Little men with big brains

Ray Palmer - Henry Pym

A no brainer, to be sure.

For a while, I paired Pym with Barry Allen. But the parallels are too numerous: these characters are mirror images of one another.

Commonalities:
Two unparalleled but occasionally troubled scientists who get small.

Differences:
Palmer cannot communicate with insects, never used his methods to become super-sized and never had a wife who was his partner in crime fighting. However, his wife did kill one of their friends and become a demon!

Alternate histories:

RP: Physicist Ray Palmer develops a method in which he can shrink himself, as well as animate and inanimate matter, to microscopic size. He loses his first wife, Jean Loring, and meets Lana Lang; the two use his discoveries as the Atom and the Insect Queen. The two co-found the Justice League of America with Superman, Green Lantern and an individual to be named later. Palmer then uses his methods to make himself grow to giant size and thus takes the identity of Atom-Smasher. He serves with distinction in the JLA for many years, but his invention of the Construct, a robot bent on destroying humanity, puts significant strain on his psyche. He eventually suffers a nervous breakdown, culminating in his striking his wife and his expulsion from the JLA. Palmer redeems himself and resumes his research and serves with the JLA. Most recently, he has joined Green Lantern’s drive to register all of America’s extra-normal operatives.

HP: Biochemist/ roboticist Henry Pym devises a method in which he can shrink himself and communicate with ants. He takes the guise of Ant-Man (later Yellowjacket) and becomes the second recruit to the Avengers. He later marries Maria Trovaya, and serves for years as the Avengers’ key scientific resource. Pym divorces Trovaya and then spends some time in a insect-proportioned society in South America, but returns to a teaching post at an prestigious East Coast university and sporadic missions with the Avengers. A reconciliation with Trovaya ends in murderous disaster, and Pym drops out of sight.