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

Dr. Raymond "Ray" Palmer (born 1981) is a businessman and the CEO of Palmer Technologies, formerly Queen Consolidated. Ray was engaged to marry the late Anna Loring and later dated Felicity Smoak, a clandestine member of Team Arrow, although the relationship did not last. Having designed a powerful exosuit, he began acting as a vigilante in Starling City, calling himself The Atom. While testing out a new function of his exosuit, Ray accidentally caused an explosion which shrunk him to miniature sizes but he was believed dead. After months Ray managed to contact Felicity but was captured by Damien Darhk for his technology. However thanks to the efforts of Team Arrow Ray was rescued and continued to aid Team Arrow. In early 2016, Ray Palmer was recruited by time-traveler Rip Hunter on a mission to take down Vandal Savage.

Biography
In the Spring of 2014, Ray Palmer and his fiancée Anna were caught in Slade Wilson's citywide attack on Oliver Queen. Ray attempted to fight Wilson's soldiers, but was easily overcome, resulting in the death of his fiancée. Afterward, he promised himself that he would never again kiss a woman (so as not to once more lose someone he loved), and that he would find a way to save his city from similar danger.

Takeover of Queen Consolidated
In late 2014, Ray visited a Tech Village in Starling City and met Felicity Smoak. He was curious as to why a woman of her intelligence would work at a Tech Village, dropping a hint that he knew of someone who was looking to hire a techie of her caliber. 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 using 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, apologizing 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.

Becoming the Atom
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. The two then had sex after. Ray sneaked out of bed, completed his Exosuit, and gave it a test drive.

At John Diggle and Lyla Michaels' wedding, Felicity brings Ray and he ends up wedding the two due to the priest not showing up (as Ray has the license to wed). When the Arrow appears to be on a murdering spree, Ray voices his support to apprehend the vigilante. One night while flying, he sees the Arrow standing over murdered bodies in a warehouse and uses his facial recognition to discover that the Arrow is Oliver Queen. After revealing to Felicity the suit's completion and his knowledge on Oliver, Felicity tries telling him that Oliver's being framed, but Ray does not trust her, accusing her of letting her feelings for Oliver cloud her judgement. He tries showing the evidence to Laurel Lance, but Laurel tells him that his testimony and evidence would not stand. Her defense and injury make Ray realize she's the Black Canary and he decides to take matters into his own hands. Oliver shows up at Ray's office and tries to tell him that Felicity's telling the truth and he doesn't know what the city is up against, but he doesn't believe Oliver. He fakes a 911 call to get the Arrow and Arsenal to come to the top of a building where he's waiting for them. He flies in and unleashes electricity at the two. He also shows the Arrow that his suit cannot be damaged by his arrows. Arsenal starts to charge at him, but Atom blasts him with electricity, knocking him out. The Arrow fires a trick arrow at the Atom, but he flies away before it explodes. When he's not looking, Atom rapidly flies past Oliver, making him fall to the ground and disarming him. The Atom then prepares to defeat Arrow, but he notices a weak spot on his suit and throws a small flechette at it, causing the suit to stop working. The Arrow gets up and kicks Ray to the ground. He holds an arrow to him and prepares to execute him. However, Arrow proves Ray wrong by not killing him and tells Ray that he needs to prove himself to Felicity by trusting her. Ray apologizes to Felicity and still wants to work with her. The two kiss. During a meeting with Celia Castle and Quentin Lance, Ray changes his mind and agrees with Laurel that the Arrow's being framed before watching Celia get killed by an Arrow impersonator.

Ray saves Felicity from being shot by an arrow, but is shot himself. He is taken to the hospital where he's in critical condition. The doctors remove the arrow, but one doctor says that there's a blood clot in his brain. Ray could die during a surgery to remove the clot or if the clot moves. Ray then asks Felicity to retrieve his nanotech, so that the nanotech can completely destroy the clot. She does so and injects him with the nanotech. Ray starts to die of side effects, but the side effects stop. The doctors then discover in a MRI of Ray's brain that the clot has disappeared. A fully recovered Ray thanks Felicity for saving his life and says he loves her.

