Bouncing Boy

Bouncing Boy
Publication information
Publisher	DC Comics
First appearance	Action Comics # 276 (May 1961)
Created by	Jerry Siegel Jim Mooney
In-story information
Alter ego	Charles Foster Taine
Species	Metahuman
Place of origin	Earth (31st century)
Team affiliations	Legion of Super-Heroes
Abilities	Inflatable body Limited invulnerability (while bouncing) Resistance to injury

Bouncing Boy is a fictional character from the DC Comics Universe. He is a 30th-century super-hero known for being a member of the Legion of Super-Heroes. Born on Earth as Chuck Taine, Bouncing Boy has the power to inflate like a giant ball and bounce around. This combination of invulnerability and velocity makes him a surprisingly useful combatant. Born on Earth without any powers, he received his abilities by accidentally drinking a super-plastic formula he believed was a soda pop. Chuck is a member of the Legion of Super-Heroes. He has shared a long-term romantic relationship with Triplicate Girl of the planet Cargg, one of his fellow Legionnaires whom he eventually marries. In Reboot Legion continuity, Chuck Taineis the Legion's mechanic. Bouncing Boy was created by Jerry Siegel and Jim Mooney, first appearing in Action Comics #276. (1961)

Fictional Character Biography

Bouncing Boy (Chuck Taine) was born on Earth with no powers. He received his ability to inflate when he accidentally drank a super plastic formula which he thought was soda pop. He first appeared in Action Comics #276 (May 1961).

He married fellow Legionnaire Duo Damsel in Superboy #200 and then left active service as a Legionnaire to become a Legion reservist, appearing only sporadically thereafter until Zero Hour. During his period as a reservist, he and Duo Damsel were in charge of training recruits to the Legion's Academy.

In the Post-Zero Hour continuity, Chuck was recognized as Charles Foster Taine where he acted as the Legion's resident architect and engineer. He did not possess bouncing powers in this continuity and was only an honorary member of the Legion. As a maintenance man, he once built a specialty vehicle called the "Bouncing Boy" which acted as a bouncing juggernaut, smashing anything in its way.

The name Charles Foster Taine is a reference to the classic 1941 feature film, Citizen Kane and its title character, Charles Foster Kane, though in his initial appearance he is simply named Chuck Taine.

He has yet to appear in the "Threeboot" version of the Legion, which began in 2004.

The Post-Infinite Crisis version of Bouncing Boy appeared in Final Crisis: Legion of 3 Worlds. Missing in action during most of the miniseries, he and his wife, now known as Duplicate Damsel, finally make an appearance in the final issue to help end the battle against the antagonists and then rejoin the Legion.

Powers

Bouncing Boy has the ability to expand his body to form the shape of a sphere, which provides him with the ability to bounce off of surfaces. In his normal form, Bouncing Boy is overweight, but when he "inflates", while his mass and height remain the same, his overall dimensions increase to resemble that of a human-sized ball. Whether his body actually inflates—as in, takes in air—or his individual cells expand, decreasing his overall density while increasing his overall dimensions, is not explained. When he utilizes his power, his body's elasticity and resiliency become extremely rubbery allowing him to bounce with great force. Originally thought of as a useless power by his Legionnaire peers, he has adeptly demonstrated many times how he can use his body's shape and rubber-like consistency as an effective ballistic weapon. His "go-to" move is to use surrounding walls to ricochet back and forth in order to bowl over his opponents. Unlike an inanimate rubber ball, which will slowly lose its kinetic force due to friction and gravity, Bouncing Boy uses his muscles to maintain his velocity and power as he bounces about. His power also provides him with a limited degree of invulnerability while bouncing. He is also invulnerable to electric shock while in his spherical state.

Bouncing Boy lost his powers for a short period of time after he accidentally bounced into a matter-shrinking facility. This caused him to lose his ability to expand, which resulted in him having to step down from the League of Superheroes. He later regained his powers after the formula which originally gave him his powers was recreated for him. He then re-joined the League of Superheroes.

Three years later, he lost his powers again for no apparent reason. He resigned once more, and married Duo Damsel, who also lost her powers.

Equipment

As a member of the Legion of Super-Heroes, Bouncing Boy is provided a Legion Flight Ring. It allows him to fly and protects him from the vacuum of space and other dangerous environments.

In Other Media

Bouncing Boy appeared in the 2006 episode of Justice League Unlimited "Far From Home," featuring the Legion of Super-Heroes. He was voiced by Googy Gress.

