DC Prez Jenette Kahn was kind enough to stay with DC all these years so that this particular strip would be as timely today as it was back when Fred first drew it. Okay, so the costumes that Lightning Lad and Chameleon Boy are wearing have been retconned into oblivion since then, but that's about the only thing that's out of step with the above strip.
Get it? Out of step? Ha ha ha.
In case you're not up on your Legion lore, Lightning Lad was one of the founders of the Legion of Super-Heroes, with the power to generate powerful electrical bolts. He received his powers after having crashed his running-on-empty spaceship onto a planetoid, where he tried to lure a rhinoceros-like equivalent of an electric eel into recharging his ship's power core. Dare I say that Garth wasn't particularly gifted in the brains department? He probably enjoyed sticking his fingers into electrical sockets when he was a kid, too. Needless to say, he got caught in the beast's electrical charge, and this being a comic book, he had an origin and received wonderful powers, instead of dying instantly.
Chameleon Boy comes from a planet of shape-shifters, and can assume the shape of pretty much anything he can imagine, just like Plastic Man. Considering that he gains and loses mass in accordance with whatever shape he assumes, there are some interesting implications for the Law of Conservation of Mass which DC's writers have evidently chosen to ignore. But who am I to start asking about physical laws in a comic book setting?
Duo Damsel, who is referred to in the above strip, has the power to split apart into two identical versions of herself, which makes husband Bouncing Boy a very, very lucky man.
- NP
