Al Pratt

The original Atom, Al Pratt, first appeared in All-American Comics #19 (October 1940).^[3] He initially had no superpowers; instead, he was a diminutive college student and later a physicist who was depicted as a tough guy, a symbol of all the short kids who could still make a difference. Pratt was a founding member of the Justice Society of America, later gaining limited super-strength and an energy-charged 'atomic punch'. He died in the charge against Extant during the events of Zero Hour.^[4]

Ray Palmer

The Atom introduced during the Silver Age of Comic Books in Showcase #34 (1961) is physicist and university professor Raymond Palmer, Ph.D. After finding a mass of white dwarf star matter that had fallen to Earth, Palmer fashioned a 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, Palmer shrank himself to microscopic size and disappeared. The search for Palmer was a major part of the series Countdown to Final Crisis.^[4]

Paul Hoben

Prior to Ray Palmer's trip to the Amazon Jungle, he learned that his wife Jean Loring has had an affair with her colleague, Paul Hoben. Palmer and Loring got a divorce. Later, Palmer offers his blessing to the couple when they marry, and he offers Hoben his size-changing belt so that Hoben can protect Ivy Town after Palmer 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, 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 is initially believed to be Ray Palmer in disguise by members of the team. Cray was recruited by Palmer (who faked his own death) to apprehend the Micro Squad, a group of villains who 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 remains with the Suicide Squad briefly, serving as a secret weapon whose existence is unknown to others of the Squad. Cray is later killed by Blacksnake, a Micro Squad member who believes him to be Palmer.

During the events of Blackest Night, Cray is reanimated as a member of the Black Lantern Corps alongside several other fallen Suicide Squad members.^[5] Cray is destroyed by the Manhunter's self-destruct mechanism, unleashing an explosion of Green Lantern energy that eradicates the Black Lanterns.^[6]

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.^[7]

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".^[8] 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. In the storyline Convergence, Choi was revealed to have survived in microscopic form.

Rhonda Piñeda

The New 52 introduced a new, female Atom, Rhonda Piñeda, a Hispanic American college student from Ivy Town.^[9] She is revealed to be working as a reluctant spy for Amanda Waller and Steve Trevor, gathering intel on the new Justice League recruits.^[10] At the conclusion of the "Trinity War" storyline, she is revealed to in fact be betraying both teams; she hails from the alternate universe of Earth-3, where she is a member of the Crime Syndicate operating under the name Atomica,^[11] an acquaintance of Johnny Quick.^[12]

Atom One Million

An unnamed scientist in the 853rd century performed experiments in superstring theory that creates a singularity and whose radiation alters his physical make-up. When the singularity threatened to expand and destroy his universe, he enters it in an attempt to save the universe but instead finds himself on an interdimensional bridge to another universe as his own is wiped out. This Atom's powers differ from his predecessors in that he does not shrink himself, 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.^[13]

Golden Age enemies

• Black Dragon Society - A Japanese saboteur organization.^[14]
• Blackie - ^[15]
• Cootie Gang - A gang who stole a solvant that can dissolve metal from a science lab.^[16]
• Dude Henwick - A gangster who led his gang in robbing an ice cream parlor.^[17]
• Emperor of America - ^[18]
• Lefty Lou Albano - ^[19]
• 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.^[20]
• Rattlesnake Pete - ^[18]
• Raymond Macum - A science fraud.^[21]
• Scrime - ^[22]
• Stroehm - A gangster who framed Mr. Baker for arson in order to get to the copper deposit on his property.^[23]
• Tusk - John Brandt is a criminal with tusks on his lower jaw.^[24]

Modern enemies

• Bug-Eyed Bandit - A scientist who controls robotic insects.^[25]
• Calculator - A criminal genius.
• Chronos - A time-traveling villain.^[26]
• Dean Mayland - The dean at Ivy University who dislikes Atom.^[27]
• Deraegis - A Katarthan chancellor.^[28]
• Doctor Light - A light-themed villain who is usually an enemy of the Teen Titans.^[29]
• Dwarfstar - A size-shifting supervillain.^[30]
• Floronic Man - A plant-controlling botanist.^[31]
• Giganta - A size-shifting supervillain who is usually an enemy of Wonder Woman.^[32]
• Lady Chronos - A Chinese woman who came across Chronos' research.^[33]
• Strobe - A criminal who stole an experimental suit that grants him energy projection and photokinesis.^[34]
• Thinker - A telepathic supervillain. He once fought both Atoms during one of his illegal activities.^[35]
• Waiting - A microscopic race who have their cities on the back of dogs.^[27]
• Weapons Master - A supervillain from the year 11,960 who is an expert at mechanical engineering.^[36]

The Dark Knight Strikes Again

Frank Miller portrayed Ray Palmer as a major player in Batman: The Dark Knight Strikes Again as part of Batman's resistance. He was taken prisoner by Lex Luthor and made to live in one of his own petri dishes for a period of months until his rescue by Catgirl. in Dark Knight III, He was then instrumental in the liberation of Kandor until killed by their leader, Baal.^[54]

Tangent Comics

In the Tangent Comics imprint, the Atom is "Arthur Harrison Thompson", a subject of radiation testing on human beings.^[55] 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.

