| Atom | |
|---|---|
Cover of Atom Special #1 (1993). Art by Steve Dillon |
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| Publication information | |
| Publisher | DC Comics |
| First appearance | Showcase #34 (September 1961) |
| Created by | Gardner Fox Gil Kane |
| In-story information | |
| Alter ego | Raymond "Ray" Palmer |
| Team affiliations | Justice League Teen Titans |
| Partnerships | Hawkman Jean Loring |
| Abilities | Ability to shrink his body to varying degrees (including the subatomic level) while manipulating his weight to his advantage. |
| Atom | |
| Cover of Showcase #34 (1961), the first appearance of The Silver Age Atom. Art by Gil Kane and Murphy Anderson | |
| Series publication information | |
| Schedule | Bi-Monthly, Monthly |
| Format | (Atom, Atom and Hawkman, Power of the Atom): Ongoing series (Sword of the Atom): Limited series (Brightest Day: The Atom Special): One-shot |
| Genre | Superhero |
| Publication date | (Atom) June 1962 – August 1968 (Atom and Hawkman) October 1968 – October 1969 (Sword of the Atom) September – December 1983 (Power of the Atom) August 1988 – November 1989 (Brightest Day: The Atom Special) July – July 2010 |
| Number of issues | (Atom): 38 (Atom and Hawkman): 7 (Sword of the Atom): 4 (Power of the Atom): 18 (Brightest Day: The Atom Special): 1 |
| Creative team | |
| Writer(s) | (Atom) Gardner Fox, Frank Robbins (Atom and Hawkman) Robert Kanigher, Gardner Fox, Denny O'Neil (Sword of the Atom) Jan Strnad (Power of the Atom) Roger Stern, Tom Peyer (Brightest Day: The Atom Special) Jeff Lemire |
| Penciller(s) | (Atom) Gil Kane, Mike Sekowsky (Atom and Hawkman) Murphy Anderson, Dick Dillin (Sword of the Atom) Gil Kane (Power of the Atom) Dwayne Turner, Graham Nolan (Brightest Day: The Atom Special) Mahmud A. Asrar |
| Inker(s) | (Atom) Murphy Anderson, Sid Greene (Brightest Day: The Atom Special) John Dell III |
| Letterer(s) | (Brightest Day: The Atom Special) Sal Cipriano |
| Colorist(s) | (Brightest Day: The Atom Special) Pete Pantazis |
The Atom is a fictional character, a DC Comics superhero introduced during the Silver Age of comic books in Showcase # 34 (Sep-Oct 1961). He was named after Raymond A. Palmer, a science fiction magazine editor.[1]
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Ray Palmer is a physicist and professor at Ivy University in Ivy Town, New England, specializing in matter compression as a means to fight overpopulation, famine and other world problems. Using a mass of white dwarf star matter that he finds after it lands on Earth, Ray Palmer fashions a lens that enables him to shrink any object to any degree he wishes. However, any object so treated soon explodes as a side effect, which precludes any practical use of the lens.
During a spelunking expedition, Palmer and his students, along with Loring, find themselves trapped in a cave when the entrance collapses. In desperation, Palmer secretly uses the lens he has carried with him to shrink himself down in order to be able to climb to a small hole high in the wall that leads to the outside, knowing full well he will likely explode. Using a diamond engagement ring, Palmer enlarges the hole sufficiently and descends to the floor to try to alert the others of the escape route before dying. However, upon entering the lens' beam, he finds himself returned to normal size. As the lens is covered with cave moisture, Palmer thinks this fact has altered the beam to allow this strange effect. When subsequent experiments show no change with the explosions, Palmer concludes that there must be some mysterious force in his own body that allows him to be shrunk safely and later returned to normal. He decides to use this effect to become a superhero.[2] A later retcon, post-Brightest Day removes the influence of his exotic physical makeup, tying instead his survival to the discovery of a special compression matrix, a fabric able to spread the effects of the ray on the entire body, thus making it stable even when shrunk down. The prototype matrix later became his costume. At the same time, Ray's father was introduced as a retcon to his history, contradicting the previous issues of both DC Comics Presents and the Atom Special #1 which showed that both of Ray's parents had died while he was young.[3]
Ray Palmer creates a belt tool from what was initially depicted as white dwarf star matter, which allows him to shrink down to subatomic size. Furthermore, he develops a special costume that he can wear at most times that only becomes visible when he shrinks significantly. In addition, he develops new equipment that allows him to decrease his weight in addition to his size. This allows him to glide on air currents on a low setting, while a high setting allows him to handle or strike objects with the equivalent strength of his normal size and build. A favorite travel method is to call some location on the telephone and when the intended phone is answered, Palmer can shrink down enough to literally travel through the phone lines in seconds to emerge out of the answering phone.
