First Look: The A.T.O.M.

Arrow Producers Reveal The Latest Super Hero Costume

Story by David Clark

Former Superman Returns Brandon Routh is currently playing the role of Ray Palmer/ATOM on the CW show Arrow, a brainy scientist/corporate-type named for his superpower providing suit called an Advanced Technology Operating Mechanism - A.T.O.M.

Truth be told, the Atom character has gone through multiple variations in the DC Comics universe. The original Atom was an awkward college student turned physicist with limited superpowers at best. Another version of the Atom appeared in the Suicide Squad comics as a minor character. The CW has selected a version of the character known as the Silver Age Atom.

In the original lore, Ray Palmer became Atom when he discovered the fragments of a white dwarf star. He utilized those materials to fashion a technology which allowed the shrinking of his own body down to the subatomic level. Over time the character became less dependent upon technology and eventually developed the innate power of reducing his size without any technological assistance.

How the CW intends to present the origin story of the Atom remains to be seen. Writer and executive producer Greg Berlanti has leaked information that the CW interpretation of Atom will have increased strength but will not immediately have the ability to shrink. This is interesting considering it is the power for which the Atom is best known.

One of Berlanti’s concerns when introducing the Atom was how to design a costume. In recent years superheroes have become prevalent in both movies and television. Berlanti knew that a superhero only has one chance to make a good first impression on an audience. He also did not want the Atom to closely resemble any other iconic character costumes currently in the public eye.

Given Ray Palmer’s early dependence on technology it is not far fetched to believe his costume might resemble an Iron Man like suit; makes sense considering Tony Stark is also heavily dependent on technology. Understanding the similarity between these two characters, Berlanti worked to differentiate the Atom costume from Iron Man.

“Our goal when we had an idea to do a super suit was ‘How do you do it in a way that’s not Iron Man?’ That’s the trick creatively. Because we don’t want to duplicate Iron Man, we want to do our own thing. So there’s a lot of practical elements to the costume that on Iron Man they have done with CG. We’re gonna do it practically.”

In doing so, the Atom costume has come out looking more like an exoskeleton than a full technological body suit.

It will be interesting to see whether this lesser known DC Comics character will garner enough interest to carve out a primetime show devoted to the exploits of the Atom. Sources: Screenrant Aceshowbiz