The Unique and the Useless, dose #3!

Puck

• Alter ego:                                 Eugene Milton Judd
• Affiliation:                                Alpha Flight
•                                                     Beta Flight
•                                                     Gamma Flight
•                                                     X-Force
• Powers:                                    Superhuman strength
•                                                     Agility
•                                                     Reflexes
•                                                     Durability
•                                                     Skilled fighter
• Species:                                    Human
• 1^st Appearance:                     Marvel Age #2             (Marvel)

Judd was a soldier of fortune, who traveled the world looking for adventures.  In one of those adventures, Judd tried to get the “Black Blade of Raazer.”   An evil spirit, Raazer was accidentally released from the blade.  In trying to defeat Raazer, Judd had to absorb him into his body.  This caused Judd to shrink from 7’0 to 3’6.  He still retained the strength of a 7’0 man but in a 3’6 body.  Containing Raazer in his body caused him to become immortal and in constant pain.

So Puck is the epitome of half a man, since he is half as his original size.  His signature move is to cartwheel around hitting people.  Hopefully he doesn’t get dizzy.  There has to be a better way to use superhuman strength other than cartwheel around.

Red Bee

• Alter ego:                                 Richard Raleigh
• Affiliation:                                All-Star Squadron
•                                                     Freedom Fighters
• Powers:                                    Carries a special “Stinger” gun
•                                                     Uses trained bees
• Species:                                    Human
• 1st Appearance:                    Hit Comics #1              (DC Comics)

By day an Assistant District Attorney in Superior City, Oregon.  By night or whenever needed a welder of trained bees.  Trusty “stinger gun” by his side he lives to fight Nazi’s and gangsters.  His secret weapon, his favorite bee Michael who lives in his belt buckle, only to appear for special circumstances.  I am not sure how you would train a bee,  Bee’s live about 6 weeks, sting once then die.  Maybe these are special attack bee’s.  Born with the innate ability to listen to a guy in red and yellow spandex.  They don’t have to sting after all that is what the “stinger gun” is for.

Cypher

• Alter ego:                                 Douglas Aaron “Doug” Ramsey
• Affiliation:                                New Mutants
•                                                     Hellions
•                                                     X-Force
•                                                     X-Men
• Powers:                                    Omni-lingual
• Species:                                    Human
• 1st Appearance:                    New Mutants vol. 1 #13           (Marvel Comics)

Cypher can translate any language, written or verbal, human or alien, even computer.  During fights he would hide behind a tree or whatever was around.  He considered himself useless as a mutant.  He was most unpopular mutant.  Even the guys that did wrote and illustrated the comics didn’t like him.    He did have nice hair (I had to say one nice thing about him).

Hindsight

• Alter ego:                                  Carlton LaFroyge
• Affiliation:                                 New Warriors
• Aliases:                                      Hindsight Lad
• Powers:                                     None
• Species:                                     Human
• 1st Appearance:                     Avengers West Coast (Vol. 2) #46       (Marvel Comics)

Hindsight can research and analyze events in hindsight.  So after it has happened this guy can do research and tell you what went wrong.  Ok, so can everyone else.  Not sure this needs much more explanation.

Jubilee

• Alter ego:                                 Jubilation “Jubilee” Lee
• Affiliation:                                Forgiven
•                                                     New Warriors
•                                                     X-Men
•                                                     X-Corps
•                                                     Generation X
•                                                     Xavier Institute
• Powers:                                    Ability to project brightly colored pyrotechnics from her
•                                                     fingers.
• Species:                                    Human
• 1st Appearance:                    X-Force #116 – Exit Wounds               (Marvel Comics)

Jubilee can make fireworks from her fingers.  She is great to have around during parties and especially the 4^th of July.  She could control the fireworks through mental control.  Direct them where to go, how to form and when to detonate.  Jubilee has gone through several remakes, from mutant to de-powered human and finally vampire.  Now as a vampire she can be pretty powerful as long as it is a night and no garlic, silver or crosses are around.  I wonder if the brightly colored pyrotechnics of her former self would damage her current self.  That would be irony at its best.

Dose number three of the utter absurdity lambasted upon us by those who felt we were inane enough to buy into this insanity.  I am sure there will be more.  There is a lot of WTF out there.

The Unique and the Useless, the next dose!

