Atom (character)

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This article is about the superhero with size-changing powers. For the superhero with atomic absorption and superhuman strength, see Captain Atom.
"The Atom" redirects here. For other uses, see Atom (disambiguation).
Atom
Publication information
S.H.A.D.E.
  • Cray:
  • Suicide Squad
  • Black Lantern Corps
  • Choi:
  • Teen Titans
  • Justice League
  • Atom One Million:
  • Justice Legion Alpha
    • Abilities(All):
    • Genius-level intellect
    • Combat experience

    (Ray, Cray, & Ryan):

    • Size and mass alteration via belt

    (Pratt):

    The Atom is a name shared by five

    American comic books published by DC Comics
    .

    The original

    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

    Main article: Atom (Al Pratt)

    The original Atom, Al Pratt,

    Zero Hour.[4]

    Ray Palmer

    Main article: Atom (Ray Palmer)

    The Atom introduced during the

    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

    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

    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.[8]

    Ryan Choi

    Main article: Atom (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".[9] 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,

    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.[12]

    Atomica originally worked on Earth-3 with

    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.[13] During the final battle with the Crime Syndicate, Atomica reduces her size and is killed when Lex Luthor steps on her.[14]

    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 Jonathan Chambers / Johnny Quick and accompanies him on his high-speed murder spree across Central City.[15]

    Atom One Million

    An unnamed scientist in the

    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.[16]

    Enemies

    Each of the versions of Atom have their own enemies:

    Golden Age enemies

    • Black Dragon Society - A Japanese saboteur organization.[17]
    • Blackie - [18]
    • Cootie Gang - A gang who stole a solvant that can dissolve metal from a science lab.[19]
    • Dude Henwick - A gangster who led his gang in robbing an ice cream parlor.[20]
    • Emperor of America - [21]
    • Lefty Lou Albano - [22]
    • 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.[23]
    • Rattlesnake Pete - [21]
    • Raymond Macum - A science fraud.[24]
    • Scrime - [25]
    • Stroehm - A gangster who framed Mr. Baker for arson in order to get to the copper deposit on his property.[26]
    • Tusk - John Brandt is a criminal with tusks on his lower jaw.[27]

    Modern enemies

    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.[40] The Bat-Knights were manipulated by Eddie again when he escaped from prison.[41]
    • Big Gang - A gang who uses big gimmicks and target big items in their heists.[42]
      • 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.[43]
    • Black Phantom - A costumed criminal who leaves a thumbprint as his calling card.[44]
    • Blacksnake - A CIA Agent.[45]
    • Cannoneer - A human cannonball who turned to a life of crime and fought Atom and Batman.[46]
    • Carl Ballard - A criminal who took advantage of the alien Kulan Dar.[47]
    • Druid - The ruler of the sub-atomic world of Catamoore which is governed by magic. He is also an old enemy of Zatara.[48]
    • Eddie Gordon - A criminal who manipulated the Bat-Knights into doing his bidding until he was defeated by Atom.[40] 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.[41]
    • Elkins - A man whose camera hypnotizes people into doing his bidding.[49]
    • Gestalt - A group of elite scientific thinkers.[50]
    • Humbug - An artificial being created by the thoughts of the members of Gestalt.[50]
    • M'nagalah - A shapeless alien life form who was an old enemy of Swamp Thing.[33]
    • 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.[51] 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.[52]
    • 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.[47]
    • Panther - A black panther-themed villain and leader of the Panther Gang.[53] 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.[52]
    • Smarts - A colector and master planner.[54]
    • Sting - An old friend of Blacksnake who controls robotic bees.[55]
    • 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.[56]
    • 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.[57]
    • 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.[58] 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.[52]

    Other versions

    The Dark Knight Strikes Again

    Dark Knight III, He was then instrumental in the liberation of Kandor until killed by their leader, Baal.[59]

    Tangent Comics

    Main article: Tangent Comics

    In the Tangent Comics imprint, the Atom is "Arthur Harrison Thompson", a subject of radiation testing on human beings.[60] 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

    Main article: 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.
    • The
      Robin in the Just Imagine... is granted transformation into the Atom evolved from an Incan rune of Hawkman.[61]

    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.[62] Based on comments by Grant Morrison, this alternate universe is not the pre-Crisis Earth-2.[63]

    In

    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 [64]

    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

    See also:
    Micron (character), and Ray Palmer (Arrowverse)

    Television

    Live-action

    Animation

    Ryan Choi as seen in Batman: The Brave and the Bold.

