Ryan Choi (DC)
Ryan Choi is a male comic superhero who features in DC Comics.
Contents |
Biography
Origin
Ryan Choi
As a child, he was in regular correspondence with scientific minds around the world with one among them being Ray Palmer. He developed an academic record that was beyond reproach at a young age and became Dr. Ryan Choi. A year ago, it was said that his mother had wanted to come to America but had passed away. He had long wanted to go to Ivy Town University in America when he was invited to join the institution. After arriving on campus, he was given Ray Palmers position and office with him being Ivy University's new Professor of Nuclear Physics. Following moving into Palmers old home, he managed to discover clues left by Ray that led to a size-shrinking Bio-Belt. (All-New Atom v1 #1) He later began testing the use of the belt when a woman was kidnapped by the alien Waiting and during this time Choi encountered M'nagalah. (All-New Atom v1 #3)
With Chronos' plans revealed, including manipulating Ryan into believing that Choi had communicated with Ray Palmer when, in fact, all the letters had been forged, Palmer himself stepped in to help solve the issue of the many Ivy Town residents who had been supposedly consumed by one of the "worms" but, instead, had been transported to a presumably microscopic world within Ryan's own blood. Although Palmer had to destroy the surviving Bio-Belt (the other having been destroyed earlier), Ryan was somehow left with the innate ability to change his own size and mass. Ryan bested the Chronos couple and restored Ivy to normalcy. This earned him blessing Ray's blessing. (The All-New Atom v1 #25)
Whilst at Ivy Town, he was approached by Donna Troy, Jason Todd and one of the Monitors who claimed that they needed to find Ray Palmer as he was vital to the survival of their universe. Choi agreed to aid them where he shrank and guided them into the microscopic universe known as the 'Palmerverse. (Countdown v1 #42) As the Atom, Ryan managed to guide them to one of the worlds within the nanoverse in order to begin their search for Palmer. (Countdown v1 #41)
Both Ray and Ryan were later employed by Checkmate, as their powers were necessary to activate the Black Gambit, the plan to transport the last free humans on Earth-0 to another universe. (Final Crisis v1 #6)
Floronic Man tried to tear down Ivy Town and make it a haven for plants, but was defeated by the Atom Ryan Choi, who burned him by lighting up a gas line. Returning home, Atom was greeted by Deathstroke and his team of Titans, whoi had been hired by Dwarfstar to kill him. He held his own, but the fight was turning against him when his girlfriend Amanda knocked at his front door. Deathstroke allowed him a respite to tell her to go away, promising he was fine and would have a date night with her tomorrow. Atom was grateful, and Deathstroke assured him that killing him was just business, they were not looking to harm anyone else. Atom fled to his basement ant tried to activate his JLA signal, but the Titans had disabled it. The Titans wore him down, and Deathstroke made it clear he was about to die, and commended him for not begging. Deathstroke killed him with a sword through his stomach, and delivered Atom's corpse in a matchbox to Dwarfstar. (Titans: Villains For Hire Special v1 #1)
Atom Ray Palmer uncovered the circumstances behind Ryan Choi’s death, but was unable to bring Deathstroke’s Titans to justice. The entire superhero community and Amanda Turner turned out for Ryan’s funeral. Palmer did the eulogy, and said he was honored that Ryan chose his legacy, and that everyone should be honored with a brilliant mind like his choosing to protect his fellow man. (Titans v2 #38)
Post-Flashpoint
Following the Flashpoint, a new version of history was created with a different history of events. His parents were scientists with them living in Hong Kong and Choi developed a passion for science with him suffering from asthma and poor eye sight. For many years, he wanted to study at Ivy University and managed to convince his parents to get him enrolled at the institution in New England in America. Whilst there, he shared a room with Adam Cray who was the son of Senator Cray who had studied at the university. He attended the lectures of Professor Ray Palmer where he excelled in class where he passed anyway test that Palmer gave him and even published with his mentor with a year later him being offered the position of a research assistant. Palmer was ultimately impressed with Choi to the point that he revealed his secret identity as the superhero known as the Atom. For the next year, he continued to provide support to his mentor during his superhero adventures. (Justice League of America: The Atom Rebirth v1 #1) He was a foreign student working at Ivy University under Professor Ray Palmer. After Palmer did not attend classes, he went to investigate and uncovered a message Ray had left for him. The content of the message was a set of instructions for Choi to take another identical size changing belt and journey into the Microverse to find Palmer and help him return to the world. (DC Universe: Rebirth v1 #1) He spent his time looking for Professor Palmer and looked to upgrade the Bio-Belt where one day upon returning to the laboratory he found Batman and Lobo. The paid had come looking for Palmer as Batman intended to recruit him to join a new Justice League team he had created. Upon learning that Palmer was missing, Batman intended to depart but Lobo recruited Choi into joining the team after seeing the equations he had made to upgrade the Bio-Belt. Choi then later went to find Ray Terrill and recruited the new hero into joining the new Justice League of America. (Justice League of America: Rebirth v1 #1) As the Atom, he helped in updating the Secret Sanctuary and faced his first battle against the Extremists. (Justice League of America v5 #1)
Ryan and Killer Frost later went to the Museum of Unnatural History to find the severed head of a creature to use in order to cure Caitlin from her heat sickness. Unfortunately, they could not find anything that could help Caitlin and the two fought Terrorsmith when he attacked the museum in order to find the severed head. (Justice League of America v5 #7)
