Post by Dawn on Feb 10, 2010 1:36:33 GMT -5
First Name: Ray
Last Name: Palmer
Alias: The Atom
Height/Weight: 6', 180#
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Brown
Persuasion: Good
Powers/Weapons: The Atom can control his size and weight through the manipulation of white dwarf star material. He can weigh from a maximum of 180# to becoming virtually weightless, and he can do this at any height up to his maximum 6 feet. Ray cannot grow larger then his 6' height, but he can reduce his size without apparent limit.
The Atom has used his abilities to ride wind currents, seemingly flying through the air. He can also travel through electrical current, often using the telephone as an instant means to travel from one place to another.
The Atom can shrink to such a small size that he is more of a theoretical being then an actual one, joining the weird and counter-intuitive quantum universe. This power provides him with additional abilities, most of which are currently unexplored. One that he has recently learned of and used is the ability to cross dimensional barriers and move from Earth to Earth in the Multiverse with ease.
The ability to perform these feats is due to the white dwarf star material, and advanced circuitry, woven into his costume. The Atom can make these size and weight changes with only a thought, but needs his costume to be able to do so.
His most impressive power has often been his scientific mind. Ray was always a gifted physicist, but his time spent as the Atom has granted him a unique understanding of the fundamental forces of the Universe. He is also a gifted technologist, and has often been called on to help understand alien devices or to design new technologies needed to save the day.
History:
The story of the Atom is the story of a love triangle. Like most such arrangements, it has led to Ray Palmer leading a life filled with emotional turmoil. The three members of the 'menage et trois' were Ray Palmer, Jean Loring, and Ray's alter ego, the Atom.
Ray Palmer was a young Associate Professor at the prestigious Ivy University in New England. He was completely smitten with aspiring lawyer and dark-haired beauty Jean Loring. Ray, in typical 'science geek' fashion, pestered Jean to marry him by asking over and over in an almost embarrassing way. Though she was in truth in love with the young scientist, Jean was determined to 'make her way' as a lawyer before giving herself over to the joys of matrimony. She also intimated more then once that she would be more enticed by his offer if Ray should actually achieve something like a breakthrough in his chosen field of physics.
Ray was involved in research attempting to shrink matter. If he could succeed in this, the potential applications for both societal improvement and personal enrichment were enormous. He knew his calculations were accurate, but he could not seem to convert his theoretical concepts into reality, try as he might. He drove himself to ever harder study, the sound of Jean's insistence on his making a success of himself before they could wed never far from his mind.
One night, while working late again, Ray heard a crash and went outside to investigate. He found that the disturbance was due to a meteor having fallen to Earth. Ray was amazed to discover that the space rock was actually a fragment of a white dwarf star. He recognized that this ultra-dense material was the missing link, the bridge to allow him to take his shrinking formula off the written page and into the world.
Over the next few days he made a lens from the material, and began shrinking inanimate objects. Unfortunately the shrinking destroyed the structural integrity of the objects, and they exploded shortly after being shrunk. Ray continued to work without interruption to eliminate this flaw, being so close to success, but could not make it work.
Jean could see how withdrawn and overworked her paramour had become, and convinced him to join her and some friends on a spelunking exhibition. Ray could deny her nothing, and so agreed. He took his shrinking lens with him in secret however, hoping against hope that some inspiration would come to him while he concentrated on other things. At one point during the cave exploration, the troupe found themselves trapped as the entrance to the cave collapsed. Finding no way out and feeling the group near to panic, Ray decided to sacrifice himself so that Jean might survive. He used his lens to shrink himself down far enough to wend his way through the collapsed walls, and then used his ever-present and oft-refused engagement ring to cut an exit. As he returned and passed again under the lens, he was amazed and overjoyed to grow back to his full-size, without exploding! He gathered the group and led them to safety.
Further research led Ray to the conclusion that something in his own physiology had prevented him from exploding as he had expected to do. He decided to use his new-found powers to join the growing ranks of super-heroes. Ray created a costume with a belt that allowed him to not only shrink but to control his weight as well.
Ray was able to use his discovery to enhance his stature at Ivy U., without actually revealing the full depths of his success. Jean, however, was finding advancement as a lawyer to be more difficult to achieve. Since this was the obstacle preventing Jean from accepting his marriage proposal, he determined to use his power as the Atom to help her progress in the law. Ray encouraged her to take dangerous, high-profile cases and, often unknown to her, helped Jean solve the cases and defeat the evil-doers as the Tiny Titan. Her status as a respected litigant grew. Still, it was not until she actually had a nervous breakdown due to over-stressing herself that she finally decided that it was time to settle down and marry Ray. Even then, she made him suffer an extended engagement, just to be sure.