Originally, his size and weight decreasing abilities derive from mechanisms in his belt with a back-up device in his gloves. He carries out the bulk of his early superheroic adventures in his home of Ivy Town where he often helps his girlfriend, lawyer Jean Loring, win her cases. Much later, he gains the innate equivalent powers within his own body.
Palmer has fought against several alien and supernatural threats, as well as having his own rogues gallery: his arch enemy is Chronos the Time Bandit, the menace of the Bug-Eyed Bandit, the dangerous eco-terrorist Floronic Man, and the miniature misguided Bat-Knights of Elvaran. He also had several time travel adventures by means of Professor Alpheus V. Hyatt's Time Pool. The Atom is a member of several incarnations of the Justice League, and the team is gracious enough to supply a special chair scaled to his default size which can elevate to whatever height needed so he can easily partake in team meetings without having to go out of costume. There, he meets Hawkman (Katar Hol pre-Hawkworld, Carter Hall post-Hawkworld), one of his closest friends in the superhero community. Neither character achieved major popularity, and even in their heyday were mostly supporting characters, often with Palmer as a specialist in size alteration who was often needed to access extremely confined areas only he could access. Hawkman would manufacture prosthetic wings for a myna Ray saved, taking on the name Major Mynah and became the Atom's partner and steed.
The Atom had one short-lived mini series and three subsequent specials, all entitled Sword of the Atom, in which he abandons civilization in the wake of a divorce from his wife (who had an affair with fellow lawyer Paul Hoben) and becomes the Conan-like heroic paragon of a tribe of six-inch (152 mm) -tall yellow-skinned humanoid aliens called Morlaidhans (and consort to their princess Laethwyn) in the jungles of South America. He would pass on his size-changing belt and role as Ivy Town's protector to Jean's new husband Paul Hoben in his stead. During this time, Ray's friend Norman Brawler pens the book The Atom's Farewell in which Ray's identity as the Atom is revealed to the world.
Eventually the colony is destroyed, despite Palmer's attempt to save it, by a group associated with the US Government acting as loggers.[4] Palmer is forced to escape via the telephone to North America. In the attempt, he fails to anticipate that the connection will involve satellite relay and the unexpectedly arduous trip causes him to remain at approximately three feet high and without his costume's size changing equipment.
With the help of a friend, Ray creates a new costume from the material of the white dwarf star. This time, instead of a belt, Ray uses an encephalotronic grid in the costume's headpiece to control the costume. The grid is keyed to his unique brainwaves. This enables him to transfer his mass into an unknown dimension which allows him to alter his size and weight just by thinking about it. He can even make the new costume appear or disappear with a thought by shifting most of its atoms to or from the other dimension. This allows him to be in costume while at full height or to shrink without having to have his costume appear. He can even increase his weight while remaining six inches (152 mm) tall or reduce his weight while remaining at full size. Ray often does this and is then light enough to ride wind currents, where he actually appears to be flying to a limited degree. Ray also develops a mental link with the white dwarf matter to which he has been regularly exposed. Most of the mass lies within another dimension. Ray can draw upon that mass and hit with a super-concussive force. He has been shown to punch through concrete walls, crush an exam table and break the axle of a car that is moving at high speed.