After failing to find a way to cure Frost again, Ryan finally triangulated the signal from professor Palmer. (Justice League of America v5 #11) He later asks the JLA for help, with Batman, Frost and Lobo going with him while the rest stayed out of the mission in case anything happened. Atom and three other heroes traveled to the Microverse with the help of a Shrinkship, unfortunately the ship got shot by something on the outside as soon as they entered the Microverse, cuasing the Shrinkship to crash on a planet. (Justice League of America v5 #12) There the team got attacked by an alien army, they eventually met someone named Preon who had been working with Ray Palmer and even had his bio-belt, she told Ryan about another of Ray's partners named Aron Aut who tried to help the Mircroverse due to the multiple quantum storms that were happening. Preon later took the team to Moz-Ga, the Thinking Planet, where the team met Aron Aut who told the League not to trust Preon, they were then forced to run as they got hit by a quantum storm. As Ryan and Frost protected themselves from the storm, Ryan though of a way to get Moz-Ga to talk by shrinking himself even more, after telling Caitlin his plan, she kissed him and said that he better come back. (Justice League of America v5 #13)
Overview
Personality and attributes
He was Cantonese. (All-New Atom v1 #2)
Even as a young age, he preferred to read instead of play and corresponded with great scientific minds around the world. Whilst others wanted to be martial artists, Ryan wanted to be more of an intellectual such as Feng Jishen who was a 9th century Chinese inventor that had created a primitive rocket delivery system. For his views, the other youths would pick on him for being and mentally unbalanced. His father told Ryan to ignore the comments of other young people as they could never understand him but that he would be bigger than others in the future. As an adult, people noted that he had achieved much academically despite his young age. (All-New Atom v1 #1) As a scientist, he stated that he believed in science and reason. (All-New Atom v1 #3)
He respected Ray Palmer as a scientist and stated that he had encouraged him for no other reason except for kindness. (All-New Atom v1 #2)
Choi had a desire to be in control that became a reason why he chose the field of science. Due to having allergies and phobias, he felt that he had no control over his life but by mastering physics he believed that he controlled the way the world itself worked. Ryan felt that in his life that he was seen as small but that in science the smallest of things had the most important of roles. Thus, he wanted to show people that even the smallest of things mattered in the world. (Justice League of America: The Atom Rebirth v1 #1)
Powers and abilities
He was also able to shrink and travel through WiFi signals allowing him to transport himself across the internet thus giving the capacity to move between locations quickly. (Justice League of America: Rebirth v1 #1)
Among his attacks was a superdense punch that was similar to what his predecessor was capable of accomplishing which could heavily damage a target. (Justice League of America v5 #28)
The Lighter Than Air Society were responsible for producing a device called the Bangstick for Choi with this being powered by the stars themselves. (The All-New Atom v1 #4) The device utilised an alien engine discovered(The All-New Atom v1 #5) Resembling a small hand-held stick, it allowed the user the ability to fly with Choi either shrinking it along with him or shrinking himself and riding the stick as a vehicle. (The All-New Atom v1 #6)
He suffered from a number of allergies with Poire Williams being one of the few drinks he could drink. (Justice League of America: The Atom Rebirth v1 #1)
Notes
- Ryan Choi was created by Grant Morrison, Gail Simone, and John Byrne where he made his first appearance in Brave New World v1 #1 (August, 2006).
- Choi, as described by DC solicitations, as "a young hotshot professor who's filling the extra spot on Ivy University's teaching staff... and who inadvertently ends up filling the old Atom's super-heroic shoes".
- In a Facebook post from 2017, Simone claimed that Ryan Choi was entirely her creation: "Grant Morrison did NOT create Ryan Choi. I envisioned him, developed him and named him. I was given some rough story ideas by Grant, I am sure they were brilliant, but I didn’t read them. My entire Atom pitch was lifted from a pitch I wrote for Impulse that did not get used".
Alternate Versions
- In Dark Nights: Death Metal The Last 52: War of the Multiverses v1 #1 (2021), an alternate version of Ryan Choi appeared in a world that inhabited the Dark Multiverse.
In other media
Television
- In Batman: The Brave and the Bold, Ryan Choi made a number of appearances in the animated series where he was voiced by actor James Sie.
- In The Flash, Ryan Choi was referenced in the live-action television series set in the Arrowverse in the episode "Nora". He was said to be the developer of the new Flashsuit that was shown by Barry Allen's time-travelling daughter Nora Allen.
Films
- In Justice League: Gods and Monsters, Ryan Choi made a minor appearance in the animated film where he was voiced by actor Eric Bauza. He was shown as being a research assistant to Ray Palmer and encouraged him to present his work on molecular miniaturization. During this time, Palmer was attacked by a robotic entity and was killed though Choi managed to survive due to not being the target.
- In Injustice, the Ryan Choi Atom appeared in the setting of the animated film adaptation where he was voiced uncredited by actor Yuri Lowenthal.
Video games
- In Injustice 2, the Ryan Choi Atom was introduced as a playable character in Fighter Pack 3 DLC where he was voiced by actor Matthew Yang King.
Appearances
- Brave New World v1: (2006)
- The All-New Atom v1:
- Countdown v1:
- Justice League of America:
External Links
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