Atlas

 is a recurring character in Tetsuwan Atom franchise who often appears as a villain or anti-villain depending of the version and as well tend to have different backgrounds according to the series which he is.

1952 Manga series:
 was created by Dr. Ram who is a scientist filled with the desire of revenge against the whites for the slavery and also the death of his mother.

To achieve his goal of revenge he build a robot called to carry his plans.

At first  was benevolent toward humans, to the point he even saved Tamao from being crushed by a mobile house.

However, Dr. Ram created a device called "Omega Factor" which would make Atlas earn a evil mind capable of commiting any type of crimes and in special homicide.

In order to show  to the world, Dr. Ram sent him to participate in a robotting arena which he destroyed his foe even when it was unable to fight and even a non fighting robot.

To set things worse, he even harmed a human being which made Atom fight him.

Though Atom defeated Atlas, Dr. Ram warned him that he was incomplete for not having the "Omega Factor" which made Atom worried...

Later, now repaired was sent to cause a artifical eruption and Atom was sent to stop the lava from hitting the city.  laughed at Atom's effort who left the scene in order to warn the autorities.

Then he got the bombs necessary to stop the flow of the lava, but before he could detonate them by using his own circuit even if it could cost his life,   attacked in a fit of rage after Atom tould him he would sacrify his own life to save humans if he must, however Atom managed to rip 's head and use his circuit to detonate the bomb.

With this, Dr. Ram appeared demanding Atlas and managed to capture Atom when he tried to flee.

Later, the mad scientist showed the Omega Factor which could make Atom become "complete" if it was inserted in his body.

Atom refused the device, but got locked down in Dr. Ram's lab since it was covered with electro-magnetic nets which could blow him up if he tried to escape.

Without any choice, Atom decided to contact the professor while Dr. Ram repaired   and gave him "robot brothers".

In order to fool everyone, Dr. Ram replaced   head with a copy of Atom's own head and sent him and his brother to cause havok and it made the citizens think the robots were revolting against humanity.

So, an arrest was put against Atom and his parents, but Inspector Tawashi and Inspector Nakamura send them to Dr. Ochanomizu who got Atom's signal which cleared his name.

Later, Dr. Ram attempted to force Atom to have the Omega Factor inserted against his will, however, Atlas returned demanding his head back and accused his creator of making him a slave, Dr. Ram realized too late the Omega Factor was even making his own creation go against him and is restrained by  robot brothers and them mortally wonded.

Atom saw Dr. Ram being threw away and   showed with his robot brothers who got easilly defeated.

With this,   and Atom fought for the final time and he tried to jump on Atom, but Atom managed to throw  in the electro-magnetic net destroying him for good.

A grieving Dr. Ram asked what happened with his creation and Atom confirmed that   was destroyed.

Atom tould to Dr. Ram to not give up, however the scientist realizing his errors requested Atom let him die in order to atone for being blinded with revenge and the fact his creation took revenge in himself.

1963 Anime series:
The anime retain the basic plot of the manga with a few changes including in   design who got a more human like body instead of being just a rocket with head and limbs.

The outcome in the arena which  shows his unnecessary violence is altered with Atlas being called back by his creator.

In the anime Atom is not captured and in the final battle, Dr. Ram is not mortally wounded but is left to be burned by the flowing lava while Atlas shows no care about his safety while confronting Atom.

Atom, then manage to defeat   in time to save Dr. Ram who later give the device which could make Atom being able to enter in the volcano without being melted down.

Atom then use a special bomb bought by Dr. Ochanomizu and stopped the lava flow and with this Dr. Ram learned that vengeance was in vain and that he could use his inventions for the good of the people instead.

Atom vs Atlas mini-story:
A short-story featuring a redesigned Atlas was serialized in November issue of Shogaku Nisensei magazine.

This story was made as a tie-in with the release of the 1980s anime, however it have notable changes.

In the story, Atlas is not Atom's brother made with stolen blue prints, but a robot made from study of Atom's seven abilities.

Dr. Walpurgis creates a new robot called Atlas in order to defeat Atom, at first Atlas causes a lot of trouble to his creator and educator who is Skunk due his lack of social skills since he was newly born.

Later, Walpurgis realize that he needs to add a eight ability for Atlas and then he receive the ability of peeing.

Atom ends up finding Walpurgis' hideout and battles Atlas, the battle ends pretty matched till Walpurgis orders Atlas to use his power.

Atlas says he'll pee in Atom, but he protests saying that peeing should be done in a bathroom.

Atlas follows Atom advise and pee in Walpurgis' Castle, but instead he causes a big explosion.

Atom captures both Walpurgis and Skunk while Atlas decide to follow his example and become cool just like him.