Ray would learn of those behind the genocide of the Morlaidhans, namely five CIA operatives, part of a group called the Cabal. In a mission called Operation: Fireball, the tiny aliens were murdered in hopes Ray would return as the Atom and become a tool for the Cabal (as Ray worked for the CIA in his earlier years). Instead, Palmer shrank the five agents to six-inch height and the CIA would employ them as a group called Micro/Squad. The Atom would take on new enemies during this period, such as Humbug, a sentient robot in control of an army of duplicates of itself, and Strobe, a technological armor-clad crook. Micro/Squad would also return, attempting to murder Palmer for what he did to them. Instead, teammate Ginsburg dies in the explosion they set and Ray approaches Adam Cray about becoming the new Atom in order to bring the remaining Micro/Squad into the open. Cray agrees, steals Paul Hoben's size-changing belt, and joins the Suicide Squad. The plan works as the villains emerge and Palmer takes the place of operative Sting; but their leader, Blacksnake, kills Cray and takes the belt for himself, returning to normal height. Blacksnake murders the remaining members of his crew as Ray arrives, revealing himself, posing as Sting, and battles him. After Blacksnake is defeated, the Cabal employs Task Force X II to murder him in order to protect their secrets.
Later, during the events of Zero Hour, Palmer is rejuvenated to a teenage state and develops the ability to grow in height in addition to his previous abilities, all of which he's capable of controlling innately without using his white dwarf star-based equipment. He becomes field leader of a new group of Teen Titans, composed of hybrids of human beings and the H'San Natall, after a chance meeting with Isaiah Crockett on his first day attending Ivy University. As a former member of the Justice League, Palmer viewed his affiliation with the Teen Titans as a step backward. The group primarily battled the Veil, an anti-alien organization that employed Deathstroke and Dark Nemesis, but it's revealed that their leader Pylon was actually a H'San Natall. They would also face Jugular (hired by the H'San Natall) and Loren Jupiter's son Jarrod, aka Haze. The Atom's new growth powers were instrumental in the battle against Sekhmet of the Millennium Giants. Ray subsequently regains his original age and memories and loses his new powers after he begins to rapidly age and Waverider has to use DNA taken prior to his rejuvenation to restore him to his original state. Palmer returns to his teaching job at Ivy University, but also becomes an associate and alternate member of the current JLA incarnation. With his exit from the Teen Titans, the group disbands. One notable student under Palmer was Ronnie Raymond, who, without the knowledge of elements of Martin Stein, found difficulty in fully employing his abilities as Firestorm.
In the 2004-05 limited series Identity Crisis, Jean Loring kills Sue Dibny, the wife of the Elongated Man. After stealing some of the Atom's shrinking technology and his costume, she kills Sue in a misguided attempt to win Palmer back. She also arranges a hit on Tim Drake's father which is carried out by Captain Boomerang (Digger Harkness). The intent is for Jack Drake to kill some random attacker, but both manage to kill each other. After committing her to Arkham Asylum, Palmer shrinks himself to microscopic size and disappears.[2]
Palmer eventually meets up with his old friend Carter Hall after microscopically traveling through phone lines. He warns Hall of the consequences of mindwiping Batman and of harassing criminals over a crime that is perpetrated by Jean, one of their own. Palmer explains he needs time away, and shrinks himself again after Hall agrees to keep the meeting secret.[5]
His legacy lives on, however, with Ryan Choi finding a copy of his costume and shrinking device to become the current Atom. Around this same time, an unnamed teenager with powers similar to Palmer joins the Teen Titans under the name Molecule. After a brief tenure with the team, he is later killed during a confrontation with the Terror Titans.
During the missing year, Palmer's technology is employed by Supernova to shrink and grow in size in order to enter and exit the bottle city of Kandor.