Bouncing Boy is part of the core team in the Legion of Super-Heroes animated series, where he is voiced by Michael Cornacchia. In the series, Bouncing Boy is presented as an accepted member of the team, and the main pilot of the Legion Cruiser. In the episode "Timber Wolf," he and Brainiac Five quarrel over Bouncing Boy's piloting and engineering, but in the end, Bouncing Boy proves his abilities to his teammate.

In the episode "Lightning Storm", Bouncing Boy is seen working with potential Legion applicants, helping them prepare for the upcoming Legion auditions. In the same episode, his quick thinking helps him in the battle against the Lightspeed Vanguard. This led into the following episode, "Substitutes", in which Bouncing Boy gave encouragement to the future Legion of Substitute Heroes, where it was revealed that he himself tried out for the Legion four times before being accepted. In the end, he ends up coining the fledgling group's name.

Ultimately, in the episode "Chain of Command", Bouncing Boy's quick thinking and observation allows him to form a plan that is crucial to the Legion's trying to save the inhabitants of the planet Winath. At the end of the episode, after Lightning Lad challenged Cosmic Boy for leadership of the Legion and prompted an election, an upset occurred – with the Legion instead electing Bouncing Boy to the position. After being elected, Bouncing Boy receives a kiss from Triplicate Girl. In the end, they are seen holding hands. He is seen taking an active leadership role in the 2-part episode "Sundown".

In the second season, his new position as leader is for the most part ignored, as Lightning Lad and Cosmic Boy are still arguing about it. No canon explanation is given.

Parodies

An episode of The Fairly OddParents in which kids were turned into superheroes featured "The Bouncing Boil". His many failed attempts at stopping a Wolverine-based supervillain (since she would just hold out her claws and deflate him) would commonly cause his teammates to state "Man, that's a dumb power."

The story arch "The Innocents" from Garth Ennis' comic book series The Boys features a controversial parody of Bouncing Boy called Bobby Badoing who is constantly in an inflated state and is also mentally impaired.

External links

• A Hero History Of Bouncing Boy

Origin

While working for a scientist on 30th Century Earth, Chuck Taine accidentally drank an experimental super-plastic fluid while watching a sports event. The fluid drastically altered his body, giving him the power to inflate into a spongy round shape that could bounce and ricochet without harm. Accidental interfering with the event, he quickly made his exit and decided to try out for the Legion of Super-Heroes. Chuck tried out twice for the team and was rejected both times. After defeating an electrical villain because he wasn't grounded, Chuck took the name Bouncing Boy and was invited to join the Legion of Super Heroes finally. His good humor and charming personality eventually led him to proclaiming himself Legion 'Morale Officer'.

Creation

Bouncing Boy created by Jerry Siegel & Jim Mooney.

Character Evolution

Silver Age

Bouncing Boy lost his powers once while bouncing in front of a matter-shrinking machine, and was forced to resign from the Legion. However, he temporarily regained his powers when the Legion faced Computo for the first time, and one of Triplicate Girl's bodies was killed. His powers soon left him once again, but were restored once more by Dr. Zan Orbal of Evillo's Devil's Dozen. He happily rejoined the team. Bouncing Boy became a teacher at the Legion Academy, and had a solo victory against The Hunter. This boosted Chuck's confidence, and once again losing his powers, he proposed to Duo Damsel (formerly Triplicate Girl). The two quickly married on Mars at Nix Olympia, and they both retired from the Legion due to the rule that Legionnaires could not be married. That rule was later overturned, but the couple decided to stay as Legion reserves. Once again, Bouncing Boy's powers returned and he Duo Damsel settled on the colony world of Wondil IX. After helping the Legion on a few occasional missions, the pair returned to Earth to become the headmasters of the Legion Academy. They later went on to found the second Legion of Substitute Heroes alongside reservists Cosmic Boy and Night Girl.

Five Years Later

Following the Magic Wars, five years were skipped in Legion history. In that interim the Legion Academy had closed and Chuck and his wife became trainers for the United Planets Militia Academy. His wife's second body was later revealed to be alive and Chuck returned to the happy life of being legally married to two women.

Five Years Later / Batch SW6

A teen "SW6" version of Bouncing Boy mysteriously appeared. During the Zero Hour event, Older Chuck would later merge with his young counterpart. Like the rest of his old teammates in the Legion, to reboot their failing reality.

Reboot / Earth-247

On Earth-247, Chuck Taine never gained super powers, but was a valuable ally of the Legion. His parents had been killed by Daxamite terrorists during an attack on Earth and with their life insurance money he was able to put himself through school to be an architect. He designed and helped rebuild the Legion Headquarters after it took damage from Chronos. Chuck helped repel Protean invaders at one point and was around the Legion full-time, always repairing Brainiac Five's laboratory and other structural damage. He became close friends with fellow Legion staffer Tenzil Kem, had a crush on Triad, and went on a friendly date with Shrinking Violet once. Chuck remained on the Legion staff, and eventually designed the Legion Outpost, an orbiting space station.

