Ray Palmer

"The dawn of the computer age, developers thought the only way a machine could process information as fast as a human brain was to build a mainframe the size of Texas. But one developer realized that the only way to reduce heat and power consumption was to bring the components closer together, which meant making them smaller. But why stop at computers? What if it could take other things, like, say, all of the military-grade technology in Applied Sciences, and make it smaller, too? So small that it can fit in the palm of my hand. I can help a lot of people that way."

- Ray Palmer to Felicity Smoak

Ray Palmer is a businessman and the CEO of Palmer Technologies. Ray is also the former fiancé of the late Anna. Using a powerful exosuit, he has begun to act as a vigilante around Starling City, self-named as The Atom.

Biography
Ray Palmer and his fiancé Anna got attacked by Slade Wilson's soldiers. Ray tried to fight them but they broke his leg and killed Anna. After this he promised himself he would never kiss another woman again.

Takeover of Queen Consolidated
In late 2014, Ray visited a Tech Village in Starling City, being greeted by Felicity Smoak. He was curious as to why she worked at a Tech Village, and even mentioned that he knew someone looking to hire someone like her. After she dismissed his proposal, he inquired about a satellite frequency communicator, which she automatically assumed he had no knowledge of. However, he proceeded to show his extensive technological knowledge of them, which prompted Felicity to suggest the forthcoming TX50 model. She also suggested to use a remote administration tool. Following their encounter, Ray used the satellite frequency communicator to hack Queen Consolidated's servers to find raw data on the company's performance. Sometime later, he visited Queen Consolidated to bid for the company. He introduced himself to Oliver Queen and re-greeted Felicity. He proceeded on in to the conference room, apologising for being late. He mentioned taking his helicopter and parking it on their roof. After a moving speech from Oliver, Ray stood up to give his bid. As a screen came down, he noted how one of the board members had one of his smart watches, which he was especially proud of. Heading back on track, Ray began talking about Queen Consolidated's performance figures shown on the screen, noting that the figures shown on screen (which he'd previously retrieved with the help of the satellite frequency communicator) were not big enough for Wall Street. He noted, however, that the low percentages were not Oliver's fault, but the city's fault on a whole. Ray went on to describe his hopes that when Queen Consolidated metaphorically "rose from the ashes", that it would take the city with it, naming this new version of the city "Star City".

A few days later, Palmer bought the holding company which owned all Tech Village stores. When Felicity discovered the news, Ray made an attempt to hire Felicity for an office job to which Felicity angrily declines. Ray quickly realized that Felicity wasn't mad at him to which Ray knew something was wrong and told Felicity things will brighten up. At his Star City pledge, Ray announced he would give half of his net-worth to the benefit of Starling City to become Star City. The benefit was soon crashed by Simon Lacroix, however, Ray was left unharmed. Ray was later surprised when Felicity decided to accept his job offer.

Ray personally hired an executive assistant for Felicity and turn the former CEO office into an office for her. Palmer requested Felicity obtain the data from the Applied Science division from a file server which was destroyed by the previous CEO. Palmer said it was necessary for his plan to rebuild Queen Consolidated as well as the city. After Felicity recovered the data, he was asked by Felicity if she could take time off to visit an old friend who had recently woke from a coma. Ray accepted her request and as she walked off, Ray looked through the blueprints of O.M.A.C..

Later he acquires the rights to a mine where he thinks he will find a dwarf star alloy, and reacts by calling up schematics for a project he is working on, the A.T.O.M. Exosuit.

He kissed Felicity which left him confused and he quickly left. He later explained to her Anna had been killed and he swore to not be with another woman again. He also told her he wanted to improve technology by shrinking it so that he could help humanity and that there would be no other assaults on the city. He told Felicity he wanted her help, unaware that she was in the same situation with Oliver.

Ray had not been showing up for work, causing Felicity to get worried. Ray was found by Felicity working on his A.T.O.M. Exosuit. Before Ray is able to complete his suit, Felicity locked him out of the network. Ray was told to take a shower, eat, and take at least a five hour nap, to which Ray agreed on. After his shower, Ray shared a kiss with Felicity before taking his nap with Felicity. After a short nap, Ray awoke and completed his Exosuit and gave it a test drive.

Personality
Ray is an ambitious, intelligent and charismatic businessman. He is highly motivated to achieve more success and is willing to work extremely hard to get what he wants. When setting a goal he seems to be highly persistent in achieving it, as it took him a lot of effort to finally get Felicity to work for him. He seems to be a visionary as well, as he gives expensive things away and seemingly wants to improve the city and make it flourish again.

Behind his positive attitude is a sad side as he had lost his fiancé Anna who got killed in front of him. He mentioned he was not strong enough to save her which seemed to be a motivation why he is so keen on helping the city and training to become stronger.

Abilities

 * Peak of human physical condition: Ray is shown to be in top physical condition as he works out regularly and even can train on the salmon ladder.
 * Genius-level intellect: Ray is very intelligent, as proven by his ability to lead a billion dollar enterprise with success.
 * Businessman: Ray is a skilled businessman being able to lead a billion dollar enterprise with success. He recognizes skilled people and is great at recruiting them for his cause.
 * Charismatic: Using his charm and speech he was able to persuade the board to make him CEO. With a huge amount of effort he was able to get Felicity to work for him.
 * Expert Engineer : Ray has proven to be an expert in engineering, as he was able to design his complicated suit.

Behind the scenes

 * In the DC comics, The Atom has the ability to shrink to a miniscule size, hence the name.