Does anyone know whats up with the Atom???

[DR.MID-NITE]

I was just reading a article about the changes after IC. And one of the questions was...


-Will Ray Palmer still be the Atom? “No.”

What's this crap!?! Why can't they leave Atom alone for a while. He one of the more original characters in the DC Universe. :mad:

[randomguy]

Although Ray Palmer will no longer be the Atom, we will be seeing a new character in the costume, and a new book starring him/her, courtesty of writer Gail Simone.

Personally, I'm not sure there was really a good reason to replace the Atom, but DC has always been fond of shuffling their characters around, so it doesn't come as a big surprise.

[Stu]

Scandelous.

Once again DC fails to realise that we like the people in the costumes, not just the costumes themselves. I realise something like a Green Lantern gives them the oppertunity to refresh once in a while, but come on, The Atom? There's no real reason to take Ray Palmer out of the suit, other than to shock readers with this Crisis nonsense.

Then again, a new twist will come a year later. Because we demanded it! The return of Ray Palmer! Comics don't learn. :shrug:

[KuwabaraTheMan]

But that point is mooted by the fact that Ray Palmer is not the original Atom anyways. This new character will be the 4th Atom, so its not like the name is one traditionally associated with a single character.

And besides its not like Ray Palmer would be doing anything if this wasn't happening. He hasn't been heard from since the end of Identity Crisis, iirc, and I'm not sure if that'll be changing soon.

[JLU Dude]

I was just reading a article about the changes after IC. And one of the questions was...


-Will Ray Palmer still be the Atom? “No.”

What's this crap!?! Why can't they leave Atom alone for a while. He one of the more original characters in the DC Universe. :mad:


Scandelous.

Once again DC fails to realise that we like the people in the costumes, not just the costumes themselves. I realise something like a Green Lantern gives them the oppertunity to refresh once in a while, but come on, The Atom? There's no real reason to take Ray Palmer out of the suit, other than to shock readers with this Crisis nonsense.

Then again, a new twist will come a year later. Because we demanded it! The return of Ray Palmer! Comics don't learn. :shrug:

Stuff like what Stu and DR.MID-NITE mentioned are reason why I haven't picked up a single DC Comic since Infinite Crisis 4 and a lot of the Regluar Marvel stuff (Though, I'm currently getting into Ultimate X-Men and Ultimate Spider-Man.)

[DR.MID-NITE]

You would figure DC would learn...Get rid of Hal Jordan, Oliver Queen, Kara Supergirl and replace them. Then what happens a few years later...They finally figure out that people liked the characters and bring them back. They brought back Prof.Stein...So I assume Ronnie Raymond will eventually come back.

It makes no sense to replace Ray Palmer. They did that already when he went MIA when he caught his wife cheating on him.

You don't have to radically change things to get people back or get interested. :mad: :mad: :mad:

And with regards to the old Atom. Thats different.

[Ed Liu]

Howdy,


And with regards to the old Atom. Thats different.

Why?

-- Ed/Ace

[randomguy]

Why?To play Devil's Advocate here, Ray Palmer is the original Silver Age Atom, and is so divorced from his prodecessors that he's practically a different character. He's viewed as his own unique entity, and I think that's a fair view.

I won't condemn any book sight unseen, least of all a Gail Simone one, but I am somewhat leery of this. I sometimes think DC has gone too far overboard with its legacy concept, giving every hero multiple iterations and clogging up the stories and the universe as a result. It works for some characters, like Green Lantern and Flash, but for others I'm not so sure it's really appropriate. I would rather not have a second Catwoman, for instance, and the Green Arrow and Batman families seem rather overextended to me.

[Ed Liu]

Howdy,


To play Devil's Advocate here, Ray Palmer is the original Silver Age Atom, and is so divorced from his prodecessors that he's practically a different character. He's viewed as his own unique entity, and I think that's a fair view.

Sure, I can see that. However, if one should try to stick with the originals if there was nothing wrong with them, then we would never have gotten Hal, Barry, Ray, or Katar at all. We'd be reading the adventures of Alan, Jay, Al, and Carter, and a whole lot of continuity messes just wouldn't have happened.

Actually, we still are reading the adventures of Alan and Jay, at least, but that's another story ;).

In any event, if we must accept the events of Identity Crisis as being in continuity, I certainly can't argue if Ray decided to retire for good and vanish from the spandex set forever. If nearly everybody I ever cared about got killed or damaged as a result of my career, I'd quit my job, too. Besides, he was never as hardcore about the whole hero thing as any of his Silver Age comrades-in-arms.

It also begs the question of why we can't/shouldn't bring back Barry, since he was also quite well liked in his day, but suggestions that we do so are generally greeted with hoots and catcalls.

Add Gail Simone's involvement and I'm a little curious about the whole new Atom, too. For all we know, there's going to be the same quantum leap in concept as when we went from diminutive boxer Al Pratt to size-changing Dr. Palmer. Maybe we're going to get a sentient heroic atomic particle.

-- Ed/Ace

[DR.MID-NITE]

One of the reasons I like Atom. Is that he is pretty unique in his abilities. I mean we have so many heroes who can fly or are super strong, etc. His powers were different. And he was really the first scientist the JL went to when in need...Until the new Mr.Terrific came around.

[Sue]

In any event, if we must accept the events of Identity Crisis as being in continuity, I certainly can't argue if Ray decided to retire for good and vanish from the spandex set forever. If nearly everybody I ever cared about got killed or damaged as a result of my career, I'd quit my job, too. Besides, he was never as hardcore about the whole hero thing as any of his Silver Age comrades-in-arms.
It wasn't Ray's career that brought about all that misery, it was his batty ex-wife Jean. All her. Ray's guilt is somewhat understandable though, along with his reaction.

[Samhaine]

One of the reasons I like Atom. Is that he is pretty unique in his abilities. I mean we have so many heroes who can fly or are super strong, etc. His powers were different.
I don't know how came first, but I can say that there are three, soon to be four characters in the Marvel Universe with this type of power. Oh wait, forgot about Disassembled. Soon to be three.



It also begs the question of why we can't/shouldn't bring back Barry, since he was also quite well liked in his day, but suggestions that we do so are generally greeted with hoots and catcalls.
I sincerely hope not. Now, I grew up with Wally, so that could potentially cloud my judgement, but the way I see it is that Wally's character has grown so much that he has become The Flash. He's earned it. He's been the flash almost as long as Barry was. And Barry had a pretty decent death scene. He went out well. It was no Hal Jordan, at least.

And to be totally honest, I really like the legacy aspect of the DCU. I like that Bart, basically a Flash in training and number 5 or 6 (at this point, depending on how is in Flash:TFMA series), is being trained now by the original. There's a real sense of family in the whole DCU. Yeah, some people don't get along as well as others, but still, like Mark Waid said, the heroes here actually LIKE each other. There's something inviting about the concept as a whole, and even during a dark time such as IC, you get father-son bonding seens like in IC 4.

I don't mind these takeovers. Heck, I was in the camp that wanted Dick to be Batman OYL. I'll be getting the new Blue Beetle series. I'll be picking up the new Atom series, too.