Last week's episode of Arrow, "Nanda Parbat", gave us our first look at Brandon Routh suiting up as Atom. Unfortunately, the show is on a brief three-week hiatus until "The Offer" on March 18, so fans will have to wait a bit longer to see Atom in action once again. IGN recently spoke with Brandon Routh, who is no stranger to the DC Comics world after playing the Man of Steel himself in the 2006 movie Superman Returns. When asked to compare the Superman and Atom suits, the actor had this to say.

"This is different from the Arrow and Arsenal suits, and Canary - it's badass. It's a whole different feeling from the Superman suit -- the only other suit that I've been in. It's a whole persona. I mean, so is any suit that you put on, but this one is just different. It's cool."

The actor's Atom costume is mechanical, which allows him to fly, as opposed to his spandex Superman suit, but that isn't the only difference the actor spoke about in regards to Superman and Atom. Here's what he had to say about the production side of television, when compared to the feature film world.

"TV's just a whole different animal. The speed at which you work; there's that. What's interesting is it's a long growth period, as we're finally starting to get into some of the Atom aspect of it. I was just Ray Palmer for a long period of time. So it's a lot of character development, which is cool and I appreciate. So that's a little bit different. The world of Arrow is certainly different than the world of Superman and Metropolis. We're in a darker world. So they're tonally different. But then you have Flash, which is more like Metropolis -- even looks like Metropolis, the architecture of the police station and all that stuff. So it's cool to be in the world and see that it's expanding. You have all these other superhero entities coming into it."

Since Arrow does reside within the DC Comics universe, some have wondered if Superman will ever make his presence known in Starling City. We know that the DC movie and TV universes are separate entities, since there is the already-established TV version of The Flash (Grant Gustin) and a movie version of Barry Allen (Ezra Miller) who will be introduced in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. When asked if he would like to see Atom and Superman team up on Arrow, Brandon Routh had this to say.

"That would be bizarre. There'd probably be some inside jokes and winks at the camera. But that would be cool. It's such a bizarre thing already for me to be playing this character, and for some people to only be known for playing this character. People young enough who haven't seen Superman Returns are like, 'Oh, that guy's the Atom. What!?! He played Superman!?' I mean, I get that all the time from people who are fans of Chuck. They see me on Chuck, and their buddies are like, 'Yeah, he was Superman too,' and they're like, 'What!?' That's a cool thing for me, because it means that I'm not just defined by one character. Even if that is the one thing I'm known for, hallelujah! That's an amazing thing too. So, I don't know. Anything's possible. That'd be a trip."

The actor was also asked about the possibility of Atom teaming up with the new Black Canary, a.k.a. Laurel Lance (Katie Cassidy). Here's what he had to say.

"It'd be an interesting matchup. They're in opposite places, but they're sharing a similar grief I would think. They could definitely come together about that. For them to fight criminals together would be kind of a funny thing. She needs a little bit of levity in her life too."