1980 anime series:
The Atlas from 1980 was a copy of Atom made by Count Walpurgis with the help of Skunk who stole Atom's blueprints.

With Atlas activation, Atom ended up acting strange which made the Dr. Tenma and his assistants paranoid.

After being born, Atlas was put in care of Skunk who would send him to commit crimes and Livian who would clean him up after finishing his job.

Atlas was unable to understand the importance of money that he even stole useless paper and then Skunk sent him to sink a ship and steal it's goods, but Atom interfered.

Atlas fought Atom and spared him after remembering of Livian's words who said that he should not be mean and harm those who could not fight back.

Later Atlas returned to Count Walpurgis' castle and snapped after his creator destroyed Livian for accidentally destroying a gargoyle and got almost destroyed in the pursuit.

Then, he remodeled himself and turned into a red version of Blue Knight which made him quite away from his original look in the original series.

Atlas reappeared later and ended up meeting Skunk after he and his gang were chased by the police and saved them, however Skunk asked him to join his gang and steal money.

But, Atlas grew displeased of Skunk's attitude and once again left him and later he stole several robot models for his cause, including Atom's newly made parents who were still not activated.

Atom managed to track Atlas and retrieve them after destroying his hideout and both fought several times later on.

Atlas then drained off the water of a region which turned into a desert in order to supply his movile crystal palace. Atom then meet Livian for the first time and allowed him to escape from Atlas.

Later, members of the astronomy club at Ochanomizu Elementary School ride on the rocket for the tour to Rainbow Comet. While all the kids are excited at the beauty of the comet, the rocket is suddenly magnetized by something- it actually is Atlas's crystal. Atlas plans to kidnap those kids to draw Atom into his companion.

Atlas plans to kidnap those kids to draw Atom into his companion. He minifies Shibugaki, Tamao and some others to the size of 30 centimeters and threatens Atom to minify all other kids unless Atom joins him. Atom pledges to join Atlas against his will. Then, Shibugaki and other kids are returned to their original size and taken out of the crystal by rocket. But the rocket is pulled to Venus because it stays within Venus's gravitation. Atom knows it thorough the transmission from Dr. Ochanomizu and realizes that Atlas broke the promise with him. Then he gets out from the crystal. Atom pushes back the rocket out of Venus's gravitation supporting it with his both hands while Atlas chases him. Atom hides behind Rainbow Comet. Actually the head of Rainbow Comet consists of a collective entity of huge ice. Atom flies through the entity at a terrific speed with the rocket, Atlas frantically sprays 3 dimensional vibration waves from Zero-Saver; though, Atlas finally loses sight of Atom. In the crystal, Jump has been left alone. Livian puts him in the capsule and sends it back to Atom.

One day, a small rocket falls on Atom's house with a roar, and Livian comes out from the broken rocket. Livian has lost her memory due to her memory circuit's failure. Dr. Ochanomizu tries to repair the circuit but it doesn't go well. Just then, they are informed that the ice at the North Pole has started melting. Atom flies there to investigate the cause of the abnormal phenomenon, but can not find out anything. On hearing the news of a flood at the North Pole on TV, Livian retrieves her conscious and informs Atom that Atlas plans to melt all the ice at the North Pole to cause a disastrous flood over the earth. Actually, Livian escaped to Atom's place to ask Atom to stop Atlas's plan while he was out. Atom heads to the North Pole with a frozen proton bomb newly developed by Dr. Ochanomizu. On the other hand, a robot soldier is dispatched to Atom's house to take Livian back. Livian returns to the crystal, leaving word that that is her unavoidable fate. Arriving at the huge ice hole in Green Land, Atom sees Atlas melting ice with a bizarre machine. Atlas who has realized that Livian contacted Atom gets mad and attacks him. Atom throws the frozen bomb against Atlas. The bomb explodes just over Atlas, who finally ends up to being enclosed in the ice with a sad face.

Later Livian rescues Atlas from the ice at the North Pole. Then, freed Atlas pledges Livian to fight against Atom openly and squarely. Now, Atom and Atlas confront at the baseball stadium, and Atlas offers Atom Zero-saber in order to have a fair battle. The battle has started but it never sees the end. Then, Higeoyaji comes to the stadium to stop them. Seeing him, Atlas flies out to the sky saying he will come back within 3 days. Dr. Ochanoizu and Higeoyaji, who want to avoid the fight between Atom and Atlas, hide Atom in the big underground safe of Ministry of Science. Being not able to find Atom, Atlas plans to lure him out. Since knowing that Shibugaki and Kenichi take the subway, Atlas makes the subway out of control. Atom gets out from the safe to save Shibugaki and Kenichi. But he can not stop it because somehow he loses his strength when getting close to the subway. It is because Atlas has set non-energy devices at the head and the tail of the subway which absorb all energy within 1 meter radius. While Atom is struggling to get close to the train, Atlas attacks Atom and dears him to head-to- head confrontation. But Atom who puts all his energy to stop the subway doesn't have time for that right now. The subway X-17 line gets out the ground just before the last station. Atom waits for the subway at the point and gets under it. Then, he holds it from under the bottom and lands it on the highway. Atom succeeds in stopping the subway safely. Atlas, convinced by Vivian, goes back to the crystal tower.

