‘Arrow’ season 3 spoilers: First look at Brandon Routh’s Ray Palmer as The Atom!

You’ve waited for this, and you are hopefully just excited about it as we are: The first-ever teaser of The Atom on “Arrow“! This first image was released today, and we should see Ray Palmer (played by Brandon Routh) in the costume at some point a little later this season.

So what do we like about the costume? First and foremost, that it’s a little bit different than what we expected, but perfect for the show. For one, it’s completely without fear. If this is really how he plans on running around, then Ray is the first hero in this universe to have zero problem with the whole world knowing who he is. Also, we like the Atom symbol on the helmet, and the color palette is different enough from all of the other characters to stand out.

Of course, we’ve also heard criticism that the costume is too similar to Iron Man; we do see some of that, but we also feel like it in action will completely differentiate it from anything that we have seen before. The larger question that we have is how to fully implement it on a show that tends to be darker, and less hesitant to show off superpowers (although powers from a suit are hardly super powers). Ray being able to shrink is not something that we get the sense “Arrow” wants to do a whole lot with.

Ultimately, a lot of this suggests to us that the Atom still could be primed for his own spin-off show at some point, where he can have his own universe. We know that three superhero shows on the air at the same time on the same network is a lot, which is why our feeling is that there should be a separate 13-episode spin-off that airs in the summer, and helps to bridge the gap between the seasons.

Take a look at the large version of the photo below, and share your take on it in the comments! Also, preview further Wednesday night’s new episode here, and sign up to get some further TV scoop via email courtesy of our CarterMatt Newsletter.