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.
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| 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?
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