Color Kid

• Alter ego:                                Ulu Vakk
• Affiliation:                              Legion of Super Heroes
•                                                  Legion of Substitute Heroes
• Powers:                                   Change the colors of people and objects
• Species:                                   Lupran
• 1^st Appearance:                       Adventure Comics #342         (DC Comics)

Color Kid was struck by a multi-color beam of light from another dimension.  This gave him the ability to change the color of just about anything.  Little is know about the limits of his power or how permanent it is.  There can be a case made for a temporary use of this power IE changing a color to confuse an enemy: reverse the color of the sky and the ground.   This would have to be limited to a very specific area.  If it were allowed to be used over a large area, the bad would far outweigh the good.  Think, planes.

He did have one stellar moment in comic book history when he changed the krypton cloud surrounding the earth from green to blue.  Allowing Superboy and Supergirl to return to earth and wrecking havoc for the Bizarro clan.

Doorman

• Alter ego:                                DeMarr Davis
• Affiliation:                              Great Lakes Champions
•                                                   GLX-Men
•                                                   Great Lakes Avengers
• Aliases:                                    The Living Portal
• Powers:                                   Portal generation
•                                                    Ability to bring souls to the afterlife
• Species:                                   Human
• 1st Appearance:                   Avengers West Coast (Vol. 2) #46     (Marvel Comics)

Doorman allowed a person to teleport from one room to the next.  He did this by pressing himself against a wall creating a portal to the next room.  If you need to enter the room next door and happen to not have a key, then Doorman would be really handy to have around.  However, explaining how come this guy is hanging around all the time in case you need to make a quick escape could provide arduous.

In his defense, his power did evolve into something quite a bit more useful.  Doorman sacrificed himself so Mr. Immortal could fight Maelstrom.  In doing so he gained the ability to take souls to the afterlife.  This power is quite a bit better but has not really been explored.

Stone Boy

• Alter ego:                                Dag Wentim
• Affiliation:                               Legion of Super-Heroes
•                                                    Legion of Substitute Heroes
• Powers:                                   Ability to turn his body into stone
• Species:                                   Swenian
• 1st Appearance:                   Adventure Comics #306         (DC Comics)

Stone Boy can turn his body into stone.  At first glance that sounds like it could be good, except and this is a big except, while he is stone he cannot move.  So he makes a good anchor or something to drop on people.  He did eventually learn to turn only pieces of himself into stone but it was not reliable.  His ability to transform into stone can be traced to his home world’s where he had to hibernate to survive the six month long nights.

Squirrel Girl

• Alter ego:                                Doreen Green
• Affiliation:                              Great Lakes Avengers
•                                                  New Avengers
• Aliases:                                    Rodent
• Powers:                                   Squirrel-like abilities
•                                                   Superhuman agility and strength
•                                                   Prehensile tail
•                                                    Ability to communicate with squirrels
• Species:                                   Human
• 1st Appearance:                   Avengers West Coast (Vol. 2) #46     (Marvel Comics)

Squirrel Girl’s ability to call squirrels to aid her isn’t exactly the coolest power but it could come in handy.  With an army of squirrels, enemies can be overwhelmed by sheer numbers, think Ben (rats …. squirrels not too much difference).   She did defeat Deadpool.  So the sheer number of rodents she is willing to sacrifice does allow her to come out on top.  She does have some skill at martial arts due to her squirrel like reflexes.  So she can be formidable if there are a large number of squirrels around.  Hopefully, she carries a lot of flea spray.

Gin Genie

• Alter ego:                                Rebecca “Beckah” Parker
• Affiliation:                              X-Force
• Powers:                                  Attractive Female
•                                                 Blast Power
•                                                 Earth Manipulation
•                                                 Vibration Wave
• Species:                                   Human
• 1st Appearance:                      X-Force #116 – Exit Wounds             (Marvel Comics)

Gin Genie can cause the ground to shake with seismic vibrations, which would be good except…why is it that all the excepts usually turn a decent power into something useless.  Now back to the except….she must drink alcohol to make the seismic vibrations powerful.  So a drunk super hero that makes the ground shake.  Doesn’t the ground usually seem to be moving when you are drunk?  So there it is an alcoholic superhero.  How did that ever seem like a good idea.

So there is the next dose of the utter absurdity lambasted upon us by those who felt we were inane enough to buy into this insanity.  How many doses there will be is up in the air, about the time I think that has to be it, I find something else and think WTF.

The Unique and Useless

When you hear superhero you immediately think of Superman or Batman or any number of other heroes with cool super powers.  There are a lot of those out there:  super strength, spidey senses, indestructible bones and claws, alien rings, and good old human technology.   But have you ever thought that ripping your arms off to use as weapons or being able inflate your body so you can bounce like a ball would be a good super power.  Someone has and not only did someone think of them but thought it would be a good idea to make a comic about it.  So let’s take a look at some of these unique and useless super powers.