In order to improve the suit, Ray and Felicity travel to Central City to seek assistance from S.T.A.R. labs and meets Barry Allen aka the Flash. As Team Flash helps him improve the suit Ray finds a kindred spirit in Cisco Ramon for their senses of humor and naming supervillains. When they see Eddie Thawne struggling with Iris to keep Barry's secret, Felicity decides they should have a dinner with Iris, Eddie, and Barry. Ray buys out the restaurant for privacy, but the night quickly turns disastrous due to Iris' frustration with Eddie's secret and Barry having a hard time with Harrison Wells. When the disgruntled scientist Brie Larvan, a villain Barry's been trying to get during their time there, attacks Tina McGee, Ray suits up as the Atom and saves her by redirecting the robotic bees into the water, managing to crash into Cisco and Caitilin's van just as his suit runs out of power. Before leaving Ray is given Brie's last robotic bee they obtained and intends to study it.

Back in Starling City, Oliver reluctantly asks for Ray's help in capturing a meta-human named Jake Simmons, Felicity and Oliver include him in the Team Arrow. In their first encounter, Ray loses the fight when it turns out Jake could absorb electrical blasts. Ray is criticized by Oliver and his friends for not taking it as seriously when he lacks the experience. Later, when Jake has Felicity hostage, Ray flies towards their location and uses a remote link to have Oliver control the suit, combining his technology with Oliver's experience. The link was successful at first until Simmons gained the upper hand and destroyed the remote link, leaving Ray helpless. Jake was about to kill him until Oliver gave Ray the encouragement he needed to beat Simmons. Ray held his hand over Simmons' eyes and reflected his eye blast back into his face and then proceeded to beat Jake to unconsciousness. Ray is later seen saying goodbye to Roy. Later Simmons was placed in The Pipeline at S.T.A.R. Labs by Cisco and Ray, where Ray nicknames him "Deathbolt". However, Cisco came to the realization that Simmons was not in Central City on the night of the explosion but in Opal City instead, which made them both wonder how Simmons obtained his powers.

As Ray is working on his suit in his office Felicity comes in looking sad as Ray is concerned. Felicity asks him for a big favor which was his jet in which she said both she and Oliver needs it. Felicity also tries to tell Ray it isn't what you think but he denies it. Ray confesses the truth saying that when we were saying goodbye to Roy how Felicity and Oliver looked into each other's eyes knows she still has feelings for him. Ray also says that he now knows when he told her he loved her at the hospital she was spotted with jello saying you don't love me because you're in love with him. Felicity apologies sad with tears saying she never meant to hurt him. So they break up but Ray allows her the jet hoping something will stop being awful.

As Ray is seen with his suit and Felicity enters he makes amends with her saying she is still a friend and he will always be there for you. Ray later tricked Felicity into signing documents which would transfer ownership of Palmer Technologies over to her. He later aided the team in Nanda Parbat after Felicity failed to stop the plane from taking off. Ray intercepted the plane in midair and attacked it with an energy blast. After he took a hit from a missile and the weapon damaged, he decided to fly straight through the plane. Both crash landed back in the battlefield. Ray was then taken prisoner along with the rest of the team and exposed to the Alpha Omega bio-weapon.

Ray and the rest of the team survive the bio-weapon because Malcolm Merlyn secretly immunized them. The Flash arrives and rescues them from the League of Assassins. Ray and the team then return to Starling City. Ray and Felicity later save the city by containing the virus Ra's al Ghul unleashed on it. When Oliver and Felicity decide to leave Starling City, Felicity hopes that Ray will find a new VP and that she wants him to be happy. The next morning, Ray implants his nanotech into his suit, while testing out a new discovery in its technology, which would allow it to miniaturize selected targets and reduce the scale of the suit itself. This causes the CEO's office of Palmer Technologies to explode, leaving Ray to be presumed dead. Ray however, survived the explosion, albeit shrunk, and left Felicity a distress call, telling her that he's alive and needs help.

