstroke's soldiers during the second season, he vowed to never let anything like that happen again. To achieve this, he devoted much of his efforts to building an exo-suit with built-in weapons and flight capability. He also had plans to rebuild Starling City and rechristen it as "Star City". He hired Felicity Smoak to work for him and eventually started dating her, which made Oliver Queen jealous. After successfully building his suit, Ray discovered Oliver's identity as the "Arrow" and his affection for Felicity, so he planned to apprehend him. Upon learning Oliver was being framed by a criminal who targeted Felicity next, Ray saved her. Though he was shot during the rescue, he used micro-technology to save himself. By the season finale, Ray broke up with Felicity and assisted Oliver's team in defeating Ra's al Ghul from destroying Starling City before he was apparently killed in an explosion while working on new technology for his suit. In season four, Ray was presumed dead, leading to Starling City being renamed "Star City" in his honor and Felicity inheriting Palmer Technologies. In reality, Ray survived via his micro-tech, which shrunk him and his suit to a miniature size. He attempted to contact Felicity, with no success as she had left the city when the explosion occurred. However, one of his messages was intercepted by Damien Darhk, who captured Ray and attempted to use his technology for sinister means. Once Felicity eventually discovered Ray was alive and in Darhk's captivity, she worked with Oliver and his team to rescue him and restore him to his normal size. Upon learning that Star City largely did not care about him following his apparent death, Ray chose to maintain the deception until he could figure out how to move on with his life.
  • Routh appeared as Ray during The Flash's first-season episode, "All-Star Team-Up"; wherein he helped the titular character combat a villain using a swarm of robotic bees to attack those who ruined her career.[62]
  • Routh also appears as Ray in the spin-off series Legends of Tomorrow as part of the main cast. In the first season, he is recruited by time-traveler Rip Hunter to help him defeat the immortal Vandal Savage across the timeline as one of his "Legends". Believing he wasted his life and wishing to revitalize it, Ray accepted due in part to his enthusiasm and optimism overriding his lack of practical experience, which occasionally presented itself throughout the show. While working with the Legends, he used dwarf star-based technology to grant his exo-suit the ability to shrink to miniature size and grow to gigantic proportions like his comic book counterpart[63][64][65] He also assisted in turning the Legends' historian ally Nate Heywood into the superhero Steel and entered a relationship with Damien Darhk's daughter, Nora; eventually going on to marry her and leave the Legends in the show's fifth season so they could live out their lives together.[66]
  • Routh also reprised his role for a minor appearance in the animated web series Vixen.[67]
Ryan Choi[]
  • In The Flash's fifth season opener, the titular character's future daughter Nora Allen mentions Ryan Choi as the designer of his Flash ring suit. Choi later made his live-action debut in the 2019 Arrowverse crossover "Crisis on Infinite Earths". He is depicted as a scientist who works at Ivy Town University and a fan of Ray Palmer's with previous experience in miniaturization. He was recruited by Ray, Elongated Man, and Iris West to help them save the Multiverse from destruction due to his status as a Paragon before joining six other "Paragons" in defeating the Anti-Monitor. Following this, Choi returned to his family.

Animated[]

