The Unrealized Potential of Chemical King: what went wrong?

My introduction to the Legion of Superheroes came about primarily via 1988's seven volume Who's Who in the Legion of Superheroes? series.  I was always a fan of teams, and though I'd not heard of the Legion before, I knew I liked the Justice League...and I figured a "legion" had to have even more heroes in it than my beloved JLA. 

Readers of this blog will not be surprised to learn that my interests naturally gravitated toward some of the more obscure Legionnaires. One example of this was Chemical King.

Chemical King by Chris Sprouse
Source: http://www.legionworld.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chemical_King

One of the first things that attracted me to the character was simply his name:  Chemical King already had a more serious-sounding tone than the bevy of: lasses, lads, boys, and girls that predominated in the Legion.

A second feature I liked was the heavy green of CK's outfit.  Yes, I know it's not exactly unprecedented (DC did have an entire Corps of galactic heroes running around in green, after all) but amongst the Legionnaires, it seemed to stand out.

Finally, even as a kid who basically knew nothing about chemistry, I found the description of his powers pretty interesting--"able to speed up or slow down chemical reactions at will or exert slight control over chemical combinations, changing them to alter their outcome."

So given the trifecta:  (1) a good name, (2) a good look, and (3) a good power set, what explains the lackluster phenomenon of Chemical King?  Well, here's at least a couple of a theories.

No real plan for the character

According to the Who's Who books, Chemical King's first appearance was Adventure Comics #371...but that's not quite right.

Technically, CK's first appearance was in Adventure Comics #354 (March 1967). This story was set in the future where Superboy was summoned by the "adult" legion.  CK appears simply as a statue in a special hall commemorating fallen legionnaires. 

Of the five dead heroes that appear on the cover, only Ferro Lad had even appeared.  Chemical King’s fate would match the cover exactly, while stories of Quantum Queen, Reflecto and Shadow “Woman” (Shadow Lass when she got introduced) would play with the dooms foretold here.  (Adventure 354 - The Adult Legion)

So, in other words, the character was created, named, and given a specific look first...and only later was an attempt was made to supply an identity and personality. While I'm just an amateur fiction writer, I would suspect this is a process that almost never ends well.

A "brainy" power set too closely mirrored by other legionnaires

A second, possibly more serious problem for CK, was his power set--which, yes, I just discussed as a strength.  Let me explain.  

While I love the description of CK's powers, it is rather hard to get a mental image of what it means to be able to "speed up or slow down chemical reactions."  At the very least, it's much more difficult to visualize than saying:  "This guy is super strong." "That girl can shoot lasers from her eyes."  This character can run at the speed of sound."(etc.)  

CK had potential to be a superhero for the hard-core science nerd...but really developing his power set and making it meaningful and predictable to fans was probably fated to address only a small niche of the fan base.

The other aspect of this problem is that many of the avenues that might have been available for developing CK's power set were already taking up by the more prominent Element Lad and his ability to "transmute one substance or element into another."  Furthermore, Element Lad's powers seem never to have been restricted to anything like a similar degree.  

Wrapping up

Working within those parameters, there really weren't too many ways left available to help CK stand out.  Of course it might still have been done via great personality development, but if generating compelling personalities was that easy, all literature would be filled with riveting characters.  Plus, working with as large a cast as the Legion, you simply don't have the time to pay minute attention to every single character.  

At least, that's my best guess about what happened to Chemical King.  What say you?

Fiction Foundry 20

If we hadn't been there--"

Mike's words suddenly choked off, as the tears welled in his eyes and a trembling crept over his body.

"If you hadn't been there, you could've gotten hurt somewhere else...somewhere that no one might have found you in time."  His father said.

"Quite right, Brother Carson," announced a familiar voice from the doorway.

Pastor Leedle shuffled across the floor towards the family, with exactly the same welcoming countenance he'd worn every Sunday for the last nine years.

"Forgive me for intruding...but I happened to be up on the third floor checking on Mrs. Klingleman and one of the nurses told me that you'd woken today.  I thought I might drop by briefly to see how you're all holding up."

"It's no intrusion at all, Pastor. Thanks for stopping by." Jeanine reassured him.

"Here.  Have a seat, Pastor." Big Mike said, vacating his own chair.

"Oh no.  I'll just be a moment. " Leedle said furiously waving his congregant back into the seat.  "I just wanted to drop by to see if you needed anything.  Are you feeling well, Michael?