DC Comics would not reveal Palmer's whereabouts since his disappearance at the end of Identity Crisis.[6] However, Palmer returned to play a very important role in the Countdown limited series. A Monitor asks the Source Wall what is the solution to "the great disaster," it answers "Ray Palmer". Subsequently Kyle Rayner, Donna Troy and Jason Todd scour the Multiverse for the former Atom, who just might hold the key to saving reality from a crisis of unparalleled proportions."[7]
In their travels, the quartet has found people marked with the Atom's familiar symbol. The group tracks Palmer to Earth-51, where he assumes the life of its native Palmer after his life is cut short during his studies of the Multiverse and discovery of the looming Crisis. Meeting the Jean of Earth-51 and the Justice League again for the first time, Palmer is found on a world where the heroes have been able to eradicate supercrime and create a utopian Earth (Later revealed to have been the result of this reality's Batman murdering all of this world's super-criminals after the Joker killed Jason). However, once Kyle, Donna, Jason and Bob the Monitor are able to track him down, Bob attempts to kill Palmer; with the Challengers' help, Palmer escapes and reveals to the Challengers that it was the Ray Palmer of Earth-51 who was meant to stop the Great Disaster and that he had been trying to carry on his work, to no avail.[2]
When the Challengers return to their own Earth, Jimmy Olsen is kidnapped by Mary Marvel, who has been corrupted by Darkseid.[8] Palmer hitches a ride from within Jimmy. When Darkseid takes control of Jimmy's powers, Palmer locates and shuts down the control sphere inside Jimmy's brain, but is then swarmed by Apokoliptian antibodies. While escaping this onslaught, Palmer discovers the "battery" containing the New God spirit energies.[9] Palmer removes it from Jimmy's head and shatters it, releasing the energies.[10]
Palmer later (after much cajoling) joins Donna, Kyle, and Forager in their new mission as border guards to the Multiverse, realizing that there is nothing left for him on Earth anymore.[11] However, Palmer returns to New Earth one more time, upon realizing that his old nemesis Chronos had taken his identity to mislead a young pretender to his identity, Ryan Choi. After helping his successor to once again save Ivy Town, he returns to the Multiverse with a new sense of fulfillment, leaving his town in the hands of a new, capable hero.[12]
During the Final Crisis, Palmer returns to New Earth and works with Choi again to aid in the efforts to evacuate the last free humans.[13]
In Justice League: Cry for Justice mini-series, it has been confirmed that Palmer will become a member of Hal Jordan's new Justice League.[14]
On the night of the superhero's memorial day, Palmer asks Hawkman to visit Jean's grave to be honored as a fallen member of the community, but Hawkman refuses because of what she did in Identity Crisis.[15] Palmer is later shown speaking to Hawkman again, over the phone (unaware that his friend has been killed and reanimated as a Black Lantern). Atom is then invited to visit undead Hawkman in order to discuss his heartache over his wife.[16] Palmer is later revealed to have shrunk into Hawkman's ring, escaping certain death. Joining the battle between Hal Jordan, Barry Allen, and the Black Lanterns, Palmer is set upon by Black Lanterns Ralph and Sue Dibny, who use his guilt over Jean's actions to try to feed on his compassion-filled heart. Palmer is saved from death by the Indigo Tribe, who combine their light with Hal's to destroy the Dibnys and their rings. During the crisis, Palmer was able to deduce with the heroes that the black rings are simulations taking the identities of the deceased and needing to feed. The Indigo Tribe take the heroes to the Hall of Justice, unceremoniously taking Hal Jordan and abandoning the rest when the Black Lanterns renew their attack.[17]
Palmer helps the heroes escape via a phone line, and then brings them to the JSA, who were also being attacked by Black Lanterns. During the crisis, Palmer meets Damage, son of Al Pratt, the first hero to be called Atom. The two heroes briefly acquainted during the battle, and begin to develop a friendship. Palmer stopped the Black Lantern Al Pratt from killing Damage, but was unable to keep the reanimated Jean from finishing the job.[18] Palmer made a futile attempt to stop one of the black rings from turning Damage's corpse into an undead before Jean used his own technology to shrink him, Mera, and herself into the fully transformed Damage's ring.[19] As Palmer and Mera battle Jean inside the black ring, Jean reveals Nekron's plan along showing what is happening at Coast City, as deceased residents and revived heroes arise as Black Lanterns under the demon lord's commands. Deadman witnesses their battle and plans to rescue Palmer and Mera from Jean.[20] Deadman saves Palmer and Mera by briefly possessing Jean, allowing them to escape and join the heroes against Nekron and his army. During the battle, Palmer is chosen as a deputy officer of the Indigo Tribe to be more effective against Nekron's forces. Although the Indigo Tribe eschews formal uniforms for tribal patterns over simple garments, Ray Palmer's costume is turned into a close approximation of the tattered Sword of the Atom clothings he had used in the past.[21]