  • In The Superman/Aquaman Hour of Adventure, Ray Palmer appeared in his own episodes and in the Justice League of America segments along with Superman, The Flash, Green Lantern, and Hawkman. He was voiced by Pat Harrington, Jr., who would be better known a decade later for his role as Dwayne F. Schneider on the sitcom One Day at a Time.
  • Ray also made occasional appearances on The All-New Super Friends Hour and Super Friends voiced by Wally Burr.
  • A futuristic version of Atom named Micron voiced by Wayne Brady appears in Batman Beyond two part episode "The Call", he is a member of . After a rather intense but successful training session, Micron got a distress call from an unknown source about a monorail gone haywire. After saving the only person on board ― its driver ― he tried to prevent the monorail from colliding with another coming in the opposite direction. Micron disengaged the train from its track, and then derailed it. Right when he tried to get out of the plummeting train, the door suddenly closed and a force-field barricaded Micron inside. The train crashed into a building, leaving Micron badly injured. Little did he know that the person responsible for the wreck was Superman, who was under the control of Starro. Micron was placed in a stasis field, where he slowly recovered. Sometime later, Starro/Superman tried to sabotage the field and finish Micron off. However, this attempt was promptly interrupted by the other Leaguers. A battle ensued, and Micron mustered enough strength to get out of the tank, and snatched Superman with his magnified hand. However, he was still feeble, so Superman easily knocked him unconscious. Micron was then returned to the stasis field, where he most likely recovered in short time.
  • In the Justice League episode "Hereafter Pt. 2" Vandal Savage mentions his attempted theft of one of Ray Palmer's inventions resulted in the death of everyone except Savage.
  • Ray Palmer eventually appeared in Justice League Unlimited voiced by John C. McGinley. He first appears in "The Return" to help Lex Luthor defend himself against Amazo by building a nanotechnology-disabling laser that would deactivate Amazo. When it fails, Atom shrinks himself and Lex Luthor only for Amazo to follow them. In "Dark Heart" (written by Warren Ellis), Atom helps the Justice League disable a grey goo-like alien weapon known as the Dark Heart which uses nanotechnology to replicate its forces. He manages to disable it, which also deactivated its forces. The Atom's final vocalized appearance was in "Clash," when he examined a device built by Lex Luthor which Superman had mistaken for a bomb. In "Panic in the Sky," Atom was shown in his small form unconscious before Supergirl's fight with Galatea.
Ryan Choi as seen in Batman: The Brave and the Bold.
  • The Ryan Choi version of the Atom appears in the series 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!". A mind-controlled Ryan Choi 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!", a retired Ryan is coerced by Aquaman into helping Batman find Ray Palmer. At the episode's end, Ryan redons the Atom mantle.
    • Atom has a Crime Syndicate counterpart called 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. Blue Bowman has him spy on Owlman. Ray Palmer appears in the episode "Sword of the Atom!" voiced by Peter Scolari. In the episode, it is revealed that Ray had been the original Atom and Ryan Choi's mentor, but that he had eventually retired and moved to the Amazon. There, he encountered the Morlaidhans and Princess Laethwyn. After teaming up with Batman, Ryan and Aquaman to defeat a traitorous and xenophobic Chancellor Deraegis, Ray chooses to stay in the Amazon as Laethwyn's lover.
  • Ray Palmer appears in Young Justice voiced by Jason Marsden. He is first mentioned in the episode "Agendas" where he is considered for membership in the Justice League. In episode "Usual Suspects", Ray becomes a member of the Justice League. In episode "Auld Acquaintance", Ray is shown as one of the infected Leaguers by the Starro Tech of Vandal Savage and then he is cured by Miss Martian. In episode "Happy New Year", Bumblebee mentions that she has a lab assignment with Dr. Palmer and has to postpone a date with Mal Duncan. In "True Colors," Atom and Bumblebee attempt a micro-surgery to get the Scarab off of Jaime Reyes only for them to be extracted when the Blue Beetle Scarab started producing antibodies to fight them off.
  • Jason Marsden reprises his role of the Atom in the DC Nation Short titled "Sword of the Atom."
  • Ray Palmer appears in Justice League Action, voiced by Jerry O'Connell.
  • The Atom appears in the Teen Titans Go! episode, "Strength of a Grown Man", voiced by Patton Oswalt, who voiced him in Teen Titans Go! to the Movies.

Film[]

  • Ray Palmer appeared in Justice League: The New Frontier, voiced by Corey Burton, who was not credited for the role. He provided his flawed shrinking technology, which makes whatever it attempts to shrink explode, to destroy the creature known as "The Centre."
  • An alternate universe version of Ray Palmer appears in Justice League: Gods and Monsters voiced by Dee Bradley Baker. He appears as a scientist who was a part of Lex Luthor's "Project Fair Play," a weapons program contingency that would be used to destroy the Justice League if necessary. Ray was first seen driving home with shrunken horses as a result of his experiments with molecular miniaturization. He was ambushed during his ride and killed by a Metal Man meant to frame Wonder Woman. 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 his presentation on molecular miniaturization as seen when he holds one of Ray's shrunken horses.
  • The Atom also appears in Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox, where he was imprisoned by Aquaman.
  • The Atom appeared in Teen Titans Go! To the Movies, voiced by Patton Oswalt.[68]
  • The Ryan Choi version of the Atom appears in the film 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.[69] He appears in the director's cut Zack Snyder's Justice League which premiered on HBO Max in 2021.[70]

Video games[]

  • The Atom appears in DC Universe Online.
  • Ray Palmer is referenced in Batman: Arkham Knight, in Ace Chemicals, there's a locker with a name "Ray Palmer", along with an atom symbol sketched on it.

