I always got a kick out of Chuck Taine. I liked that he was a rare hero that was not in body builder shape, and I liked even more that his size and goofy power set did not prevent him from becoming romantically involved with Triplicate Girl. I have to imagine he and Flatman from the Great Lakes Avengers would get along well.
Sunday, May 17, 2020
Bouncing Boy and Flatman
I always got a kick out of Chuck Taine. I liked that he was a rare hero that was not in body builder shape, and I liked even more that his size and goofy power set did not prevent him from becoming romantically involved with Triplicate Girl. I have to imagine he and Flatman from the Great Lakes Avengers would get along well.
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Triplicate Girl had become Duo Damsel by the time I started reading LSH in 1983. I really miss the early to mid '80s era written by Paul Kupperberg and others.
Ah Ross. If you had reversed the cover image, you would have had a great "1 0".
In the sequel, does Flatman meet Dick Grayson?
I suppose the inclusion of Fat Fury and the Human Flying Saucer would've been redundant. ;-)
Genius!
Bouncing Boy! Great to see him. I'm unfamiliar with Flatman but they make a great visual combination.
Still, you missed a trick. You could have had a 3rd character. Who? Dunno. I'll leave that to someone out there more knowledgeable...
But Paper (Flatman) wraps Stone (Bouncing Boy), Stone blunts Scissors...and round it goes. So who could work as Scissors here?
This is brilliant. I wish I'd thought of this one but it makes so much sense :D
A real great homage to the Legion of Super-Heroes using Ty Templeton's Bouncing Boy form the Who's Who in the Legion of Super-Heroes mini-series from '88 and John Byrne's Flatman from the West Coast Avengers by Marvel.
You hit right on target for why I loved (and still love) Bouncing Boy, but not quite the bullseye: I also appreciated that "his size and goofy power set" (as you so aptly put it) didn't stop him from being an effective superhero and team member. He was by a good margin the most easily-underestimated Legionnaire,* and took advantage of that fact on at least a couple of occasions that I can think of. Should the CW's Supergirl or Legends of Tomorrow ever travel to the Legion's time, I sincerely hope that Chuck and Luornu are both included on the roster, to show that guys of any body type can be a hero and get the girl.
Sadly, since Chuck is not (the last I knew) in the current Legion continuity, that's not likely.
*That is, easily underestimated by his foes. When it comes to the writers and readership, Matter-Eater Lad comes close, as arguably does Color Kid.
@Dave: Edward Scizzorhands, perhaps?
@Bob & Dave: Wolfie and his claws.
How about Bouncing Boy and Fighting American's Round Robin?; speaking of which, wity the new Samurai Jack video game coming this summer, maybe Samurai Jack cound meet Fighting American; at latest incarnation, Fighting American was stranded in (his) future, like Samurai Jack.
Anon 12:16PM: Fighting American was a Captain America expy co-created by Captain America's creator THEMSELVES.
What kind of kinky bedroom adventures would Bouncing Boy and Triplicate Girl have? Clearly it would be a group effort with lots of bouncing.
Time for Mr. Fantastic, Elongated Man and Mr. Gum - The Expansion Team - dealing with some competition:
- Plastic Man, Flatman and Thin Man (or Generation X's Skin, or even Machine Man)
... or, who knows, the female version of the team with:
- Elasti-Girl (Doom Patrol), Elastigirl (Pixar's The Incredibles) and Ms. Marvel [Kamala Khan].
@Bob and Horsefeathers... great suggestions. Wolverine! Doh! So obvious and I didn't think of it.
Just for the record:
Triplicate Girl became Duo Damsel after one of her three selves was killed in Adventure Comics #341. Her relationship with Bouncing Boy began in Adventure #380. So technically, Bouncing Boy never was involved with Triplicate Girl.
Wolverine is a great idea. Although for the others in the trio, I note that there have been a number of suggestions for scissors, paper, rock over the years. For example, comments on https://braveandboldlost.blogspot.com/2015/12/sgt-rock-and-invaders.html suggested Edward Scissorhands, Seargeant Rock and the paper figure from the Aparo/Brennart Brave and the Bold 178 tale (www.amazon.com/Brave-Starring-Batman-Creeper-Paperchase/dp/B00ASSUSOM)
@Dave: I suggested Edward over Wolverine because Bouncing Boy is DC and Flatman is Marvel, so I thought it best to look elsewhere. (My first thought, actually, was Lady Shiva.)
@Other Bob: Thanks for that clarification; that's kind of what I remembered, but you had the actual numbers.
@Anon@12:42: One of my favorite LSH panels was at the end of the story when Luornu kissed both of her husband's cheeks at the same time. But whatever those two/three got up to, I don't think it could hold a candle to Colossal Boy and his Durlan wife (that's the same species as Chameleon Boy).
I've always liked Bouncing Boy, for the reasons cited above and remember the salacious jokes his pairing with DD caused. And if Flatman were a DC character, they'd have probably given him a boy sidekick named "Ribbon".
One questionL if a Carggian and a Winathian ever got married, would that make their kids potential sextuplets?
Fighting American, like Captain America, had, for one creator, Jack "The King" Kirby himself!
@emsley: Now you have me wishing Marvel would give Frog-Man a boy sidekick named Ribbit.
He'd probably wind up being treated like a toadie. ;-)
How about a sequel where these two somehow get de-powered? That way, Ross could entitle it...
"Gone Straight!"
This team up reminds me of two other characters who should also meet up. Bouncing Boy and other Legion members encountered another super team in the Thirtieth Century called the Wanderers who had a character called Immorto. The Great Lakes Avengers had a character called Mr.Immortal. Need I say more.
I'd rather see someone from the Marvel Ultraverse meet one of the Dakota City-slickers from the DCU.
Hey, @Ross ... How about Bouncing Boy vs. the mutant Blob next time?
For a followup, add Spider-Man with a blue power ring. He should fit right in here.
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