Palmer's past is rehashed, showing that he never quite got over Jean, even during the days of Sword of the Atom. Indigo-1 claims that she can teleport the armies of each Lantern Corps onto Earth, if given time to meditate. The responsibility falls to Palmer to protect her while she does so. Before she enters her trance, she reveals to Palmer that the indigo staff and his overwhelming compassion allows him to mimic the other powers of the Lantern Corps; she demonstrates this by temporarily becoming a Red Lantern and vomiting corrosive blood all over an attacking company of Black Lanterns. She then enters her trance, while Palmer fights off Black Lanterns Hawkman and Hawkgirl by temporarily becoming an Orange Lantern, loudly proclaiming "I want my friends back!" He then summons two orange energy duplicates of Khufu and Chay-Ara to help him fight off his and Indigo-1's attackers. He is briefly successful. But then Jean shows up to torment him, and she leaps into Indigo-1's ring. Palmer follows her. He ends up reliving Sue Dibny's death, and is then attacked by various Black Lantern Morlaidhans, the minuscule race he befriended during Sword of the Atom. He fights them off and, summoning the powers of a Green Lantern, destroys Jean. Indigo-1 manages to summon the various armies and thanks Palmer for his help. He tells her to keep his involvement in the deployment of the troops a secret, and asks that she help him find a way to legitimately resurrect Hawkman and Hawkgirl.[22]
In the final battle, Palmer gets his wish when Hawkman and Hawkgirl are brought back to life by power of white light at the end of the Blackest Night series.[23] The meaning of secret resurrect remains unknown.
In July 2010 Ray Palmer will had a Brightest Day one-shot that lea to a co-feature in Adventure Comics written by Jeff Lemire with art by Mahmud Asrar, the co-feature focused on Ray Palmer's early life.[24] For a brief three-issue tenure, Palmer was part of writer James Robinson's new Justice League line-up, but resigned in order to help his friend Martin Stein with some sort of project.[25] At the start of the Brightest Day event, Ray and Stein are seen at the funeral of Gehenna, the girlfriend and partner of the second Firestorm, Jason Rusch. When Jason gets into a confrontation with Ronnie Raymond over Gehenna's death, Ray steps in and tries to stop it.[26] Ray manages to separate Jason and Ronnie from Black Lantern constructs.[27]
Afterward, Ray discovered his father was attacked and the suspect was his own uncle David.[3] With Ray's father in the hospital, Ray discovers his father had a stroke and his investigation of technology been stolen. He seeks out Oracle to find the Calculator, Oracle manages to trace a data line, and Ray enters through the internet where then encounter Calculator so he would be able to know who dealers is. However, Calculator creates a room with no oxygen to make Atom heartbeat and he can breathe his immune and attempt to kills Atom.[28] Ray manages to grab Calculator and shrinks to return to Oracle's base. While Ray is remission, he threatens Calculator who tells that something called the Colony has manipulated Ray. Later, the Prof. Hyatt was attacked by the Colony while looking for white dwarf matter.[29] When Ray arrives, Ray goes to rescue Prof. Hyatt. During the fight, the Colony dies by incineration from the white dwarf matter. Ray calls Oracle to trace the phone line, and while he arrives at the Colony's base he is confronted the Colony squad.[30]
After failing to avoid detection, he is confronted by Uncle David and with his help, pulls him from away from the Colony heading towards the teleporter. Once safe, Uncle David explains to him about the Colony. David also tells Ray that he could not leave and working the projects his own, he show Ray to travel the astrology orb call the ant farm to see mini-planet of microscopic nature. But, the Colony followed David's hideout and travels the ant farm, Ray engages in an epic battle.[31] After battling, the Colony died from incineration again same way as it did before, Ray managed to save him using his stable white dwarf matter. Ray demanded to know what they desired, the Colony tells him the same thing, and they conduct the ant farm is brought to Colony's base. He destroys Ray's belt buckle's white dwarf matter and kills himself. Since they cannot return, Ray follows David with a backup plan when suddenly Ray is approached by robotic insects.[32] David explains that the robotic insects are caretakers. They manage to fix the belt buckle and return to normal size when in Colony's base. Failing to escape, Ray is forced by the scientist to bring the white dwarf matter. He shows the monitor renderings where Colony standing in front of father's hospital is prepared to kill.[33]