"Well..." Mike thought for a moment, "Yes sir.  Apart from not liking being in here and feeling a little stiff, I- I guess I'm alright."

"Well that is a blessing, indeed." Leedle replied pensively.  For a moment, the minister's mind seemed lost in another world, but an announcement over the hospital intercom seemed to restore his focus on the present.  "Forgive me. I just...have a lot on my mind.  Would it be alright if we had a quick prayer?"

Vacay Post: The Question?

Given my love for Midnight, it should come as no surprise that yet another blue-clad, fedora-wearing crime-fighter intrigues me.  Ever since I was introduced to the Question on the greatest superhero cartoon ever (a.k.a. Justice League Unlimited) I've been eager to learn more about him.  If you are too, enjoy this twelve-minute documentary from YouTube...and have a happy Thanksgiving!

Fiction Foundry 19

Big Mike and Jeanine had spent the better part of two days without no idea what had become of Mike and his friends.

"So, how did you find out?  How did I get here?"

"As it happened, firemen called out to fight the Gammon Plant blaze found you pretty early on--but you were all unconscious, and since none of you had any identification, no one at the hospital knew who to contact.  Eventually, Desmond came to and from there, the hospital was able to get in touch with the Potains.  They contacted us."

"How are Mary and Desmond now?"

At this, his parents' faces suddenly took on an ashen hue.  "Honey, I--I don't--" his mother began before allowing her words to trail off as her gaze fell to the floor.

"There's no easy way to say this, son." Big Mike interjected.  "Desmond suffered a few broken bones and some damage to his eyes, but Mary...she..."

"She, what, Dad?  She what?!" the pitch of Mike's voice rising in step with his panic.

"Somehow, during the quake Mary's back was broken.  The doctors said it looked like she had suffered blunt force trauma.  She's lost the use of her legs, Mikey."

His father's final sentence struck Mikey like a gut punch with a sledgehammer.  The boy just sat there mutely staring into space, for what seemed like an eternity.  At last, the silence with a barely audible whisper: "It's all my fault."

"Oh no, honey! No, it isn't."Jeanine retorted.  "This was just a terrible accident--"

"It was my idea to go through the plant, mom!

Midnight's "Case of the Yehudi Murder," Smash Comics #30 (January 1942)

"The Case of the Yehudi Murder" begins when aged Big City bachelor Mr. Hobbs is accosted by a man who collapses at his feet claiming to be dying.  Hobbs barely has opportunity to reply before the man expires...and then seemingly evaporates!

When he reports these events to the local police, Hobbs is initially accused of drunkenness.  The officer asks mockingly, "Who do you suppose done it?  Yehudi?"

 







Aside from the title, this is the one-and-only mention of the word yehudi in this story.  This makes Cole's decision to use it in the title a bit curious to me.  As near as I could tell online, yehudi is most-commonly used as a synonym for Jew...perhaps it has the sense of an especially physically-tough Jew.  However, neither of those uses make much sense to me within the context of this story.  Am I supposed to understand that the officer is calling Hobbs a Jew?  Was Cole appealing to some contemporary stereotype (of which I'm utterly ignorant) about the streets being full of ruffian Jews killing people? Any help making sense of this would be much appreciated! 

After the old man identifies the (apparently) very-much alive Sheriff J.J. Stanbaugh as the mysterious vanishing corpse, Hobbs is labelled  insane and sent off to a padded cell.

Alone in the cell lamenting that no one will listen, Hobbs receives a note that through the barred windows from Midnight!  Big City's avenger believes, for it turns out that--yet again--Doc Wackey's visoscope provided evidence corroborating Hobbs' story.

On this basis, Midnight and Gabby set to sleuthing, ordering Wackey to keep his eye on the visoscope and report anything of significance.

The scene then shifts to the apartment of one Professor Craft, who is receiving local dignitary Mayor Smith.  Upon entering the apartment, Smith is seized by thugs in Craft's employ.  The professor reveals his plan:  kill Smith, as well as a host of other city leaders, and replace them all with a look alikes.

Thanks once again to the visoscope, Midnight is almost immediately aware of the danger facing Mayor Smith, and sets out for Craft's apartment.

When he and Gabby arrive, we see a reprisal of an older tool used by Midnight--acid!  This time, our hero uses what appears to be a simple squirt gun loaded with some sort of super-acid.  What's really revealing, however, is Midnight's vain rationale:  he simply does this to make a more dramatic entrance!