    Film

    Video games

    See also

    References

    1. ISBN 978-1-4654-8578-6
      .
    2. ISBN 978-1-4654-5357-0
      .
    3. ISBN 0-87833-808-X
      . Retrieved 15 January 2020.
    4. ^
      ISBN 978-0-7566-4119-1.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link
      )
    5. ^ Suicide Squad #67 (January 2010)
    6. ^ Secret Six vol. 3 #17 (January 2010)
    7. ^ Secret Six vol. 3 #18 (February 2010)
    8. ^ Justice League of America: The Atom Rebirth #1
    9. ^ "DC Comics". DC Comics. 2010-04-21. Retrieved 2011-01-15.
    10. ^ Justice League vol. 2 #18
    11. ^ Justice League vol. 2 #20 (July 2013)
    12. ^ Justice League vol. 2 #23
    13. ^ 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, vol. 2, no. 26 (February 2013). DC Comics.
    14. ^ Forever Evil #7
    15. ^ Crime Syndicate #1
    16. ^ DC One Million 80-Page Giant #1000000
    17. ^ All-Star Comics #41. DC Comics.
    18. ^ All-American Comics #26. DC Comics.
    19. ^ All-American Comics #33. DC Comics.
    20. ^ All-American Comics #58. DC Comics.
    21. ^ a b All-American Comics #21. DC Comics.
    22. ^ All-American Comics #22. DC Comics.
    23. ^ All-American Comics #51. DC Comics.
    24. ^ All-American Comics #52. DC Comics.
    25. ^ All-American Comics #30. DC Comics.
    26. ^ All-American Comics #27. DC Comics.
    27. ^ All-American Comics #40. DC Comics.
    28. ^ Atom #26. DC Comics.
    29. ^ Atom #3. DC Comics.
    30. ^ a b All-New Atom #1. DC Comics.
    31. ^ Sword of the Atom #2. DC Comics.
    32. ^ Atom #8. DC Comics.
    33. ^ a b All-New Atom #2. DC Comics.
    34. ^ Atom #1. DC Comics.
    35. ^ All-New Atom #3. DC Comics.
    36. ^ All-New Atom #9. DC Comics.
    37. ^ Power of the Atom #3. DC Comics.
    38. ^ Atom #29. DC Comics.
    39. ^ All-New Atom #16. DC Comics.
    40. ^ a b Atom #22. DC Comics.
    41. ^ a b Atom #30. DC Comics.
    42. ^ Atom #34. DC Comics.
    43. ^ Atom #23. DC Comics.
    44. ^ Atom #18. DC Comics.
    45. ^ Power of the Atom #14. DC Comics.
    46. ^ The Brave and the Bold #77. DC Comics.
    47. ^ a b Atom #2. DC Comics.
    48. ^ Atom #19. DC Comics.
    49. ^ Atom #4. DC Comics.
    50. ^ a b Power of the Atom #10. DC Comics.
    51. ^ Atom #25. DC Comics.
    52. ^ a b c All-New Atom #12. DC Comics.
    53. ^ Atom #27. DC Comics.
    54. ^ Atom #35. DC Comics.
    55. ^ Power of the Atom #17. DC Comics.
    56. ^ Atom #10. DC Comics.
    57. ^ Atom #31. DC Comics.
    58. ^ Atom #6. DC Comics.
    59. ^ Dark Knight III: The Master Race #1-2
    60. ISBN 978-1-4654-8578-6
      .
    61. ^ Just Imagine Stan Lee creating Crisis (January 2002)
    62. ^ 52, no. 52, p. 13/3 (May 2, 2007). DC Comics.
    63. ^ Brady, Matt (2007-05-08). "The 52 Exit Interviews: Grant Morrison". Newsarama. Archived from the original on 2007-05-10. Retrieved 2007-05-12.
    64. ^ "DC Comics Unveils Earth 53 in 'Dark Knights Rising: The Wild Hunt'".
    65. ^ Hood, Cooper (May 22, 2020). "Justice League Snyder Cut Image Shows DC Comics Ryan Choi". Screen Rant. Retrieved August 28, 2020.
    66. ^ Dyce, Andrew (September 17, 2018). "Zack Snyder Confirms ATOM Was In His Justice League". Screen Rant. Retrieved September 17, 2018.
    67. ^ @pattonoswalt (July 19, 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.
    68. ^ BigScreenLeaks (December 18, 2021). "Henry Winkler's Role in 'Black Adam' Revealed (Exclusive)". One Take News. Retrieved October 21, 2022.

    External links

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