The bases on Neptune, Uranus and Saturn are attacked by unidentified flying objects. United Nation alleges those acts have done by Atlas and forms the Earth Defense Forces to strike him down. Before the force is dispatched from the frontal base in Mars, Atom asks Captain Killy to let him have a chance to talk to Atlas but is refused. The battle between the Earth Defense Force and Atlas starts up at the area around Jupiter and other small planets. Atom goes there to stop Atlas, but conversely Atlas fights against him. Then, Livian tells Atom that he and Atlas actually are brothers made from the same draft. Captain Killy succeeds to damage Atlas by shooting Super Omegatron Canon which was developed just for Atlas. While the Earth Defense Force is cornering Atlas, a large number of unidentified flying objects start attacking them. Their true identities are invaders targeting to the earth. Being exposed to their fierce attack, the earth defense force is badly destroyed, losing two thirds of its members. Atom pleads Atlas to ask people for help, but Atlas refuses it. The Earth Defense Force challenges the last fight against the invaders. But most of them are shot down one after another including Captain Killy. Finally, Atlas appears, saying "I will show you my true power!" Then, getting in his crystal tower, he speeds to the mother ship of the enemies. The crystal turns into a black hole and swallows everything including the mother ship and flying disks.

2003 anime series prototype trailer:
In the prototype of the 2003 series before it's release, Atlas was seem in a completely different design from the final version which he looked like Elecman Exe from Rockman Exe series.

It's worth of note that version of Atlas had a single attack which made him charge himself with energy and ram over his enemies shocking them.

He loses his left arm after being hit by Atom's arm cannon and chases Atom around, the outcome is not shown.

2003 anime series:
Mr. Tokugawa, the head of the Tokugawa conglomerate, asks Dr. Tenma to create a robot duplicating his dead son Daichi.

Tokugawa even reminds Dr. Tenma that was himself who gave the research funds for the Kokoro project and he also is aware of every project which the scientist made as well.

Tokugawa intends to make this robot succeed him in his position at work. But the robot, who was born with Daichi’s hatred for his father and humans, changes his name to Atlas and attacks several people alike starting with a biker gang which Daichi used to be a member after realizing they only wanted his friendship in order to attempt to steal his fortune. People are terrified of the appearance of this human-attacking robot. Atom tries to persuade Atlas not to attack humans, but to no avail. At the conference to choose the successor, robot Daichi identifies himself as Atlas and destroys the Tokugawa head-office building. What makes him do such a thing? Nobody knows what is going on inside of him. Eventually, Atom comes to take on Atlas saving Inspector Tawashi and his men from being killed. Then has a tough time against the superior Atlas. After being knocked in a building and cornered by Atlas, Atom notices someone watching their battle. It is Dr. Tenma. While contending with Atlas, Atoms’s memory of the past when he was the robot Tobio returns. Then Atom shows astonishing power and brings down Atlas with his arm canon.

When Dr. Ochanomizu learns that Atom’s memory has partially returned, he reveals to Atom that he was created by Dr. Tenma to replace his son Tobio but was abandoned. Meanwhile, Atlas, who was defeated by Atom, is repaired by Dr. Tenma and got his own arm cannon. Atlas then heads to the moon to destroy a space port of the Tokugawa conglomerate. Atom also heads to the moon to prevent Atlas from running out of control. Tokugawa feels responsible for creating such a monster and also heads to the moon to dig the grave of Atlas. On the moon, Atom is cornered by Atlas and have his arm cannon defeated by Atlas' own arm cannon, however Tokugawa atacks Atlas ny destroying one of his rockets after using a gravitational trap. Atlas, however manages to escape from the gravitational trap and blame his father for treating his son like a slave. He then accidentally open a hole in the moon base after Atom interference. And before he could kill his father, he saw the image of beautiful moon and with this Daichi's memory of his father who used to be affectionate and once said, “Let’s go to the moon together,” comes back. The truth is, Atlas is yearning for his father’s love. Then Atlas saves his father by sacrificing his own life not long before saying "Atom, it´s very difficult for a robot become friends with humans, but I'm sure you can do it".