Lego[]

  • The Ray Palmer incarnation of the Atom appears as a playable character in Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham, voiced by Troy Baker.
  • Different versions of The Atom appear in Lego DC Super-Villains with Rhonda Pineda/Atomica voiced by Laura Bailey and the Ryan Choi version of Atom voiced by Jason Marsden, while the Arrowverse version of Ray Palmer's Atom is playable in the DC TV Heroes DLC pack voiced by Brandon Routh. Atomica and the Crime Syndicate posed as the Justice Syndicate at the time when the Justice League went missing.

Injustice[]

  • Ray Palmer appears in Injustice: Gods Among Us as a non-playable cameo in the Insurgency stage. He is also playable in one of the Joker's S.T.A.R. Labs mission minigame, although he possesses no special moves or abilities and merely runs and jumps.
  • The Atom (Ryan Choi) is a DLC character in Injustice 2 voiced by Matthew Yang King. In his character ending, after disabling Brainiac's telepathic link to his Skull Ship, Choi uses Brainiac's technology to upgrade his bio-belt, before continuing his search for the missing Ray Palmer in the Microverse. In addition to being mentioned as having gone missing in the Microverse in Atom's ending, Ray Palmer the former Atom is mentioned by Choi in some of his pre-battle dialogue. In the main story, while trying to hack the Red Son prison's network to free Superman from his cell, Cyborg also mentions Ray Palmer, stating he has to hand it to Palmer as his people did a good job at encrypting the prison's computer systems, before pointing that he can still break it.

See also[]

  • Ant-Man
  • Molecule

References[]

