The CW viewers received the message quite clear
following the supersoldiers of Arrow Season 2: for
the time being, the show’s inclusion of
‘superpowers’ was going to be put aside in favor
of a more… grounded story. The shift made
sense, since the Batman Begins -esque treatment
of Arrow always seemed to rule out the more
outlandish of DC Comics’ characters – while The
Flash TV series was designed to give those same
figures a home in the shared universe .
Understandably, questions were raised when the
producers announced that for Arrow Season 3,
they would be adding Ray Palmer – DC Comics’
shrinking hero, The Atom – to be played
by Superman Returns star Brandon Routh.
Initially introduced as merely a brilliant
businessman, Arrow ‘s shocking mid-season
finale revealed his plans certainly do involve a
‘super-suit,’ and a mission of his very own.
Given our assumption that Ray Palmer will play a
larger role in the show in the coming weeks, and
that The Atom isn’t known for much more than
his superpower by casual comic fans, it’s
worthwhile to offer some details about the comic
hero both in and out of his superhero identity.
The Arrow writers have already shown how their
version will differ from DC’s classic Atom, but as
is already becoming clear with The Flash‘s twist
on Firestorm , it pays to know the source material
these writers are drawing from.
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The Origin Story
The origin story crafted for Ray Palmer a.k.a.
The Atom by writers Gardner Fox and Julius
Schwartz and artist Gil Kane is what comic fans
would expect from the average Silver Age hero
(and basically any other). The brilliant physicist
and then-graduate student Palmer was
investigating the notion of matter compression,
when (fortuitously) he stumbled across “a
fragment of a white dwarf star,” a highly
condensed piece of cosmic matter.
In a classic bit of Silver Age science, Palmer
ground the matter into a lens in hopes of
unlocking a white dwarf’s ability to condense
matter without corrupting it. When ultraviolet light
was shone through the lens, inanimate objects
could be shrunk down – only to explode moments
later. But when forced to use the lens in an
emergency, Palmer discovered that he could
shrink into a miniature version of himself, and
back, without serious injury.
The following decades sent Palmer up against a
variety of small-scale aliens or troublemakers,
even uncovering the unknown societies that exist
at a subatomic level right here on our own planet.
His exploits may now seem more ‘silly’ than
‘spectacular,’ but it was his intellect and
dedication to bettering mankind through scientific
discovery that earned him a place on the Justice
League – and has been a key player in several
universe-altering crises.
Defined more by his altruistic tendencies and
knowledge of theoretical physics than a desire to
play hero, Ray Palmer’s comic book history has
been marked as much by emotional trauma as
iconic villains. Besides bringing updates to the
cause and use of his shrinking abilities, the
passage of time has seen Ray hand the mantle of
The Atom to multiple people, and come to the
rescue of DC’s greatest icons on numerous
occasions.
As a moral compass, a genius academic – and
yes, a ‘Mighty Mite’ – Ray Palmer has shown,
time and again, that when it comes to fighting
supervillains, “size isn’t matter.”
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The Show’s Version
From that cursory introduction to The Atom, it’s
clear to see how much of Ray Palmer’s spirit
was adopted for Arrow ‘s version. Though the
character was introduced as a rival (both
professional and romantic) to Oliver Queen, the
writers acted fast to convince viewers that
despite his humor and fast-talking speeches –
and frequent “B-T-W’s” – Ray Palmer was a good
man. A massive ego, certainly; but well-meaning.
Yet it also didn’t take long for the writers to
show that there was more to Palmer than initially
assumed. After taking control of Queen
Consolidated (now Palmer Technologies) and
unveiling his plan to revitalize and rebrand ‘Star
City,’ Palmer devoted time and resources into
uncovering files that the company’s former
management wanted erased. Specifically, what
appeared to be heavy weapons manufactured
under the title of ‘O.M.A.C.’.
The viewership erupted in theories and
speculation as to Palmer’s real intentions for the
company, but a divide was soon established
between those suspecting that Arrow Season 3
had found its secret antagonist, and those too
fond of The Atom character to believe that the
writers would turn one of the more endearing of
DC’s heroes into a villain (especially since the
role of ‘secretly sinister CEO’ had been played in
the series so recently).
Routh’s own comments seemed to imply that his
character would be donning yet another iconic
uniform in the show’s future , but warned that
shrinking – the character’s single most iconic
feature from the comics – might not be a the
direction taken for this incarnation:
Arrow is very grounded in reality, so nobody really
has any powers. That is a challenging thing, to
have you bring a character like the Atom in, with
his trademark thing being that he shrinks… But
just because he’s not shrinking doesn’t mean
that he might not be doing something else, or be
involved in some other kind of superhero-y way.
The reveal that Palmer was assembling plans for
a mechanized suit of armor didn’t clarify just how
he intended to put it to use, but his growing
relationship with Felicity Smoak (Emily Bett
Rickards) soon helped clarify. After losing the
love of his life to Starling City’s… unique brand of
criminals, he was determined to fight back (with
more than just his imposing physique).
The QC weapons project previously entitled
O.M.A.C. (likely a reference to DC’s ‘One Man
Army Corps’ supersoldier, created by Jack Kirby)
had been repurposed by Palmer. With the
weapons seemingly removed – according to the
schematics revealed to Felicity, his desired
partner – the suit has been re-imagined by the
enthusiastic do-gooder as the A.T.O.M. Exosuit
(Advanced Technology Operating Mechanism).
So, where does the link between an A.T.O.M. suit
of armor connect to the comic book version of
The Atom? For that, viewers will have to recall
the ‘business’ dinner attended by Ray and
Felicity , in which the pair convinced a mine
owner to hand ownership over to the company
(for the no doubt charitable and humanitarian
uses it would be put toward). But in a private
phone call, Palmer revealed what he
was really after in the mines: “dwarf star alloy.”
Considering just how strongly the show’s
producers have ruled out shrinking in the near
future , it’s likely that the alloy is simply required
for its density (and as a wink to the fans). A
super-strong suit of armor with which to tackle
street crime is certainly grounds for a typical
comic book hero, but if that really is all the
producers have planned, fans of The Atom will
need to prepare themselves for a letdown.
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