Recently relieved from his duties as the Charlie Brown of cinematic Supermen (“Good grief” Henry Cavill says from within a still from Superman V. Batman: Happiness Is A Warm Dawn), Brandon Routh will get a second crack at playing a DC superhero. The Val Kilmer of the cinematic Supermen (be nice—some authors of this Newswire actually like Batman Forever) has signed on for a recurring role on Arrow, playing Ray Palmer in the CW series’ third season. The Arrow universe’s Palmer is the new owner of Queen Consolidated, putting Routh’s character on a collision course with Stephen Amell’s Oliver Queen and his bow-carrying alter ego.
Comics fans will know Ray Palmer as the secret identity of the Atom, who, after his life was put on a collision course with some white dwarf star matter, discovered that he could change his size at will. The Palmer version of the Atom also factored into the limited series Countdown To Final Crisis, opening up the possibility for Arrow to play the nexus of a Crisis of Infinite Rouths, in which Routh’s many comic-book roles—Clark Kent/Superman, Ray Palmer/Atom, Everywhere Man from The Batman, Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World’s Todd Ingram—converge on Starling City, seeking to merge their universes and erase Dylan Dog: Dead Of Night from the continuity of the actor’s filmography.