The AtomThe Atom
The following is a
summary of the second half of Ray Palmer's history and some highlights of his superheroic career as the Atom.
A second "Death" of sorts
Ray continued to be pursued by the tiny group, now calling themselves the Micro/Squad. After Ginsburg was killed during an attempt on Ray's life, Ray decided to fake his own death and go undercover to root out all those responsible. The only one aware of this ruse was Miss Waller of the Suicide Squad. Adam Cray was given information on where to steal the original size-weight control belt from Paul Hoben, Jean Loring's second husband, and became the third Atom (fourth if you count Paul Hoben who very 'briefly' used the size-weight control belt given to him by Ray). Adam became a member of the Suicide Squad and did not confirm or deny that he might be Ray Palmer. He worked with the Suicide Squad on several missions, even saving Waller's life, but soon was discovered by the Micro/Squad. Ray chose to adopt a new identity as Professor Don Shuffler at an obscure university and gave up his life as both Ray Palmer and the Atom for anonymity. After the Micro/Squad began to pursue Atom III (Cray), Ray Palmer went into deep cover, trying to uncover the source of the Cabal behind the Micro/Squad. Adam thought he could help by pretending to turn traitor and joining with the Micro/Squad, but was betrayed as Blacksnake of the Micro/Squad stabbed him in the back with a nail and killed him. Taking the size-weight belt, Blacksnake was able to restore himself to full height and then squeezed the life out of both Mr. Bailey and Ms. Hubbard, two other members of the Micro/Squad. Ray, in disguise as Sting, another member of the Micro/Squad, returned to find the three dead people and a full size Blacksnake towering over them. Discarding his disguise, the Atom angrily attacked and defeated Blacksnake, reducing him to subatomic size and taking back his belt. He later retrieved Blacksnake for trial. As the Atom was delivering Blacksnake, Task Force X II (not Waller's squad, but the Cabal's group) attacked the police station. Metamorpheus killed Blacksnake before he could reveal the Cabal's secrets.
The Return of the Hero?
Some time later, Ray turned up at JLA HQ, covertly testing their security and wondering if he could fit into the new group. After checking out the existing team, he decided that it just wouldn't work out, and left for parts unknown. He returned briefly again as Dr. Destiny perverted Ray's dreams as a plot to destroy the JLA. Destiny was defeated by the actions of a comatose Blue Beetle and an almost mortally wounded Atom, and after healing a bit, Ray left the team once again. He returned briefly in an attempt to aid the Martian Manhunter in freeing himself from the Bloodgem. His powers proved to be no match for the true face behind the Manhunter's imprisonment, and he was captured. Fortunately, the Ray was also able to shrink down and free them all from the Bloodgem, including the villain. After a tremendous battle, the combined powers of the JLA were able to force the villain back into the gem, trapping him there forever. The Atom then left the team once again.
The Atom didn't show up again until Zero Hour, when time was being remade by his once friend Hal Jordan, now calling himself Parallax. Ray tried to stop Hal from this, but was stopped by the chronal villian Extant. Shrinking down to near microscopic size and leaping into Extant's head to disrupt his balance, he discovered that Extant was comprised of chronal energies. His body full of the chronal energies, the Atom was unable to stop Extant from de-aging him, from mid-thirties, to twenties, and was finally stopped as he reached his teens, by Waverider. Losing almost all of his memories and most of his knowledge-based skills, the young Atom continued to aid the heroes and they were successful in restoring time as it should be.
The Teen-age Mighty Mite
The Atom wandered a bit, hitching a ride with Superman to take control of Metron's Moebius chair in a futile attempt to correct his condition. He was told by several leading members of the JLA that he should remain to be studied and that maybe a cure could be devised, but that he should take a leave of absence from active duty until his condition could be resolved. He was offended by such a suggestion and left angry with them all. After visiting his parent's graves (he didn't even remember that they had died) and dealing with a Dr. Shrivel who managed to destroy all his journals and papers he had written about the Atom's powers, he realized that he needed to come to grips with losing nearly half his life. He stayed in Ivy Town and tried to find a place to fit in at now unfamiliar Ivy U.
Meeting a teenager whose hands had suddenly burst into flames (Joto) at Ivy U, Ray did his best to aid him in understanding his powers. This conversation was short lived, as they were both teleported aboard a Psion spacecraft and flown off to the moon of Titan for study, along with two others (Risk and Argent). Due to the Atom's small size, he was unnoticed and was able to free the others. After escaping, being recaptured, and eventually freeing Prysm, who had been held on Titan as a prisoner for many years, the Atom and friends returned to Earth and reformed the Teen Titans. By virtue of his previous experience, he reluctantly agreed to become the field leader of the new Teen Titans.