When Ray refused, Hawkman prevents Colony attack from Ray's father is receiving a call from Oracle to trace the monitor renderings, but Hawkman been attacks by the Colony squad inside miniaturize into Hawkman's body. Ray chooses to save Hawkman to leave the Colony's base, the other Colony escapes and kidnap Ray's father, Ray rescue Hawkman leaps into a body the Colony attackers. When Hawkman is recovering, the Colony leaves their message to bring the white dwarf meteor and warned him no tricks, Ray's choice to bring the meteor in order to save his family. While Ray traded the meteor to Colony in the country, before the Colony leave, they exchange the Ray's family in the ant farm, Ray's travels in the ant farm and discovery, they plant a nuclear bomb vest strapped to David's captivity, Ray manages to save his father and David to shrink before it detonated. While Ray's father is recovering, Ray reveals to David that he plants the white dwarf meteor into a nano-liquid to make the Colony's headquarters shrank. Ray and his group David and Hawkman arrive and location the Colony's headquarters to attack their base. After the Colony was defeated, however, David tells him there are more Colonies in the area. Later, Ray returns his father home. Ray accepts his father back and apologizing for getting a rough, before Ray overhears a firefighter rescue service, as Ray a deputy Atom capable hero once more.[34]
During this same period, Ray begins an investigation into the disappearance of Ryan, whom unbeknownst to the superhero community, had been murdered by Deathstroke. Ray comforts Ryan's girlfriend Amanda, and muses Ryan may be hiding out like Ray did after the events of Identity Crisis.[35] While he investigates to his size, Ray discovers microbiology blood.[36] He arrive at the Hall of Justice to tell the League members that Ryan is missing. The League starts to help Ray's investigating to find Ryan's whereabouts.[37] He discovers Ryan's DNA cell is not a match. The DNA cell came to someone else.[38] Later, Ray discovers evidence that Dwarfstar had a hand in Ryan's death, and vows to find him and make him pay.[39] 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 (Ryan's ex-girlfriend). Believing it may lead to a lighter sentence, Dwarfstar confesses to hiring Deathstoke to kill Ryan. Armed with this knowledge, Ray leaves to inform the Justice League.[40] Later, he asked Batman (Dick Grayson) to pursue revenge on Deathstoke for murdering Ryan.[41] Ray and the Justice League arrive to attempt to arrest Deathstoke and the Titans.[42] The Justice League battle against the Titans in Khandaq, where Ray seriously injures Deathstroke for killing his friend. The battle is stopped by Isis, who forces the Justice League to flee in order to avoid restarting World War III.[43] After failing, Ray begins writing the eulogy for Ryan's funeral, and is comforted by Superman.[44] In the final issue, Ray meets Ryan's friends and family, and gives the speech at his protege's funeral.[45]
DC has announced that following the events of Flashpoint, Ryan Choi will be the Atom again.[46] After the Flashpoint reboot, Ray appears in Frankenstein: Agent of S.H.A.D.E. as S.H.A.D.E.'s science advisor.[47]
The Atom/Ray Palmer possesses the power to alter his size down to the subatomic level while retaining his natural strength level. This is accomplished by using the remnants of a white-dwarf star made into a belt buckle worn with his costume. Originally, he had to manipulate his abilities via the belt and later with hand movements before eventually syncing with his brainwaves itself. The Atom is one of the only heroes in the DC Universe that has 100% control over his body on the molecular level (Plastic Man and The Flash being examples of others), thus making him exponentially more powerful than he is often portrayed; he is only limited by his application of his powers. Some of the applications he's demonstrated include reducing his mass to glide through the air (simulating flight, like Wonder Woman) and increasing his mass to punch through concrete. He's also demonstrated the ability to make his costume appear and disappear at will by shifting its atoms between this dimension and another.
He has been shown to be able to ride phone lines to his destination by dialing a number and traveling through the handset (his signature use of his power), and recently shrinking small enough to travel on photon signals through fiber optic cable (Blackest Night #4).