Up to this point, the Atom had been the perfect instrument to help Ray win Jean. However, Ray determined that in order to enter into marriage without secrets, he needed to tell Jean of his alter ego. She was surprised and confused when she found out, but decided to proceed with the marriage anyway. That is about the time when three began to prove to be a crowd.
The Atom had attracted the attention of the newly-formed JLA, and was quickly offered membership into this elite group of heroes. Ray gladly accepted, and was instrumental in the team winning many battles and solving many cases. It was often his analytical mind as much as his powers that the team relied on. Though never considered one the 'A Listers' of the team, The Atom became a respected and oft-relied on teammate of the World's Greatest Heroes.
The time required to be the Atom, as well as his ever-increasing workload as a tenured Research Scientist at Ivy, began to take it's toll on his marriage. As so often happens in a threesome, one of the members began to feel jealous and neglected. In this case, Jean became jealous of the time Ray spent as the Atom, instead of investing that time with her. Eventually, she entered into a tryst with a fellow lawyer, and Ray discovered them in each other's arms. This eventually led to the end of the marriage, though it is clear that Ray at least never really dropped the torch he had carried for Jean for all those years.
Ray's story takes many strange turns from this point. He ends up by chance and aircraft failure joining a group of six-inch tall yellow aliens in the Central American jungles in a battle for their kingdom. He falls in love with the Queen and eventually becomes her lover and Champion. The colony is ravaged however by what seem to be loggers, and the alien civilization destroyed. It later turns out that the deed was done by the CIA in an effort to return the Atom to the real world with nothing left, so he would be more receptive to an offer to join their numbers, an offer he had heretofore refused. Ray took his revenge but it did not help heal the wound he suffered by losing his second love.
The Atom was also involved in the Zero Hour crisis and was de-aged to a teenager in the course of the battles with Extant. This unusual situation led him to join the Teen Titans for a while. Eventually his age situation was reversed and he returned to duty at Ivy as a Professor, and as a part-time hero as the Atom.
The next big change in the life of Ray Palmer brought him again into the tangled web of Atom, Ray and Jean. This was known as the 'Identity Crisis'. Sue Dibney, wife of the Elongated Man Ralph Dibney, was killed in her home. During the course of a confused and dangerous investigation that also took the life of the father of Tim Drake (Robin), it was discovered that the murderer was none other then Jean Loring, who had concocted a mad plan to win back Ray's love and affection by endangering the spouses of Ray's fellow heroes. Her plan worked for a time, as it did bring Ray to her to protect her, and then later back into her bed. However, he quickly unraveled her plan. In despair, Ray dropped his ex-wife off at Arkham Asylum, and shrunk without limit, hoping to find a way to achieve a size that matched the way he felt about himself and his life.
Ray had lost his wife again, this time to insanity. She had killed their friends, when all she had needed to do to win him back was ask him to come, as he had never been able to get over her to begin with. Also, during the investigation it had been revealed that a group of the JLA had in the past been involved in mind-wiping a number of villains to protect their secret identities, and even had erased a few minutes of the Batman's memory, a defilement they knew he would never forgive. With this out in the open, the friendship between the heroes that he had cherished was also shattered, leaving little but animosity. Ray determined to simply disappear, leaving the world of men behind. He stopped long enough to say goodbye to his best friend Hawkman, and ask him not to try and find him. He then shrunk to nothing.
While trying to escape himself Ray discovered that a Multiverse existed consisting of 52 parallel Earths. He explored them all, looking for a home that might let him lead the life he wanted to. He found it on Earth 51, where he took over for his double on that world when the 'other Ray Palmer' was killed. Ray took on his double's work, trying to save the Universe from the Final Crisis. He also married Jean and became a member of the JLA on this world. Everything went perfectly for him until a group of heroes including Jason Todd, Wonder Girl and Kyle Rayner, along with a Monitor, intruded on his happiness. They had been trying to find Ray, as he was supposedly the key to saving everything. Instead, his presence led to an all-out war by powerful forces that ended up destroying the entire 52nd Universe.
Ray was saved by the traveling heroes and went with them to Apocalypse, following strange signs that led them there. Ray found himself struggling to care about anything anymore, having once again been the cause of the death of his love (like he had been in the jungles of Central America). This time, an entire Universe was destroyed searching him out. Worst of all, he did not even know why, as he had been unsuccessful in carrying out the work of his double, at least as far as he could tell.
Now on Apocalypse, the heroes who saved him look to Ray for direction and encouragement, but he seemingly has nothing left to offer. Now a broken man, it remains to be seen if Ray Palmer can once again gather the broken pieces of his life and do whatever is necessary, using his powers as the Atom and skills as a scientist, to stave off destruction and again play the hero.