The Tiny Titan as a Teen Titan
The Atom continued as field leader of the Teen Titans. The group was supported financially by Loren Jupiter who had backed previous incarnations of the Titans. A mysterious figure, Omen, accompanied the group on their missions. They fought against several foes including an anti-alien society named the Veil led by the mysterious Pylon and the Veil-hired superpowered team Dark Nemesis.
Jean Loring came back into his life once again, returning now when he least expected it. Time had allowed him to remember bits and pieces of his past and with Jean came back a range of emotions that he simply did not have the capacity to understand. She seemed to be even more interested in him since his de-aging, although Ray wasn't certain how to handle this unusual situation.
It was just prior to the fight with Dark Nemesis that the Atom actually quit the Titans due to an argument with teammates and Loren Jupiter. Only by hearing the news of the Titan's defeat at the hands of Dark Nemesis was he able to shake off his attitude and rejoin the team, helping them to take down their foes. Prysm appeared to be a casualty of the fight as she rapidly flew away from the scene and seemed to explode. The Atom led the team to the Arctic and eventually into Skartaris, home of Travis Morgan the Warlord, to find her body.
Finding Prysm alive and well in Skartaris, the team spent some time there fighting off a sorceress (Motalla) who had stolen Prysm's powers and made her fully human. Eventually they were able to return Prysm to her usual energy-based self and themselves to home. But while they were gone, Loren Jupiter and Omen were kidnapped by a villain known as Haze.
The original Titans assembled to find Jupiter and Omen, and after a brief misunderstanding where the old and new Titans clashed, they teamed up together to battle Haze and his powers over illusion. It was also around this time that the Atom had discovered that his powers had been affected by the Genesis wave, and he could now grow beyond his normal six feet tall. Pairing off, old Titan with new, they managed to free Omen, and discovered that her true identity was that of Lilith, one of the first Titans and Jupiter's daughter. They also discovered that Haze was her brother and Jupiter's son. During the fight, Loren Jupiter was trapped in an inferno and Joto sacrificed himself to save the old man. The Titans had a bittersweet defeat of Haze as they returned home with Joto's body.
As the Titans buried Joto, Jupiter decided to disband them, leaving each of them to go their seperate ways. The Atom returned to Ivy U, hoping to discover a way to use Professor Hyatt's time pool to reverse the effects of his de-aging. Impulse followed and the pair managed to misuse the time pool to de-age the both of them to toddlers. Waverider intervened, taking them to Vanishing Point to determine the cause of the situation. He discovered that the chronal energies in the Atom's body had interacted with the time pool, causing him to revert backwards in age. Impulse had simply been caught up in the effect. Altering time ever so slightly, Waverider allowed Max Mercury to discover the pair just before the accident and prevent it from happening. At the same time, much of the chronal energies were discharged from the Atom.
Argent then headed off to Ivy U to ask Ray to reform the Titans once again. They held a membership drive and at the same time were attacked by members of the Veil. The larger group of new and prospective Titans easily handled the Veil, though their numbers were impossible to control and their teamwork was almost nonexistant. Most of the group declined membership after this, but Captain Marvel, Jr. and Fringe became members. Arsenal also joined and assumed unofficial leadership of the group.
The Atom then went off to the Slab, a maximum security facility for metahumans. His goal was to free Risk as he was being held for breaking into a top secret government installation. With the help of Jean Loring, he managed to convince them to release Risk, but not before Dark Nemesis, who were also being held at the Slab, managed to break free as well. The Atom and Risk fought to hold Dark Nemesis in jail, but they managed to escape anyway.
The team then held a birthday party for now seventeen year old Ray Palmer. Embarassed by the display, he stormed off, angry over the incident. Roy Harper (Arsenal) caught up to him and they discussed the dilemma of Ray's desire for an adult life but feeling trapped in a boy's body and mind. Roy cames upon an idea and managed to secretly gather Ray's old JLA friends in the Watchtower. Blindfolding him, he was led to a room and surprised by Flash, Superman Blue, Martian Manhunter, Elongated Man, Zatanna, Black Canary, and Aquaman.
