Could DC's Smallest Hero Be A Big Screen Success?
Sun, September 6, 2009 
It seems WB and DC comics have gotten their acts together. Finally. Let's exclude the Superman situation, and look at what we have coming up. Jonah Hex wrapped shooting and is currently in post production for a June 2010 release, The Losers, is currently filming in Puerto Rico, Red is set to star Bruce Willis and Morgan Freeman, Guy Ritchie is all set to direct Lobo with filming to start early next year, and Adam Strange on the schedule. All of these projects are fairly low risk with a potentially very high reward.
Now, I know we all want to see another Superman movie, Wonder Woman, The Flash, Aquaman, Green Lantern, and Hawkman before any of the above mentioned as a lot of folks tend think of them as "less deserving". I don't think like that, and seems the studio isn't either. There is a specific character I'd like to focus on for the purpose of this article; The Atom.
Who is The Atom, and how did he get his powers you ask? Well, students, The Atom has been the name of several fictional characters in the DC Universe, but today's lesson is about Ray Palmer. Ray Palmer is a science professor at Ivy University in Ivy Town. Throughout his comic book existence he's mostly been a supporting player, but a movie would be his time to shine. Palmer gets a hold of a piece of a whie dwarf star, and experimenting with it, learned to use it's matter to manipulate his size and weight. He's a genius like that. He uses a bio-belt to control his size.
Now, you might be thinking 'Shrinking down in size is boring, what can be done with that?' Allow me to paint this picture for you. Ray Palmer, as The Atom (in his classic superhero suit of course) shrinks down and discovers an entire subatomic universe. That universe fully functioning and highly intelligent but don't like him as an outsider, and decide to be rid of this unwelcomed guest. The Atom's villains much like himself are not icons and allows the writers mroe leeway with what they can do. Perhaps in his subatomic universe he is threatened by M'nagalah. The telepathic king of this place who claims to be as old as the Earth itself and the father of all life on the planet
Ray's girlfriend, and future wife, and an eventual fairly major player in the DC Universe Jean Loring begins life as a lawyer. Ray, in the comics would often investigate cases she was working, and help her solve them using his powers, to find evidence no one else could.
A favorite method of travel of The Atom, and something I think would be cool as hell to see on screen is call a location, and shrink down small enough to fit through the holes of the phone, and travel through the phone lines and emerge at the location he called in a matter of seconds.
As in all comic book properties, you neeed to at least have the idea of sequel in your head. Maybe during the first film, Ray can meet a highly intellectual student and the best in his class by the name of Ryan Choi. For something decidedly different, Palmer can travel to Central America where he meets a race of six inch humanoids and becomes a Conan-the-Barbarian type hero, and adapt The Sword of The Atom, or come into conflict with perhaps his most infamous villain, Chronos.
So, you see there is a lot of big adventure that can be told with The Atom. The Atom is not on any list of comic book movies "to do" list. Not yet, anyway. Just one I know I'd love to see. Like the movies at the beginning of the article, it would be cost effective to make with a potentially very high financial reward , and what studio doesn't love that prospect? I know that I, for one and am very happy that the studio is seeing beyond the \S/ and the Bat to bring forth what could be greta franchises. And hey, you never know, maybe some exec will read this article and think 'hmmm'.
If just reading about The Atom isn't really whetting your apetite for an Atom adventure to hit the silver screen, perhaps a animated aid is in order. Below is a clip from the excellent cartoon series JLU, and provides just a small does of just how cool The Atom can be. It also provides an exellent example of his personality.
Reader Comments (4)
Agreed, excellent observations. Watching that clip, I see Jon Hamm (Mad Men) as a great Ray Palmer.
Thanks, Nacho :)
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