Last Name: Palmer
Alias: The Atom
Height/Weight: 6', 180#
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Brown
Persuasion: Good
Powers/Weapons: The Atom can control his size and weight through the manipulation of white dwarf star material. He can weigh from a maximum of 180# to becoming virtually weightless, and he can do this at any height up to his maximum 6 feet. Ray cannot grow larger then his 6' height, but he can reduce his size without apparent limit.
The Atom has used his abilities to ride wind currents, seemingly flying through the air. He can also travel through electrical current, often using the telephone as an instant means to travel from one place to another.
The Atom can shrink to such a small size that he is more of a theoretical being then an actual one, joining the weird and counter-intuitive quantum universe. This power provides him with additional abilities, most of which are currently unexplored. One that he has recently learned of and used is the ability to cross dimensional barriers and move from Earth to Earth in the Multiverse with ease.
The ability to perform these feats is due to the white dwarf star material, and advanced circuitry, woven into his costume. The Atom can make these size and weight changes with only a thought, but needs his costume to be able to do so.
His most impressive power has often been his scientific mind. Ray was always a gifted physicist, but his time spent as the Atom has granted him a unique understanding of the fundamental forces of the Universe. He is also a gifted technologist, and has often been called on to help understand alien devices or to design new technologies needed to save the day.
History:
The story of the Atom is the story of a love triangle. Like most such arrangements, it has led to Ray Palmer leading a life filled with emotional turmoil. The three members of the 'menage et trois' were Ray Palmer, Jean Loring, and Ray's alter ego, the Atom.
Ray Palmer was a young Associate Professor at the prestigious Ivy University in New England. He was completely smitten with aspiring lawyer and dark-haired beauty Jean Loring. Ray, in typical 'science geek' fashion, pestered Jean to marry him by asking over and over in an almost embarrassing way. Though she was in truth in love with the young scientist, Jean was determined to 'make her way' as a lawyer before giving herself over to the joys of matrimony. She also intimated more then once that she would be more enticed by his offer if Ray should actually achieve something like a breakthrough in his chosen field of physics.
Ray was involved in research attempting to shrink matter. If he could succeed in this, the potential applications for both societal improvement and personal enrichment were enormous. He knew his calculations were accurate, but he could not seem to convert his theoretical concepts into reality, try as he might. He drove himself to ever harder study, the sound of Jean's insistence on his making a success of himself before they could wed never far from his mind.
One night, while working late again, Ray heard a crash and went outside to investigate. He found that the disturbance was due to a meteor having fallen to Earth. Ray was amazed to discover that the space rock was actually a fragment of a white dwarf star. He recognized that this ultra-dense material was the missing link, the bridge to allow him to take his shrinking formula off the written page and into the world.
Over the next few days he made a lens from the material, and began shrinking inanimate objects. Unfortunately the shrinking destroyed the structural integrity of the objects, and they exploded shortly after being shrunk. Ray continued to work without interruption to eliminate this flaw, being so close to success, but could not make it work.
Jean could see how withdrawn and overworked her paramour had become, and convinced him to join her and some friends on a spelunking exhibition. Ray could deny her nothing, and so agreed. He took his shrinking lens with him in secret however, hoping against hope that some inspiration would come to him while he concentrated on other things. At one point during the cave exploration, the troupe found themselves trapped as the entrance to the cave collapsed. Finding no way out and feeling the group near to panic, Ray decided to sacrifice himself so that Jean might survive. He used his lens to shrink himself down far enough to wend his way through the collapsed walls, and then used his ever-present and oft-refused engagement ring to cut an exit. As he returned and passed again under the lens, he was amazed and overjoyed to grow back to his full-size, without exploding! He gathered the group and led them to safety.
Further research led Ray to the conclusion that something in his own physiology had prevented him from exploding as he had expected to do. He decided to use his new-found powers to join the growing ranks of super-heroes. Ray created a costume with a belt that allowed him to not only shrink but to control his weight as well.
Ray was able to use his discovery to enhance his stature at Ivy U., without actually revealing the full depths of his success. Jean, however, was finding advancement as a lawyer to be more difficult to achieve. Since this was the obstacle preventing Jean from accepting his marriage proposal, he determined to use his power as the Atom to help her progress in the law. Ray encouraged her to take dangerous, high-profile cases and, often unknown to her, helped Jean solve the cases and defeat the evil-doers as the Tiny Titan. Her status as a respected litigant grew. Still, it was not until she actually had a nervous breakdown due to over-stressing herself that she finally decided that it was time to settle down and marry Ray. Even then, she made him suffer an extended engagement, just to be sure.
