Thursday, October 24, 2019

The Atom Vs. Galactus



I have often wondered why the depiction of The Atom on DC's Legends of Tomorrow is so off from what we know from the comics.  He's got a clunky suit of armor rather than the sleek outfit we see above, and he hardly uses it to shrink anymore.  Yes, he is a technical genius but his personality is a lot more goofy that what we are used to as well.  It all started to makes sense when I understood that the writers actually wanted to use Ted Kord, the Blue Beetle - but couldn't, and went with Ray Palmer instead.  It seems like they just went ahead and wrote for Ted anyway, just changing the names around.

Galactus first faced the JLA way back in STF #117...

14 comments:

det_Tobor said...

Thank you for that info Ross. It also shows how much we canNOT trust the pxeople in charge to do the right thing for anything.

Carycomic said...

This would be the ultimate "David-vs.-Goliath" story. Ingenious!

Bob Greenwade said...

I think (as a semi-educated guess) that the change, or lack thereof, was due to timing. Those first scripts were already written and in pre-production, and it would've been too much work (read: more of the super-tight TV episode budget spent) to rewrite that much of them even if it was only for dialogue.

The Iron Man-esque armor is, I understand, much the same reason that the same was done for Ant-Man: it just seemed to make more sense that, if his suit shrinks him, it would be a full-containment suit rather than something that looks more like spandex. Worst of all, in both cases, the character's chin is exposed in the comics version, something that always bothered me about Ray.

As for why we didn't get to see much shrinking in this past season, I have no idea. I've seen more than a few other commentators wondering it as well. I'm sure part of it had to do with last season's big story arc, but even before Ray's apparent death he wasn't doing much of it.

In any event, Brandon's leaving the show next year, with Ray apparently passing the Atom mantle on to Ryan Choi (played by Osric Chou, whose work on Supernatural and at least four parodies with The Hillywood Show give me confidence that he'll do great on the show). That might make for a good time to address that, and whatever news is going on about a third Ant-Man film, with a Brandon Routh/Paul Rudd photo cover.

As for the cover above, I think that this is a brilliant match-up -- the very small against the very large. I can practically visualize the story in my head, as a sort of cat-and-mouse as Ray maneuvers to sabotage Galactus' efforts and free his fellow Leaguers. Even the title is one of your best to date -- the sort of thing that comics writers would actually come up with.

I wonder if we might get to see something in December, with the Arrowverse doing their Crisis on Infinite Earths, along the lines of the Avengers versus the Anti-Monitor.

Jim Burrows said...

Excellent cover idea, design and execution. One of the best all-around covers in a while.

I hadn't heard the Ted Kord thing, but it makes sense.

The difference in the Atom's tech kinda bugged me a bit at the outset, but I've enjoyed the character through most of his run. The lack of shrinking lately is a bit surprising and odd, bt Legends is odd in enough ways that it doesn't stand out too much.

Looking for Brandon's Superman on CoIE.

Saxum-El said...

I stopped watching the show or much TV in general when my cable company went all digital and required you to rent their recorder to rent any shows.

I had not heard of Blue Beatle not being able to be used but it makes since due to at the time a comedy writer wanted to make a "Blue and Gold" series/movie; I am glad it failed for we have had enough (i.e. Green Hornet, Lone Ranger, etc) of this.

ELS said...

#Saxum-El... a couple of comments.
ITEM: That's a damned shame about your cable company. No surprise, but it still stinks.
ITEM: Your points about Green Hornet and the Lone Ranger are excellent, but those were camped up as if that were natural - and nothing could be further from the truth. Even the Green Hornet TV show, produced by the Batman TV team at the same time, was free of that junk. Beetle and Booster were set up to be stupid and campy, so a movie might be true t the source material. It could still be lousy.
ITEM: "Blue Beatle" - I thought of George Harrison. No offense intended...

Ross, I had not heard that about the Atom on DCLoT... but it now makes PERFECT sense. When I make that shift and think about the show, it is exactly the character. It also explains my extreme disappointment that there was NEVER any "The Atom and Hawkman" interaction...

Hello room service, send up a room! said...

Great cover. can't wait till Atom shrinks down and finds out it won't get him anywhere with Galactus because he's from a different universe.
Now Galactus sent into the Phantom Zone might be worth exploring. No time passes, no energy used, no hunger. For Galactus it might seem like a vacation.

If Barry gets killed before he creates Gideon, what happens then?

Really liked the Hillywood show takes on Supernatural. Nice to see their actors have such a sense of humor. Since they are from WB, I would love to see them team with Lucifer in Crisis. Both series have used the multiple Earths in storylines.

Anonymous and Proud of it! said...

AND for the next event, we can have Tommy Tomorrow vs T.O.Morrow and The Tomorrow Man from Journey into Mystery. "All Our Yesterdays seem so far away!"

Anonymous said...

Just so long as Little Orphan Annie doesn't do any singing.

Anonymous said...

@Anon, that was the other title option. The Son will come out!

Anonymous said...

Dressed like the Daughter?

Anony Mouse said...

@Anonymous 10:46, The son will dress Like the stars at night deep in the heart of Texas

Carycomic said...

So, we should call this planet-sucking Bad Guy "Galactex?"

Anonymous said...

OMG! Please, no! :-(

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