The wreckage of Atlas, which has been drifting in outer space, is collected by a dishonest trader and falls into the hands of Dr. Pavlos, the former deputy chief of the Ministry of Science. Dr. Pavlos turns Atlas into a violent robot by implanting an omegachip, which can be used to control robots, into Atlas’ head. The only way to stop Atlas from committing much violence is to destroy him. Dr. Pavlos’ goal is to implant omegachips into all robots to subjugate them. Of course Atom is no exception. Atlas attacks Atom. Atom fights back but is soon tired. At this rate, they will soon be able to implant an omegachip into Astro’s brain. However, Atom keeps resisting as Atlas launches further attacks on Dr. Pavlos’ command. Astro is driven to the edge, but then, suddenly, Atlas regains his senses and save both Atom and Dr. Pavlos from being killed in the explosion of the Pavlos' ship which was malfunctioning after being shot by one of Pavlos own robots which was controlled by Dr. Tenma.

Atlas later returned in the Robotania episodes after being revived by Shadow, though he still had his memories of the past events which allowed him to save Atom from a raging Blue Knight who was fed up of Atom's interference.

And was present when Atom sacrified himself to stop the destuction of Robotania.

It's still not know what happened with him after the Robotania's saga, though is possible that he had returned to Tokugawa's corp.

Akira Himekawa Manga:
In the manga of Akira Himekawa, Daichi got a extended backstory showing that his mother has passed away in the hospital and he was revolted that his father doesn't even visited her while she was still alive. And Daichi was a childhood friend of Katari who plotted to kill him in order to being a successor of the company. Dr. Tenma found a mortally wounded Daichi and offered him a metalic body by transfering Daichi's mind to his newly built robot model. So, Atlas carried Daichi's will and started causing havok through the city and confronted Atom a couple of times and managed to defeat him with his newly made arm cannon. However, a trap left by Dr. Tenma was putted in Atlas' arm cannon which made it explode. With this Dr. Tenma took Atom and abandonned Atlas. The outcome of the Moon Plant is different which Atlas confronts Katari and is saved by Atom and also meets his father who accept him even with him being turned into a robot. Atlas also sacrified himself to save the Moon Base by carrying the bomb left by Kato which could not be disarmed. However he was then found badly damaged by Atom later on. After the final confrontation with Dr. Tenma and his possible suicide, Daichi returned to Tokugawa's corp and became their new president.

According to Atom, somebody sent Atlas' blueprints so he could be repaired, though Atom is not sure if Dr. Tenma was still alive for doing that.

Trivia:

 * A character from Teen Titans animated series is based in Atlas and even share the same name. That Atlas in particular shares the same attitude of looking down at humans and special his human partneer.
 * Atlas in the 1952 manga series had a awkward appearance since he was basically a rocket with arms and limbs. In the 1963 anime, his jets where added in his ears and he had a device capable of turning himself in a artificial sun.
 * The origin of Atlas as a child robot was excluded from the 1980 dub of Shin Tetsuwan Atom (just called as "Astro Boy" in the western world). It was removed due the violence and abuse, but it left a continuity issue which was impossible to fully explain Atlas' actions later on.
 * Atlas was merged with the Blue Knight in the 1980 series, the reason for it is due the fact Tezuka thought that Atlas deserved a better role and the Blue Knight saga wasn't well received by the fans.
 * Atlas used the Zero Saber (in the 1980 series) which he could suck energy from other robots and even seize objects from distance. Zero from Rockman X (created 13 years later) would have a weapon called Zero Saber which could be a possible reference to Atlas weapon in Shin Tetsuwan Atom.
 * In the 2003 dub, Atlas ironizes the fact Atom is a sort of little brother while in the real story Atlas doesn't consider Atom as his brother. After all, Atlas is just a metalic body for the mind of the deceased Daichi Tokugawa.
 * The Akira Himekawa story of Atlas has a nod with his background story in Astro Boy-Tetsuwan Atom: Atom Haato No Himitsu (Astro Boy: Omega Factor) which Dr. Tenma keept Daichi's body in a capsule. Atlas from Himekawa version even uses the same quotes said by Atlas in Atom Haato no Himitsu.
 * Atlas appears in child form as a antagonist and boss in Tetsuwan Atom for Super Famicom.
 * Atlas/Daichi appears as a boss in "Astro Boy - Tetsuwan Atom: The Secret of Atom's Heart" (called overseas as "Astro Boy: Omega Factor") with a revamped storyline and love relationship with Prime Rose.
 * Atlas appears as a boss in Tetsuwan Atom 2004 for Playstation 2, since the game have a deconstructive version of the 2003 anime's story, Atlas is killed by Atom following their 2nd confrontation.
 * Atlas appears in Tetsuwan Atom: Tap Tap Rush as a boss with a updated version of his 1980 look.
 * Atlas 1980 design is often seem in some promotional artwork after Tezuka's death.