Retroboot / New Earth

Infinite Crisis restored a close analogue of the original Legion to continuity, shortly after the Magic Wars. Chuck is once more an instructor alongside his wife Luornu at the Legion Academy and a Legion reservist. After his wife's second body was killed this time, she developed the power to duplicate an unlimited amount of copies of herself. They discovered this ability while the Taines were on their third honeymoon and then quickly came running when the team sent out a distress call for help against Superboy-Prime and hisLegion of Super-Villains. Bouncing Boy is currently helping to train the next class of students at Legion Academy.

Major Story Arcs

Reboot / Earth-247

Chief Engineer Chuck of Legion World

When the Legion was disbanded following the Blight invasion of Earth, Chuck stayed with a small team of covert Legionnaires led by Cosmic Boy. With the Legion's benefactor, RJ Brande, Chuck helped with the construction of a new secret headquarters, known as Legion World. Chuck was given honorary membership, and built a ship called the Bouncing Boy that could ram other objects without taking structural damage. Chuck was given the job of Chief Engineer of Legion World, and worked frequently with the cyborg Legionnaire, Gear. He was originally seen as being sent into the time-stream with the rest of the Legion shortly before Earth-247 was destroyed, but didn't re-surface during the Legion of Three Worldsevent. Chuck may then have been wiped from continuity.

Powers & Abilities

Elasticity

Bouncing Boy has the unusual ability to make his body inflate into a solid spherical shape like a rubber ball. He can then bounce and deflect off of solid objects, using himself as a ballistic weapon. It can be assumed that he has a limited form of invulnerability while inflated to protect him from damage from bounding into objects.

Intellect

Chuck Taine of Earth-247 has no powers, but is a gifted engineer and architect. He built and pilots aspaceship known as the Bouncing Boy.

Equipment

As a member of the Legion of Super-Heroes, Bouncing Boy possesses a Legion Flight Ring. The ring gives its wearer the ability to fly, the speed and range of which is determined by the wearer's willpower. It also acts as a long-range communicator (enabling constant vocal contact with other Legionnaires, even across vast distances of space), a signal device, and a navigational compass, all powered by a micro-computer built inside the ring.

Other Media

Television

Superman: The Animated Series

Bouncing Boy made a cameo as a member of the Legion of Super-Heroes in an episode of Superman: The Animated Series called "New Kids in Town." He had no lines.

Justice League Unlimited

The previous Bouncing Boy would later appear in the Justice League Unlimited episode "Far From Home" in an expanded role. Bouncing Boy, in this episode, was one of two Legionnaires (the other being Brainiac 5) who had survived being possessed by theEmerald Eye. Failing on resources to save their comrades, they used a time bubble to bring three heroes from the past to assist them: John Stewart, Green Arrow, andSupergirl. Headquarters was shortly after invaded by the Fatal Five and Bouncing Boy joined the Legion as possessed. He and his teammates were freed after attacking Supergirl and Chuck was present for making the three past heroes honorary Legionnaires. In this episode, he was voiced by Googy Gress.

Superman & the Legion of Super-Heroes

Bouncing Boy was a main character in the two seasons of the Legion's own animated series, voiced by Michael Cornacchia. He had auditioned for the Legion four times before being accepted onto the team and despite that was still one of the group's earliest members. Throughout the series, he served as the team's pilot and engineer and adequate fighter. He was an avid fan of horror movies and helped motivate some discouraged applicants to the Legion to keep trying, who eventually went on to form the Legion of Substitute Heroes. When Cosmic Boy and Lightning Lad were at odds about leadership, a leader election was called and Bouncing Boy was surprisingly elected to leader. Chuck was horrified but the entire Legion supported him and he led the team to the defeat of the Sun-Eater in the two-part "Sundown." During this time, Triplicate Girl became a big fan of his.

In season two, two years had passed and Chuck's term as leader had ended. He was among the Legionnaires who were overwhelmed by the Legion of Super-Villains and the Fatal Five in "Man From the Edge of Tomorrow, Part 2" but was able to survive and assist his team in freeing rescued teammates from Takron-Galtos. He comforted Triplicate Girl after she lost her third body and was especially sensitive to her emotional state. He continued to serve with the team, helping them on missions against Lightning Lord ("Chain Lightning"), Terra-Man ("Unnatural Alliances"), Mordru ("Trials"), and Brainiac ("Dark Victory", parts 1 and 2)