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.^[56]

52 Multiverse

An alternate universe version of Al Pratt / Atom appears in 52 #52. This version is from a universe similar to Earth-Two.^[57]

In Countdown #30, the Challengers from Beyond encountered Earth-15, a world where the sidekicks had taken their mentor's places. On this Earth, the Atom is Jessica Palmer, a genius who graduated from MIT at age eight. The Search for Ray Palmer - Red Son features the Ray Palmer of Earth-30, an American captured by the Superman of a communist Russia. Countdown: Arena also depicts the Ray Palmer of Earth-6, who gained the powers and title of the 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 simian Primate Legion ^[58]

Ray Palmer

Ryan Choi

Television

Animation

• The Ray Palmer incarnation of the Atom appears in The Superman/Aquaman Hour of Adventure, voiced by Pat Harrington, Jr.^[59]
• The Ray Palmer incarnation of the Atom appears in The All-New Super Friends Hour, voiced by Wally Burr.^[59]
• The Ray Palmer incarnation of the Atom appears in Super Friends, voiced again by Wally Burr.^[59]
• A futuristic incarnation of the Atom named Micron appears in the Batman Beyond two-part episode "The Call", voiced by Wayne Brady.
• The Ray Palmer incarnation of the Atom appears in Justice League Unlimited, voiced by John C. McGinley.^[59]
• The Ryan Choi and Ray Palmer incarnations of the Atom appear in Batman: The Brave and the Bold, voiced by James Sie and Peter Scolari respectively.^[60][59]
• The Ray Palmer incarnation of the Atom appears in Young Justice, voiced by Jason Marsden.^[59]
• The Ray Palmer incarnation of the Atom appears in the DC Nation Shorts segment "Sword of the Atom!", voiced again by Jason Marsden.^[59]
• The Ray Palmer incarnation of the Atom appears in Justice League Action, voiced by Jerry O'Connell.^[59]
• The Ray Palmer incarnation of the Atom appears in the Teen Titans Go! episode "Strength of a Grown Man", voiced by Patton Oswalt.^[59]
• The Ray Palmer incarnation of the Atom appears in the Batwheels episode "Bite-Sized Buff", voiced by Dee Bradley Baker.^[61]

Film

• Ray Palmer appears in Justice League: The New Frontier, voiced by an uncredited Corey Burton.^{[citation needed]}
• Alternate universe versions of Ray Palmer and Ryan Choi appear in Justice League: Gods and Monsters, voiced by Dee Bradley Baker and Eric Bauza respectively.^[59][60]
• An unidentified, alternate universe version of the Atom makes a non-speaking appearance in Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox as a prisoner of Aquaman.^{[citation needed]}
• Ryan Choi appears in the DC Extended Universe (DCEU) film Zack Snyder's Justice League, portrayed by Zheng Kai.^[62][63]
• The Ray Palmer incarnation of the Atom appears in Teen Titans Go! To the Movies, voiced again by Patton Oswalt.^[64][59]
• The Ryan Choi incarnation of the Atom appears in Lego DC Comics Super Heroes: The Flash, voiced again by Eric Bauza.^[60]
• The Ryan Choi incarnation of the Atom appears in Injustice, voiced by an uncredited Yuri Lowenthal.^[59]
• Al Pratt appears in the DCEU film Black Adam, portrayed by Henry Winkler.^[65]
• The Ray Palmer incarnation of the Atom appears in Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths.

Video games

• An unidentified Atom appears in DC Universe Online.
• The Ray Palmer incarnation of the Atom appears in Injustice: Gods Among Us.
• The Al Pratt, Ray Palmer, and Ryan Choi incarnations of the Atom all appear in Scribblenauts Unmasked: A DC Comics Adventure.
• The Ray Palmer incarnation of the Atom appears as a playable character in Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham, voiced by Troy Baker.
• Atomica, Ryan Choi / Atom, and the Arrowverse incarnation of Ray Palmer / Atom all appear in Lego DC Super-Villains, voiced by Laura Bailey, again by Jason Marsden, and Brandon Routh respectively.^[60][59]
• The Ryan Choi incarnation of the Atom appears as a playable DLC character in Injustice 2, voiced by Matthew Yang King.^[60]