Though it seems vain to me, the fact that Craft's thugs are initially too scared to attack a man who can "walk through doors" suggests that perhaps our fedora-bedecked paladin understands the criminal psyche better than I do.

It's at this point, that the story really moves into "shark-jumping" territory.  Incensed at the timidity of his hired muscle, Craft seizes the initiative himself by hurling a crate of "experimental snakes" at Midnight.

I for one would love to know precisely what sort of professor Craft is.  He's quite the polymath if he's mastered advanced plastic surgery, and  the engineering skill needed to create a disintegration ray and he dabbles in "experimental snakes" on the side.  For that matter, if Craft has all of these superlative skills, why is he living in an apartment?!  Shouldn't this super--genius have at least pulled together enough resources to have his own house?

As always, when Midnight is down for the count, his trusty sidekick simian Gabby picks up the slack.  The manglin' monkey launches himself at Craft's face and delivers a furious furry pummeling.  Leaping to the controls of the disintegration ray, Gab turns it on the villains and sends them crying for the hills.  As the bad guys scatter, he returns to the side of his envenomed compatriot and proceeds to draw out the poison.

Wackey then informs his fellows that Craft has sped up his timetable and means to eliminate the other office holders and install his own men immediately!  Without pausing for even so much as a bandage job on his snake-bitten elbow, Midnight and Gab are right back at it.  Fortunately, their first stop is quick swing next door (courtesy of the vacuum gun) to save District Attorney Kane.

Our hero comes crashing through the window just as Kane is being held at gunpoint.  Midnight delivers a shattering blow to Craft's face.  Then, lest the festivities end too quickly, Gabby uses a well-placed spitball to cause one of the terrified thugs to leap into Midnight's arms, which our hero interprets as a challenge to a scrap.  A whole lot of crashing ensues, and the story ends with four thugs out cold, and Midnight not even out of breath.

And that, friends, is how you write a crazy Golden Age action packed comic!

Fiction Foundry 18

As his mental fog lifted, Mike's became aware of a swarm of people.  He was in some sort of medical facility.  The staff were throwing around a lot of big words Mike didn't understand and couldn't have pronounced to save his life. However, one big scary one came through loud and clear: coma.

At that moment, his mother appeared in the doorway. Her swollen eyes looked like they were about to burst. "Michael!  Oh son!" she rushed forward and threw herself across his torso. "My sweet boy! I knew you were still in there. I knew it!" A moment later, Jeanine was joined by Big Mike--strong, steady, Stoic...and trembling.
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At last the medical personnel decided Mike was stable enough to be allowed some time uninterrupted by poking, prodding, or scanning. He would finally get the chance to find out what happened and how wound up in a hospital bed.

Pulling the uncomfortable hospital furniture right up to their son's bedside, Big Mike and Jeanine related how an unprecedented earthquake had rocked the city of Atherton...four months earlier! Because nothing like it had ever happened in the region, there were no contingency plans. 

Don Alejandro de la Vega for Governor of CA

Regular readers of the Spring Road Superhero Review may not recognize the author's political leanings.  Given the excessive political browbeating routinely administered to comic book fans by modern Marvel and DC editors, I generally try to keep my own political rhetoric tamped down on this blog. 

However, sometimes I run across comic book gold that I just have to share.  Today's little treasure emerges from a February 1958 Zorro comic book, profiled over at the Major Spoilers.com site.  Oh for the days of comic books where the heroes said stuff like Don Alejandro:

Fiction Foundry 17

(From the sounds of their retching, it must've had the same effect on Mary and Desmond.)
When his eyes finally cleared, Mike kinda wished they hadn't. All around there nothing but the terrifying sight of buildings and pipes swaying like trees in a tornado.

"C'mon!" he yelled. Mike tried to help Mary to her feet, but the undulating ground made it all but impossible to maintain his own footing.  A second tremor knocked the kids down, tossing Mike several feet away from his companions.  He looked on in frozen horror as a large metal plate broke loose and plummeted directly toward Mary!

And then...

everything went black.

Chapter Two
Mike's next memory was of squinting his eyes against an intensely bright light.  At first, he wondered if this might not be the End of Time--a prospect Mike realized was far scarier to him than it ought to have been.

As it turned out, he wouldn't have to wrestle with that particular existential problem today.  An ambient rhythmic beeping was Mike's first indication that this was not quite the Final Judgment.  The unfamiliar voice confirmed it.

"Oh my God.  I can't believe it."

An instant later the voice was shouting.

"I need assistance in Room 302!  Patient's waking up!"