Some of The Atom's more impressive feats include shrinking into Superman's bloodstream and manually rearranging his molecules to create Kryptonite and defusing Black Lantern Al Pratt's Atomic Punch and resizing within him, ripping his body apart in the process (Blackest Night #4).
Following the events of Zero Hour, the Atom gained the ability to also grow in size and internalizes his other abilities without the use of his white dwarf star-based apparatus. However, when returned to his natural age, these abilities were lost.
He was a member of the Indigo Tribe, Ray possessed an indigo power ring powered by compassion, which provided him with flight, energy projection, and a protective force field. He also utilised a staff capable of duplicating the abilities of other wielders of the Emotional spectrum within range.
He has also shown the ability to allow others to shrink down with him if the situation requires it, such as when he shrunk himself, Superman, Flash, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman and Plastic Man to repair the links between seven shattered subatomic particles, or shrinking Steel, Supergirl and Superboy to directly treat a kryptonite tumor in Superman's body. However, this ability is relatively limited; initially anyone other than he was who shrank would explode after two minutes, although he was later able to extend this time to around an hour.
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 years until his rescue by Catgirl. He was then instrumental in the liberation of Kandor, gaining access to the bottle by 'hiding' inside Kara- the daughter of Superman and Wonder Woman- when she confronted Brainiac, slipping inside the bottle to break it from the inside and allowing the Kryptonians within to gain superpowers to defeat Brainiac.
Other re-imaginings of the Atom include an appearance in League of Justice, an Elseworlds 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".
In JLA/Avengers, Ray appears first as taking the place of Wally West when he realizes that there is no Speed Force in the Marvel Universe. The Justice League arrives and battles a group of monsters while searching for the Ultimate Nullifier, but stays behind after a brief confrontation with the Avengers, where he sees them meeting with Metron who gives a story different from the one given to the League by The Grandmaster and jumped on Metron's chair, which took him to the Grandmaster's base. When Batman and Captain America arrive, he shows them that while the Grandmaster is trying to stop Krona, his team in his game is the League, rather than his own universe's Avengers. When the Grandmaster merges the universes to stop Krona, Ray disappears until the two teams join up to go after Krona himself. Ray participates in the battle and ends up disappearing after Krona's defeat.
In JLA: Age of Wonder, Ray Palmer worked with a science consortium whose numbers at one point included Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla.
In JLA: Rock Of Ages, the Atom is part of what remains of the Justice League in an alternate future where Darkseid has taken control of the Earth. The Atom dies sacrificing himself to kill Darkseid, riding a burst of photons through the villain's invisible force field and into his optic nerve, then discharging white dwarf radiation into Darkseid's four-lobed brain.
In DC: The New Frontier, Ray Palmer doesn't become the Atom but is a leading scientist in using lenses to shrink matter. However, in his experiments this matter would then explode. His technology was instrumental in destroying the Centre when the Flash bathes the alien in the beam and it explodes. Later, in the epilogue, the Atom is shown in a group shot.
In JLA: The Nail and Another Nail, Atom often stands on Flash's shoulder, following Hawkman's death. He is shown infiltrating the Thinker's base to investigate the possibility that he was involved in the conspiracy against other heroes, but discovered upon entering the base that the Thinker was dead after he stumbled upon clues to the true mastermind's plans, having been killed by a brainwashed Metamorpho (The only other person capable of infiltrating the Thinker's security).
In Countdown to Final Crisis, The Search for Ray Palmer and Countdown: Arena (2007), a number of alternate versions of Ray are introduced.
In the alternate timeline of the Flashpoint event, the Atom lost a leg to radiation poisoning and became a corrections officer in Doom Prison, acting as a controller of Amazo. During the prison break, the Atom's control is pulled out by Eel O'Brian and Heat Wave who then force him to retrieve their weapons. After the Atom does it, Heat Wave crushes his skull with his fingers.[48]
This version of Atom was ranked as the 144th greatest comic book character of all time by Wizard magazine.[49] IGN also ranked the Atom as the 64th greatest comic book hero of all time stating of all the superheroes out there, Dr. Ray Palmer might be one of the most brilliant tortured souls imaginable.[50]
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