The Titans then were called out to Egypt, to assist against the coming of the Millenium Giants. The Atom pushed his new growing powers to their limits, growing to nearly twice the height of the Great Pyramids of Egypt (over 900'). But force did them no good against the Giant they faced, and they ended up resorting to rescuing people from the tremendous footsteps of the Giant. After the defeat of the Millenium Giants by Superman, the Atom and Arsenal talked a bit and performed out some strength tests on Fringe. A problem during testing caused Fringe to go berserk and Roy's daughter became endangered. Ray ended up in charge as a result as Roy left the team, hoping to keep his little girl safe from any harm from being associated with the Titans.
The Titans then came under the onslaught of the Psions and the H'San N'Tal, whose genetic experiments had caused the mutation in Risk, Argent, Prysm, Fringe, Joto, Scorcher (of Dark Nemesis), as well as several others. The H'San N'Tal destroyed the anti-alien hate group known as The Veil, with their leader revealing that he was himself an alien and a member of the H'San N'Tal race. The H'San N'Tal captured all members of their experimentation above (except Scorcher, who had been killed for her hesitation to take a life in a previous fight) and took the other members of the Titans along as well. Although the Titans fought for their freedom, alone they were not strong enough to defeat the H'San N'Tal. To make matters worse, Prysm and Fringe sided with the aliens, since one of them resembled her energy form so closely that she knew it was her parent.
During this time, Ray began to experience problems with aging. After taking a life threatening wound from the Veil's operatives and being flown by Superman to a nearby hospital, he shifted from old to young and back again. Waverider arrived and determined that his condition was a result of all the chronal energies that had been used to age and de-age him since his original de-aging. In the end, he decided to use a 'chronal pattern' from just prior to the original de-aging by Extant, and restored Ray to his thirty-something self. This process also removed the growth powers that Ray had gained as a result of the Genesis wave. As Ray had finally recovered from his aging problems, some of the Titans returned, leaving Ray in charge of a team that was better off disbanded for now. He left, now back to normal and turning the page on the Titans part of his life.
Return to Normal?
Ray Palmer, now back to his usual self, returned at last to his position at Ivy U. Taking a position as the head of the Physics department, he settled in to a rather dull but satisfying life of teaching and research. But Ray was not to leave the superhero scene. During the DC One Million storyline, he came active long enough to offer aid against Solaris. Although his aid in defeating the technology virus came too late, he was able to restore some services to Oracle in the process. Afterwards, he and the other Titans were systematically attacked and captured by Cyberion, who had returned to Earth after his long journey through space. With the help of the Justice League, every hero who had ever been a Titan was rescued and their combined efforts were able to save Vic - who returned to reality and became Cyborg again.
He was then given an offer to rejoin the new Justice League. Although he was flattered by the invitation, he declined - preferring instead to remain on the inactive or reserve list. But Amazo broke free, causing all the reserve members to be called up to active duty. Amazo's new programming allowed him to mimic the abilities of any active League member, so he continued to grow and grow - till he was completely unstoppable. The Atom arrived after consulting with Oracle - and still refused to join the League. He spoke with Superman on how to defeat Amazo, and Superman immediately announced the disbanding of the entire Justice League. Without any JLA members to supply him, Amazo fell to ground like a deflated balloon. The Atom decided that it was worthwhile to remain on board with the League, even if it was only in the position of Science Advisor.
Recently, the Atom once again responded to a world threatening event as the Day of Judgement arrived. With the power of the Spectre, Azmodel rose from Hell and attempted to destroy the Earth. The Atom joined the ranks of the heroes and signed on to the mission to restart the fires of Hell. Ray spent a considerable amount of time forging a relationship with Ron Raymond, aka Firestorm, who was without scientific assistance since Professor Stein had died of cancer and severed his mind from the power of Firestorm. By the time they had returned from Hell, Ron and Ray had developed a friendship. With some assistance from a ghostly Hal Jordan, the heroes defeated the Spectre, Azmodel, and Neron. Ray offered additional teaching at Ivy U. to Firestorm. And Firestorm told him that he would consider the offer.
The Atom continues to support the League on an as needed basis, but has returned to his relatively "normal" life as Ray Palmer, Physics Professor at Ivy Town University. He has most recently appeared during the 'Heaven's Gate' incident, where the Earth was abducted and the Justice League was called in for help.
The Atom's most recent appearance was as a member of the Flash's Justice League of Adventurers during the Justice Leagues event.
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