Arms-Fall-Off-Boy 

• Alter ego:                                Floyd Belkin
• Affiliation:                               Legion of Super Heroes
•                                                  Heroes of Lallor
• Powers:                                   Detaches limbs to use as clubs
• Aliases:                                    Splitter
• 1^st Appearance:                     Secret Origins Vol. 2 #46       (DC Comics)

Even though he is affiliated with the Legion of Super Heroes, he was never really part of the Legion of Super Heroes.  Floyd was an applicant twice and rejected twice.   Now let’s think about this super power for a second….you rip off your arm and hit someone with it, giving you only one arm to work with.  So while you are swinging your arm the villains pummel you with their fists, seeing as they have two arms.   Maybe they will fall over laughing, smack their head on the concrete giving them self a concussion and pass out.    No wonder he never made it into the Legion of Super Heroes.

Matter-Eater Lad 

•  Alter ego:                                 Tenzil Kem
• Affiliation:                                 Legion of Super Heroes
• Powers:                                     Able to bite thru and consume all matter
• Species:                                     Bismoll
• 1^st Appearance:                       Adventurer Comics #303        (DC Comics)

Matter-Eater Lad, as well as all natives of Bismoll, can eat all matter, including those that are indestructible.  Bismollian’s developed this ability due to microbes that made all food inedible so they evolved to be able to ingest anything and everything.  Maybe they possess goat DNA, goats seem to have the same ability.  I don’t even want to think about how they would get rid of all of the matter that they ate, since he eats super speed.  One has to wonder and all I can say is just EWWWW.   Matter-Eater does not appear very often, how to make his power useful is a challenge and back to EWWWWW.

Matter- Eater does have one shining moment.  In Superboy and The Legion of Super-Heroes #25 he consumes the indestructible Miracle Machine and saves the universe.  The machine makes him insane but fear not he is cured by Brainiac Five.

 Bouncing Boy

•  Alter ego:                                Charles Foster Taine
• Affiliation:                                Legion of Super Heroes
• Powers:                                    Inflates body and bounces like a ball, resistant to injury,
•                                                   Invulnerable to electricity while bouncing
• Species:                                    Human
• 1^st Appearance:                       Action Comics #276   (DC Comics)

Bouncing boy is an accidental super hero.  He drank what he thought was soda but was actually super plastic formula.  Since they weren’t too many applications for this power they made him a teacher.  He spent the majority of his time training recruits at the Legions Academy.  Can you imagine hearing this:   “Stop or I will bounce on you.”  or “Come BOING catch me BOING, I can BOING bounce circles BOING around you.”  Couldn’t the villains just pop him like a balloon?   As George Bernard Shaw wrote:  He who can, does. He who cannot, teaches.  Lets leave it at that.

Jazz

• Alter ego:                                 John Arthur Zander
• Affiliation:                                Legion of Super Heroes
• Powers:                                    Blue skin
• Species:                                    Human
• 1^st Appearance:                       District X #2   (Marvel Comics)

I don’t even know what to say about this.  Blue skin as a super power, oh wait he is also an aspiring rapper.  If his rapping is as good as his super power he has a serious problem.  There is nothing that I can think of that would make blue skin a useful super power.  Time to move on.

Danny the Street

•  Alter ego:                                None
• Affiliation:                                Doom Patrol
•                                                   Teen Titans
• Powers:                                    Teleportation
• Aliases:                                     Danny the World, Danny the Brick, Danny the Island,
•                                                   “Danny the Alley”
• 1^st Appearance:                       Doom Patrol vol. 2, #35          (DC Comics)

Danny is actually a street.  He serves as a home and haven to the outcast and strange.    He can integrate himself into a city without causing damage or disturbance.  The city just makes room for him.  He does this when no one is looking so no one will notice.  So not only do we have to believe that there is such a thing as a sentient and sapient piece of road but that cities are cognizant enough that they just move out of his way and allow him to join in.  Now if this wasn’t enough, Danny is a transvestite street.  His street is lined with hyper masculine stores decorated with pink curtains and lace.  He communicates by signs placed in his windows, type-written messages and letters formed out of manhole vapors or broken glass shards.  So if you can get someone to walk on him while discussing some super secret plan for world domination, it is possible he can teleport away and get …insert favorite super hero here… and give him a message spelled out in manhole vapors and save the world.   Yea, we will all believe that scenario.

So as not to make your eyes bleed with the utter absurdity lambasted upon us by those who felt we were inane enough to buy into this insanity.  It will be broken up into small doses.