6. Brandon Routh Joins Arrow, Robbie Amell Joins The Flash
The CWIf The CW's Arrow has taught us anything, it's that a show's titular superhero never comes to the party alone. We've seen several characters, hero and villain, make the trip to Starling City, including the likes of Deathstroke, Deadshot, The Suicide Squad, Amanda Waller, Black Canary, Solomon Grundy, Huntress, Count Vertigo, Shado, The League of Assassins, Nyssa al Ghul, and The Clock King (to name a few). Even Barry Allen showed up on the series, and wound up with a spin-off of his own, which premieres this fall. This week both superhero shows added exciting new cast members to their roster, who will undoubtedly suit up at some point. Over on Arrow, Superman Returns star Brandon Routh has been hired to play Ray Palmer, AKA The Atom. Palmer will be the new owner of Queen Consolidated, and strike up a romance with Felicity. He'll appear for 14 episodes. In the comics, Palmer is a scientist who stumbles across some debris from a White Dwarf star, and utilizes its power to create a suit that allows him to shrink down to subatomic size. Meanwhile, Arrow star Stephen Amell's cousin, Robbie Amell, has jumped on board The Flash, as Ronnie Raymond, AKA Firestorm. His character will show up in the third episode, and will be the fiance of Caitlin Snow (Danielle Panabaker), who we know will someday become a superpowered character herself, the villainess Killer Frost. Often called the Nuclear Man of the DC comics universe, Firestorm is actually
two characters, the high school student Ronnie Raymond and Nobel Prize-winning physicist Martin Stein. Stein and Raymond become fused together after a freak accident, with Raymond in control of the body while Stein becomes a voice of reason within his head. Firestorm has the ability to rearrange the atomic and subatomic structure of inorganic matter, he can fly at fantastic speeds, create bloasts of fusion energy from his hands, and pass through solid objects. Cool, huh?