Captured by H.I.V.E.
Six months later, Felicity was able to contact Ray and reveal that he had been captured. He was later revealed to have been captured by Damien Darhk and had recorded all his conversations with Felicity and tried to use that as leverage against him. Darhk wanted the A.T.O.M. suit but couldn't use it while it's small. He provided Felicity with a list of item to assemble into a device that would restore him to his normal size. Later Team Arrow (also including Curtis Holt) was able to break into the facility where he was being held and released him. Ray was later filled in on who Darhk was and told Felicity that until he decided to reveal himself she would still be in charge of Palmer Technologies. Felicity asked for Ray's assistance to study the DNA of a H.I.V.E. agent who was missing half of his DNA, and find a base of operations but as they worked Felicity asked why Ray wouldn't declare himself alive but he avoided the subject. Later when asked again Ray admitted that he felt ashamed of how little his life had achieved when the world believed him dead, and that he needs to find a new purpose for his life. Later when Team Arrow was infiltrating a H.I.V.E. field base to locate John's brother Andy Atom arrived in time to help Green Arrow against a squad of agents, but Black Canary seen needed aid and Atom assisted her.

Aiding Rip Hunter
In January 2016, Ray is helping Oliver Queen with on mission to stop some H.I.V.E. ghosts. After he defeats them, he is intercepted by Rip Hunter.Following a meeting with Rip Hunter and his proposal to join his team to take down Vandal Savage, he returns to seek advice from Oliver before leaving.

Crisis in 2024
In the year 2024 in at least one timeline, Atom teams up with Flash again, and with Green Arrow and Hawkgirl to fight Eobard Thawne/Reverse-Flash until both Flash and Reverse-Flash disappear.

Future
In a possible future, Atom is seen fighting alongside Flash, Captain Cold and Sara Lance against an unknown large metallic adversary. Barry caught a glimpse of this when travelling through the Speed Force.

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. Ray can often find himself awkwardly babbling, likening him to Felicity in that respect. Ray is also selfless, putting himself in between a gun and Felicity, and eventually breaking up with her civilly to allow her to pursue her love of Oliver Queen. Ray is also a trustworthy friend, keeping both Oliver and Barry's alter egos a secret. Ray can occasionally be stubborn, such as when he believed he could take on a dangerous metahuman, but is not above admitting to this.

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, prompting Felicity to describe Ray as Barry with Oliver's body. Ray can become obsessed with completing these goals, however, as when building the A.T.O.M exosuit he ended up tired and rather reckless, but was determined to finish the suit.

Behind his positive attitude is a sad side as he had lost his fiancée Anna who was killed in front of him. He mentioned he was not strong enough to save her which seemed to be a motivation to as why he is so keen on helping the city and training to become stronger. Ray can sometimes be stubborn and jump to conclusions before he gets his facts straight, despite this Ray is not above apologizing or admitting when he is wrong.

Even after being held captive by Damien Darhk for 6 months, the experience has not changed his positive and optimistic attitude. He is naïve when it comes to women, as Ray believed Valentina Vostok to be a innocent person, only to find out the hard way, that she was actually working for Vandal Savage.

Abilities

 * Peak of human physical condition: As a vigilante Ray is in top physical condition. He works out regularly and trains on the salmon ladder. He has the body of someone who engages in frequent, strenuous exercise, including the salmon ladder.
 * Genius-level intellect/Great business acumen: Ray is very intelligent, having an IQ of 140 and three PhDs. Ray is also a skilled businessman, being able to lead a billion dollar enterprise with success. He recognizes skilled people and is excellent 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.
 * Master engineer: Ray has proven to be a master in engineering as he was able to design his complicated suit. His engineering skills as shown to be on par with that Cisco Ramon, a highly regarded mechanical engineer.
 * Hand-to-hand combatant: Ray has some experience in unarmed combat.
 * Indomitable will: Even after being held captive by Damien Darhk for 6 months, Ray did not break, even when Damien offer to release him if he gave the latter the tech for his A.T.O.M. Exosuit.

Equipment

 * A.T.O.M. Exosuit: Ray wears an exosuit as his heroic alter-ego, The Atom, to hide his identity from his enemies, when he goes out fighting crime. It was designed by Ray himself, the armor is made out of dwarf star alloy, making it strong enough to withstand damage from bullets, arrows and explosions. A new discovery in the suits technological applications, allow it to miniaturize selected targets, especially its wearer.

Arrow
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Season 4
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Behind the scenes

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