Wildfire

© DC Comics / Used without permission

Origin: Transformed
Real Name: Drake Burroughs
First Appearance: Superboy and Legion of Super-Heroes #195 [DC Comics June 1973]
                            Character created by Cary Bates and Dave Cockrum

ABILITIES

Prowess 4 {Fair}
Coordination 4 {Fair}
Strength 7 [Limit: level drops to 0 without containment suit] {Amazing}
Intellect 4 {Fair}
Awareness 5 {Good}
Willpower 4 {Fair}

Stamina: 12
Determination: 4

SPECIALTIES

Leadership

POWERS

Alternate Form ["Anti-Energy" (Limit: Constant)] 9 {Fantastic}
        Blast (Limit: using it at more than intensity 8 destroys Containment Suit)
        Flight
        Immunity to Physical Attacks
Life Support 10 (everything) {Supreme}
Phasing 8 (Limit: Blocked if wearing Containment Suit) {Amazing}

EQUIPMENT

Containment Suit 7 {Amazing}
       Damage Resistance
Legion Flight Ring

QUALITIES

. Short-tempered.

. Cannot touch most beings, placing a burden on his love life and social abilities.

. If suit is destroyed, he becomes incorporeal and cannot speak.  

Points: 70

ORIGIN STORY

Wildfire was originally Drake Burroughs, an astroengineer. While working on a new propulsion system, the unit's safety valve snapped and discharged a blast of anti-matter energy. Burroughs was engulfed instantly but somehow his consciousness survived and Burroughs found himself transformed into a being of pure anti-energy.

Fortunately, his colleagues had on hand a containment suit that could be used to keep Drake's anti-energy from dispersing. Once confined to a specific area, Drake's energy form stabilized and became self-regenerating. He again possessed a semblance ofhumanoid form; however, he had no mouth, eyes, nose, or ears, but rather a blank metallic faceplate, and lacked the senses of taste and smell. Drake also had vast super-powers. Some of his powers included super-strength, flight, and near-invulnerability. The most potent of his abilities was the power to fire energy blasts. He was reluctant to use that ability because of an accident in which he nearly killed his former girlfriend.

Calling himself ERG-1 (Energy Release Generator 1), Drake decided to petition for membership in the Legion, thinking his litany of powers would guarantee his admittance. To his surprise, he was turned down because all the abilities he demonstrated were duplicates of those of some other Legionnaires; he had not demonstrated his energy blasting because he was afraid he could not control them safely (at this time, the Legion's bylaws required that each member possess at least one superpower no other active member did). Anxious to prove his abilities, he followed several Legionnaires on a mission to a planet called Manna-5. On this mission, Colossal Boy was knocked unconscious by an enemy machine and none of the other Legionnaires present (Phantom Girl and Chemical King) had the power to save him. ERG-1 destroyed the machine, but expelled his entire energy form from his containment suit. Because his energy form was invisible, the Legionnaires assumed he had been killed in saving Colossal Boy and that ERG-1 had not demonstrated his energy powers earlier because they could only be used once.

However, ERG-1 was alive. By now, his energy form was stable enough so that he could survive without his suit, though he could neither take humanoid form nor communicate with anyone. He followed the Legionnaires back to Earth where they put his containment suit on display. Upon reaching the Legionnaries' headquarters he managed to regain the suit and, in the usual heroic fashion, save the Legion from another menace. He was then admitted to the team and adopted the name Wildfire.

Over time, Wildfire lost many of his powers. This was partly because of the trauma of the explosive exit from his containment suit. In addition, his original containment suit was eventually destroyed and subsequent copies were not as versatile. His later suits were also not nearly as durable and it was easier to cause him to be expelled from it. Even so, he always retained his flight, energy blast and super strength, and was commonly considered among the four most powerful Legionnaires along with Superboy, M'Onel and Ultra Boy. Wildfire's energy constantly interacts atomically with the positive enegy of our universe in miniature nuclear reactions, providing an apparent inexhaustible source of power.

Initially, Wildfire and Superboy were rivals and actually fought over the position. Wildfire acquitted himself well in that battle, establishing that his raw power was comparable to a Kryptonian's. As leader, Wildfire got mixed reviews. Though he was decisive and a gifted tactician, his poor people skills swiftly alienated many of his fellow members (though not, ironically, Superboy; at the conclusion of a particularly rough crisis, he told his one-time rival that he had become "one hell of a leader"). He led the Legion through the Earthwar and Omega crises but was defeated for re-election by Live Wire.

Shortly after becoming leader, Wildfire recruited a young Amerindian mutant, Dawnstar. He soon became enamored of her, but for years theirs was a love-hate relationship. It was clear to their teammates that they were extremely fond of each other, if not actively in love, but Dawnstar would not admit to her feelings. Wildfire, in return, was often passive-aggressive in his treatment of her. It was eventually revealed that Dawnstar did reciprocate his feelings. However, she feared that she would never know physical love since Wildfire did not possess a physical body.

My third installment on converting Legion of Super Heroes characters into ICONS, Wildfire gave me my run for the money: I had to strip the character down into its core and rethink it from that. Again, Joe Bardales and +Cameron Mount  were there to exchange some ideas on Alternate Form, which was of great help. Also, as a converted character, Wildfire unavoidably exceeds the 45-point limitation that the ICONS Superpowered Roleplaying Game core book recommends and it was revised, according to the ICONS Great Power book. Character based on its Pre-Zero Hour version. Streamlined, once again, according to ICONS Superpowered Roleplaying: The Assembled Edition.