Up to this point, the Atom had been the perfect instrument to help Ray win Jean. However, Ray determined that in order to enter into marriage without secrets, he needed to tell Jean of his alter ego. She was surprised and confused when she found out, but decided to proceed with the marriage anyway. That is about the time when three began to prove to be a crowd.
The Atom had attracted the attention of the newly-formed JLA, and was quickly offered membership into this elite group of heroes. Ray gladly accepted, and was instrumental in the team winning many battles and solving many cases. It was often his analytical mind as much as his powers that the team relied on. Though never considered one the 'A Listers' of the team, The Atom became a respected and oft-relied on teammate of the World's Greatest Heroes.
The time required to be the Atom, as well as his ever-increasing workload as a tenured Research Scientist at Ivy, began to take it's toll on his marriage. As so often happens in a threesome, one of the members began to feel jealous and neglected. In this case, Jean became jealous of the time Ray spent as the Atom, instead of investing that time with her. Eventually, she entered into a tryst with a fellow lawyer, and Ray discovered them in each other's arms. This eventually led to the end of the marriage, though it is clear that Ray at least never really dropped the torch he had carried for Jean for all those years.
Ray's story takes many strange turns from this point. He ends up by chance and aircraft failure joining a group of six-inch tall yellow aliens in the Central American jungles in a battle for their kingdom. He falls in love with the Queen and eventually becomes her lover and Champion. The colony is ravaged however by what seem to be loggers, and the alien civilization destroyed. It later turns out that the deed was done by the CIA in an effort to return the Atom to the real world with nothing left, so he would be more receptive to an offer to join their numbers, an offer he had heretofore refused. Ray took his revenge but it did not help heal the wound he suffered by losing his second love.
The Atom was also involved in the Zero Hour crisis and was de-aged to a teenager in the course of the battles with Extant. This unusual situation led him to join the Teen Titans for a while. Eventually his age situation was reversed and he returned to duty at Ivy as a Professor, and as a part-time hero as the Atom.
The next big change in the life of Ray Palmer brought him again into the tangled web of Atom, Ray and Jean. This was known as the 'Identity Crisis'. Sue Dibney, wife of the Elongated Man Ralph Dibney, was killed in her home. During the course of a confused and dangerous investigation that also took the life of the father of Tim Drake (Robin), it was discovered that the murderer was none other then Jean Loring, who had concocted a mad plan to win back Ray's love and affection by endangering the spouses of Ray's fellow heroes. Her plan worked for a time, as it did bring Ray to her to protect her, and then later back into her bed. However, he quickly unraveled her plan. In despair, Ray dropped his ex-wife off at Arkham Asylum, and shrunk without limit, hoping to find a way to achieve a size that matched the way he felt about himself and his life.
Ray had lost his wife again, this time to insanity. She had killed their friends, when all she had needed to do to win him back was ask him to come, as he had never been able to get over her to begin with. Also, during the investigation it had been revealed that a group of the JLA had in the past been involved in mind-wiping a number of villains to protect their secret identities, and even had erased a few minutes of the Batman's memory, a defilement they knew he would never forgive. With this out in the open, the friendship between the heroes that he had cherished was also shattered, leaving little but animosity. Ray determined to simply disappear, leaving the world of men behind. He stopped long enough to say goodbye to his best friend Hawkman, and ask him not to try and find him. He then shrunk to nothing.
While trying to escape himself Ray discovered that a Multiverse existed consisting of 52 parallel Earths. He explored them all, looking for a home that might let him lead the life he wanted to. He found it on Earth 51, where he took over for his double on that world when the 'other Ray Palmer' was killed. Ray took on his double's work, trying to save the Universe from the Final Crisis. He also married Jean and became a member of the JLA on this world. Everything went perfectly for him until a group of heroes including Jason Todd, Wonder Girl and Kyle Rayner, along with a Monitor, intruded on his happiness. They had been trying to find Ray, as he was supposedly the key to saving everything. Instead, his presence led to an all-out war by powerful forces that ended up destroying the entire 52nd Universe.
Ray was saved by the traveling heroes and went with them to Apocalypse, following strange signs that led them there. Ray found himself struggling to care about anything anymore, having once again been the cause of the death of his love (like he had been in the jungles of Central America). This time, an entire Universe was destroyed searching him out. Worst of all, he did not even know why, as he had been unsuccessful in carrying out the work of his double, at least as far as he could tell.
Now on Apocalypse, the heroes who saved him look to Ray for direction and encouragement, but he seemingly has nothing left to offer. Now a broken man, it remains to be seen if Ray Palmer can once again gather the broken pieces of his life and do whatever is necessary, using his powers as the Atom and skills as a scientist, to stave off destruction and again play the hero.
