Atlas

Atlas (アトラス Atorasu)is a robot who appears in all of the Astro Boy series. He is a robot with the ability to defy the rules of robotics present in the Astro Boy universe and has the ability to hurt humans. While his appearances were brief in the original 1960s series, he plays a major role in the 1980s and 2003 series.

Manga
In the manga, Atlas was a robot built by Dr. Ram for revenge on humans. He was given the Omega Factor so that he could hurt humans, which made him violent towards robots and humans alike. Atlas framed Astro Boy for a robbery, though it was quickly debunked by Dr. Ochanomizu after getting a signal from Astro Boy using a radio. Astro Boy escapes and has to fight Atlas, but Atlas is ultimately destroyed by an electromagnet that Dr. Ram had set.

Later, in Chapter 85: "Astro VS Atlas" another man by the name of Count Walpur Guiss, with the help of someone named Skunk Kusai built a robot similar to Astro Boy also called Atlas, to combat Astro Boy, Walpur Guiss gave Atlas an additional 8th power. The power to pee on his opponents. He can fly over his opponents and pee on them, and when the pee touches something, it explodes. "Gosh, sort of like a cicada" said Skunk Kusai. Atlas ended up taking a liking to Astro, saying "I decided to help you Astro, I want to be cool like you."

1960s series
In the 1960's series, Atlas (Called Ferno) was created by a man named Don Tay, who's ancestors were slaves, Don Tay wanted revenge on the human race for enslaving his ancestors. Atlas and Astro Boy had sort of a rivalry, but it lasted only the one episode.

Atlas first appeared in episode 26 "Don Tay's Infernal Machine" (Japan: "Atlas" "アトラス" )

1980s series


In the 1980s series, creator Osamu Tezuka chose to develop this character's role to be more involved in the story. Please note that this version of Atlas is based off of the second version of Atlas in the manga. In this series, Atlas was built by Count Wulper Guiss using the same blueprint for creating Astro Boy; these blueprints had been stolen by the criminal Skunk, another common antagonist of the more modern Astro Boy stories. Atlas' facial features resemble those of Astro, but his overall appearance varies greatly, with an orange body and gold hair.

Rather than simply being a confused robot who carried out the commands of his human creator with no knowledge of the repercussions of his actions, he was given what was known as the Omega Factor, a device that allowed him the ability to hurt humans. Early in the series, Atlas' body was severely

damaged, along with that of his beloved robotic caretaker, Livian. It was after this event that Atlas rebuilt his and Livian's bodies into the adult, warrior-like appearances that they remained in for the rest of the series. In Atlas' last appearance in the series (Atlas Forever), Astro Boy found out that he was Atlas' brother. At the end of the episode, Atlas gave up his evil ways and sacrificed himself to save the world.

2003 series
Main article: Atlas/2003

Atlas is a robot in the 2003 anime version of Astro Boy. He's a robot with kokoro, a program that gives robots freewill and emotions. Atlas was built by Dr. Tenma by request of Mr. Tokugawa. Atlas can be considered as Astro Boys brother since he was built by Dr. Tenma. Atlas was built after Mr. Tokugawa's son had died. Atlas was modeled to look like Daichi. He serves as a temporary villain and eventually helps Astro stop the fighting between humans and robots. Atlas' early concept was much closer to his original design as shown in the original manga and 1960s anime. In the pilot trailer, Atlas is said to be a robot based on a 14-year-old human boy, which differs from the final Atlas being based on an 18-year-old boy.

Trivia:

 * Atlas appears in Tetsuwan Atom for Super Famicom in his child form, despite being based in the 1980 version. His adult form was cut out from the game.
 * Atlas appears in Tetsuwan Atom: Tap Tap Rush as a boss in his adult form based in his 1980 version.
 * The 1980's Atlas seems more similar to the 1960's Blue Knight due to their similar roles and backstories, with the exception that Atlas was made with stolen blueprints. It worth of note that 1980 Atlas can be nicknamed as "Red Knight".Astro Boy Reboot Atlas.jpg
 * Atlas in the 2003 version is based more off his original 1960's counterpart, however with a new body armor and jets located in his back instead of being located in the middle of his crotch (1950's manga) or ears (1963's anime series).
 * Due the recasting of Atlas as Atom's brother, Cobalt who was Atom's brother in the original series was removed since his role would be redundant.
 * Atlas is confirmed to appear in the upcoming 2017 series Astro Boy Reboot.