Wildfire was a breakout success for a stretch of Legion of Super-Heroes comics: he had a ton of powers, including for a time those of several other Legionnaires. He was somewhat abrasive and cocky, which made him stand out from some of the other, more vanilla characters. And there was just a touch of body horror, since he was a disembodied ball of energy living in a body-shaped containment suit. But even he was no match for the Composite Superman...no matter how dumb that name was.
Ooh, Amalgamax. That's loads better...no, that'd be a better name for maybe a late 70's Atari 2600 competitor. Anyway, today we've got 1982's World's Finest Comics #284, "I...Amalgamax." Written by Cary Burkett, art by George Tuska. (With Adam Kubert...on letters.) The original Composite Superman had died years prior, but when a new one shows up, Superman has to blaze to the 30th century to get as much Legion of Super-Heroes back-up as he can before the new Composite kills Batman. They arrive in time, but although he takes the identity Amalgamax, he still has all of the powers of all of the Legion members (with the exceptions of ones that joined later, like Wildfire) and walks all over the team until Shrinking Violet triggers an alarm in his belt. Yeah, she does that for some guys--no! The alarm makes Amalgamax think his powers were going to time out, and he leaves to recharge.
Supes and Bats realize Amalgamax is really the alien Xan, who previously used the original Composite Superman in a revenge plot against the heroes for putting his space pirate daddy in space jail, where he died of an alien disease. So he kind of freaks out when he contracts the same disease that killed his father, with the alien microbes super-charged and as invulnerable as he was! Wildfire helpfully points out they have a cure for that in the future, but it won't work if Amalgamax has his powers, so he's forced to surrender. Hopefully, no one ever tells him it was a trick, an illusion created by Princess Projectra!
Wildfire is kind of unimpressed by Batman all issue, who's in the thick of things even with a tore-up outfit; and who gives Wildfire a bit of crap in the conclusion. Which seems a bit insensitive to a guy with no body; but he is a bit of a dick, yeah.
2 comments:
There was definitely a code against killing--ask Star Boy--but I'm betting Wildfire opened up so aggressively because it was the Composite Superman and Wildfire knew he could survive it.
Exactly. Plus he thought he was pretty much invulnerable since he possessed all the Legionaries' powers, so.....
Amalgamax huh? I know this'll sound corny as fuck, but I think a big opportunity was missed here with Amalgamax not being able to shill Betamax 10 years later. Just saying....
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