Tribute for *fairly recent spoiler*

[auggie18]

So, as those of you who read Titans: Villains for Hire know, Ryan Choi is dead. He was my first and favorite Atom, so I prepared this tribute for him.

First, two pieces of fanart.


First one I did of the Atom in happier times. Messed up the costume a bit.



Second one I found.





Second, a poem from Ain't it Cool News

A lament set to the lyrics of Elton John's "Candle in the Wind" by Ambush Bug

Goodbye Ryan Choi
Feels like I never…knew you at all
You had the power to shrink yourself
While those around you grew.

Kooks crawled out of the woodwork
Whatever spewed from Simone's brain
And those tiny little quotes were cool,
Even made Byrne seem…not so lame.

And it seems to me…you lived your life
Like an Atom in the wind.
Never knowing…where to shrink to
When bad sales set in.
And Remender tried to save you.
He wrote the best that one man can.
But your series ran out far too soon,
You tiny, Asian man…

Low sales were tough
The toughest foe that you have ever faced.
Although Chronos and Giganta fell,
You were no match for fanboys' bad taste.

COUNTDOWN kind of sucked,
But you fought on anyway.
Only to find that Robinson…
Wanted Palmer…
In the new JLA.

So goodbye Ryan Choi
From the young man on the 52nd Earth
Who sees you as something more than a fill-in,
For that whitebread…Ray Palmer.

And it seems to me…you lived your life
Like an Atom in the wind.
Never knowing…where to shrink to
When bad sales set in.
And I would have liked to read more
But I was just one fan.
Your series ran out far too soon,
You tiny, Asian man…


For legality:



Damn right, he's a hero.

Suggested tags

char: atom/ryan choi, char: giganta/dr. doris zeul, char: atom/ray palmer

Comments

[joasakura]

DAMNNIT!

:grumbles: :(

[shadowpsykie]

i wonder what Giganta thinks?

i am pretty sure that they were still dating.... she's bound to get stompy....

also wonder if this will even be felt in the DCU or will it be more like "Ryan who?"

[espanolbot]

Eh, I'd say she was too busy having consentual sex with Dr Light, as he boasted about in Final Crisis, but he's dead as well.

[synnerman]

Wait wait wait wait...he wasn't just booted out of the name, he's DEAD?

/em charge

EPICNERDSPLODERAGE!!!

[jaybee3]

Really? This is dumb. Gail can't like this (since naturally she doesn't rag on editorial). First the dumb Huntress/Lady B threesome thing and now this? What's next - killing off the white gorillas when JMS takes over (and I'm not joking).

[shadowpsykie]

QUIET! THEY WILL HEAR YOU!!!!

[icon_uk]

You might want to mention it's a spoiler for Titans Villains for Hire as the description is a little too cryptic to be helpful.

Sad to see yet another ethnic minority hero bite the big one to make way for the return of the white guy.

[joasakura]

yeah, this exactly. :(

[queenursula]

AGH, I thought you were talking about the Sentry.

[cmdr_zoom]

This.

[espanolbot]

Oh dear. First Cass is replaced with Steph, the new Firestorm with the original and now this. Looks like they seem to be heading back to the pre-Diversivity Drive they initiated post-Infinite Crisis, that had the introduction of Jaime Reyes, Ryan, Kathy Kane etc.

[darkblade]

Which makes me sad to admit I'm glad Ted stayed dead.

[milleniumrex]

Ryan was clearly always a placeholder to some degree (Ray was never killed, unlike Ronnie, Ted, or Vic, so it was always likely he'd come back to be the Atom), but it's really disappointing to see him go out like this. Especially just to establish a lame-ass team of villain sues as "Teh baddest thing ever". Considering that more than half of this team consists of anti-heroes, I kept expecting for there to be a swerve of some kind.

[jaybee3]

Not to mention the fact that under DC's "new rules" for dead means dead, supposedly he ain't coming back. I mean like you I never though Ryan was going take Ray's place as quintessential "The Atom" but they could have retired the character than just killed him off.

For what? To prove what bad-asses Deathstroke and Cheshire are? One would think that outright nuking Bludhaven and Quarac would have proved their villain bona-fides already.

[cloud_wolf]

But but but I was all set to buy his series after I heard he was dating Giganta and whyyyyyy.