  1. ^ Cowsill, Alan; Irvine, Alex; Manning, Matthew K.; McAvennie, Michael; Wallace, Daniel (2019). DC Comics Year By Year: A Visual Chronicle. DK Publishing. p. 31. ISBN 978-1-4654-8578-6.
  2. ^ Cowsill, Alan; Irvine, Alex; Korte, Steve; Manning, Matt; Wiacek, Win; Wilson, Sven (2016). The DC Comics Encyclopedia: The Definitive Guide to the Characters of the DC Universe. DK Publishing. p. 21. ISBN 978-1-4654-5357-0.
  3. ^ Benton, Mike (1992). Superhero Comics of the Golden Age: The Illustrated History. Dallas: Taylor Publishing Company. pp. 67-68. ISBN 0-87833-808-X. Retrieved 15 January 2020.
  4. ^ a b Beatty, Scott, Wallace, Dan (2008). "Atom I, II and III". In Dougall, Alastair (ed.). The DC Comics Encyclopedia. London: Dorling Kindersley. p. 30. ISBN 978-0-7566-4119-1.
  5. ^ Suicide Squad #67 (January 2010)
  6. ^ Secret Six vol. 3 #17 (January 2010)
  7. ^ Secret Six vol. 3 #18 (February 2010)
  8. ^ "DC Comics". DC Comics. 2010-04-21. Retrieved 2011-01-15.
  9. ^ Justice League vol. 2 #18
  10. ^ Justice League vol. 2 #20 (July 2013)
  11. ^ Justice League vol. 2 #23
  12. ^ Johns, Geoff (w), Reis, Ivan (p), Prado, Joe, Eber Ferreira, Rob Hunter, Andy Lanning (i), Reis, Rod, Tomeu Morey, Tony Avina (col), Napolitano, Nick J. (let). "Forever Numb" Justice League v2, #26 (February 2013), DC Comics
  13. ^ Forever Evil #7
  14. ^ Crime Syndicate #1
  15. ^ All-Star Comics #41. DC Comics.
  16. ^ All-American Comics #26. DC Comics.
  17. ^ All-American Comics #33. DC Comics.
  18. ^ All-American Comics #58. DC Comics.
  19. ^ a b All-American Comics #21. DC Comics.
  20. ^ All-American Comics #22. DC Comics.
  21. ^ All-American Comics #51. DC Comics.
  22. ^ All-American Comics #52. DC Comics.
  23. ^ All-American Comics #30. DC Comics.
  24. ^ All-American Comics #27. DC Comics.
  25. ^ All-American Comics #40. DC Comics.
  26. ^ Atom #26. DC Comics.
  27. ^ Atom #3. DC Comics.
  28. ^ a b All-New Atom #1. DC Comics.
  29. ^ Sword of the Atom #2. DC Comics.
  30. ^ Atom #8. DC Comics.
  31. ^ a b All-New Atom #2. DC Comics.
  32. ^ Atom #1. DC Comics.
  33. ^ All-New Atom #3. DC Comics.
  34. ^ All-New Atom #9. DC Comics.
  35. ^ Power of the Atom #3. DC Comics.
  36. ^ Atom #29. DC Comics.
  37. ^ All-New Atom #16. DC Comics.
  38. ^ a b Atom #22. DC Comics.
  39. ^ a b Atom #30. DC Comics.
  40. ^ Atom #34. DC Comics.
  41. ^ Atom #23. DC Comics.
  42. ^ Atom #18. DC Comics.
  43. ^ Power of the Atom #14. DC Comics.
  44. ^ The Brave and the Bold #77. DC Comics.
  45. ^ a b Atom #2. DC Comics.
  46. ^ Atom #19. DC Comics.
  47. ^ Atom #4. DC Comics.
  48. ^ a b Power of the Atom #10. DC Comics.
  49. ^ Atom #25. DC Comics.
  50. ^ a b c All-New Atom #12. DC Comics.
  51. ^ Atom #27. DC Comics.
  52. ^ Atom #35. DC Comics.
  53. ^ Power of the Atom #17. DC Comics.
  54. ^ Atom #10. DC Comics.
  55. ^ Atom #31. DC Comics.
  56. ^ Atom #6. DC Comics.
  57. ^ Cowsill, Alan; Irvine, Alex; Manning, Matthew K.; McAvennie, Michael; Wallace, Daniel (2019). DC Comics Year By Year: A Visual Chronicle. DK Publishing. p. 265. ISBN 978-1-4654-8578-6.
  58. ^ Just Imagine Stan Lee creating Crisis (January 2002)
  59. ^ 52 52: 13/3 (May 2, 2007), DC Comics
  60. ^ Brady, Matt (2007-05-08). "The 52 Exit Interviews: Grant Morrison". Newsarama. Archived from the original on 2007-05-10. Retrieved 2007-05-12.
  61. ^ "DC Comics Unveils Earth 53 in 'Dark Knights Rising: The Wild Hunt'".
  62. ^ Prudom, Lauren (January 21, 2015). "'Arrow' Without Oliver? Producers preview the Rise of Black Canary, Atom and Brick". Variety.[permanent dead link]
  63. ^ "CW Eyeing 'Atom' As Next DC Series – TCA". Deadline Hollywood. January 11, 2015. Retrieved January 11, 2015.
  64. ^ "EXCLUSIVE: ARROW EXECUTIVE PRODUCER MARC GUGGENHEIM TALKS BRANDON ROUTH ATOM SPIN-OFF SHOW!". Nerdist. January 11, 2015. Archived from the original on January 13, 2015. Retrieved January 11, 2015.
  65. ^ Andreeva, Nellie (February 26, 2015). "Arrow/Flash Superhero Team-Up Spinoff In Works At CW; Brandon Routh, Victor Garber, Wentworth Miller, Caity Lotz Star". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved February 27, 2015.
  66. ^ Yang, Rachel (August 22, 2019). "Brandon Routh and Courtney Ford are leaving DC's Legends of Tomorrow". EW.com. Archived from the original on August 23, 2019. Retrieved June 2, 2020.
  67. ^ Damore, Meagan (July 20, 2016). "CASSIDY'S BLACK CANARY, ATOM & MORE WILL APPEAR IN "VIXEN" SEASON 2". Comic Book Resources. Retrieved July 20, 2016.
  68. ^ @pattonoswalt (19 July 2018). "I have a (literally) small cameo in this trailer AND this movie. The whole movie is brilliant -- take your kids, an…" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  69. ^ Dyce, Andrew (September 17, 2018). "Zack Snyder Confirms ATOM Was In His Justice League". Screen Rant. Retrieved September 17, 2018.
  70. ^ Hood, Cooper (May 22, 2020). "Justice League Snyder Cut Image Shows DC Comics Ryan Choi". Screen Rant. Retrieved August 28, 2020.

External links[]

Retrieved from ""