[auggie18]

Buy it anyway! It's amazing!

[lencannon]

lame. maybe we can have some more yawns with the world's most boring superhero, Ray Palmer, King of Compassion and Torture.

[lencannon]

Also, to be fair, I pretty much saw this coming. If anyone follows Gail Simone's twitter, you might remember she spent a day doing pretty much nothing but talking about why Ryan owns and Ray blows and trying to get fans to choose a side.

Me and my boyfriend both figured at the time that she had just had an editorial meeting and learned Ryan was going to be killed in Blackest Night. Sue us, we were off by a month.

[dorksidefiker]

Ah well. One less reason to buy DC.

[darklorelei]

For fuck's sake.

[celestialchild]

At this point, there's really no better way to put it.

[foxhack]

DC's main ensemble is turning whiter than Wonder Bread.

[halialkers]

Wot 'e said.

[kirke_novak]

What?
What?
WHAT?!
When?
Why?
How?!

I am angry. This is me beign angry. I will continue being angry until I calm down - which make take several days.

[pepperspray101]

*jaw drop* WHAT?! omigod, I leave comics for a few weeks and this is what I return to?! *cries* Just say it, DC! Just say it! You don't want me as a consumer! You just want old white dudes buying your shit. Not young hispanic women. *cries*

[icon_uk]

Don't worry, I'm an old white dude and I didn't want this shit either, nor can I say I'm bothered about buying a lot of their stuff.

[ruhig_knight]

Yep, it seems Asian characters really have become the new Red Shirts Teen Titans.

*Groans* This is so many levels of crap...

[cuntfucius]

DC: Where most East Asian and Middle Eastern characters either die or become villains if they didn't start off that way!!

[cloud_wolf]

I hear ya on the East Asian part (so that's Connor, Cass, Ryan, Lian, Sin sorta, and some others) but it's not like there were so many Middle Eastern characters to begin with. =_= *waves little ME ethnicity flag with sadness*

[minyandu.livejournal.com]

Er...could some body tell me the story titles which have Ryan? I never read him before. I need something more than wiki.

And, well, sometimes I'd rather they let dead stay dead considering the chance they ruin the character again. I'm seriously torn about Cass' possible return now.=_=

[jaybee3]

Do you mean the mystery villain in Birds of Prey? Because I seriously don't think its Cass, I have way too much respect for Gail to think she'd do that after everything.

Likewise, with the mystery woman in Red Robin next to Ra's. I don't think thats Cass either.

[retro_nouveau]

Why the hell with all the needless deaths? This is the most rage that I've had since Barry and Kara were killed. I hope it's another fake death, or that Deadman is going to get busy, or Pam Ewing is going to open a shower door, or something, please, anything, I'm begging now. Please pretend this is in bold, red, oversized capitals with extra profanity.

[hurricane-jam.livejournal.com]

The needless deaths are especially fun after the whole, "Isn't this nice! We've just brought back all these characters from the dead! Nothin' but blue skies up ahead."

[dejadrew]

....Aaaaaand lookit that, is it that time again? Yep, it's time for me to retreat EVEN FURTHER into indy comics and manga! Damnit, I MISS superheroes, but these days the big two are like the opposite-day mafia: I keep trying to get back in, but they keep pushing me OUT.

[ian_karkull]

Wait, what? Really..? Boy, they sure weren't kidding with that Brighest Day - Whitest Day thing, huh?

Damn shame, Ryan was a great character and his series was just plain, unadulterated fun. Oh well, now at wleast e have more time to tell the amazing stories of Aquaman and the baby rapists and the many orgies of Hal Jordan. Hooray! /sarcasm

[hurricane-jam.livejournal.com]

What the crap! What's with killing off people? Why can't heroes just retire and then come back for big crisis? Why replace any character with another MEANWHILE PROVIDING SOME NEEDED ETHNIC DIVERISTY, then say, naah, we don't want him, and chuck him to the side like a dirty dishrag and bring back the guy YOU ORIGINALLY REPLACED?

Why, DC? Just fuckin' WHY?

[nevermore999]

What. The FUCK.

[leikomgwtfbbq]

BAH, I say. I liked Ryan a lot more than I ever liked Ray.