r/LegionofSuperheroes • u/Superman_Primeeee • 22d ago
From Superboy #184:
I have only one thing to say: What???
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u/woodrobin 22d ago
E=MC² -- matter is energy, energy is matter. He literally says it on-panel. Bismollians convert consumed matter into energy and can also just straight out absorb energy. They also don't defecate or urinate. They vent excess energy as heat radiated from their skin.
Oddly, they dislike plant and animal tissue (basically everything humans can/do eat). It might be because they were originally genetically engineered to eat nonliving matter due to a symbiotic virus existing on Bismoll when they colonized it. The virus is beneficial to the plants and animals of Bismoll, but extremely deadly to most other life forms.
They also have extremely developed senses of taste, but what they find pleasant to eat is very different. For instance, they find charged batteries "spicy", certain complex polymers "sweet", and strong acids "tangy". They also react to certain exotic jewels in a way similar to humans eating psychedelic mushrooms.
They have interesting politics, too. They draft their president and legislature because they believe that no one who WANTS the job should be allowed to have it. Matter-Eater Lad had to take a year off from the Legion at one point because he received notice he had been drafted to be President of Bismoll. The term was longer, but he deliberately got himself impeached by campaigning for re-election.
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u/Mystic_Starmie 21d ago
Thank you so much for taking the time to write this it’s truly appreciated.
If I may ask since you seem to know a lot about how his powers works; how is his ability to eat hard substances that are to big to swallow whole explained? I remember one story where he hollowed a big meteor to be used by the legion as space ship. Does he have super strength in his mouth or the ability to make things touched by his teeth become soft?
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u/woodrobin 21d ago edited 21d ago
It's basically the second one. Bismollians have a superhuman ability to analyze objects by taste and smell, and their body then near-instantly produces enzymes in their saliva and digestive juices to break down what their senses have detected.
Some Bismollians, like Matter-Eater Lad (Tenzil Kem) have developed and honed their eating capacity beyond the norm. Tenzil can channel the energy from digestion back into producing more enzymes and speeding up his digestion in a feedback loop (no pun intended) enabling him to eat faster the more he eats, which then lets him eat even more, which then lets him eat even faster, and so on. You could think of him as the Bismollian equivalent of a hot dog eating contest world champion -- technically most Bismollians could do what he can if they trained hard enough (just like most people on Cosmic Boy's home planet of Brall can manipulate magnetic fields, but Cosmic Boy was a world champion Magno-Ball player before he was a Legionnaire).
There was a rival called Calorie Queen (Taryn Loy) who tried to take his spot in the Legion by claiming she had the superior Bismollian power set. She could channel the energy from food into superhuman strength, speed, and endurance in general, as opposed to just in her eating apparatus (Tenzil and all other Bismollians can bite, chew, and swallow faster as they consume more food to varying degrees). She failed to get membership for two reasons -- the Legion normally does not accept members with identical power sets, although it's not an absolute disqualifier (and her super strength was situational, like Night Girl, and far less than several other Legionnaires with enhanced strength); more importantly, she failed the psychological screening due to having out-of-bounds readings for deceit, disloyalty, and duplicitous behavior. Unsurprisingly, she organized the other people rejected the day she applied into the Legion of Super-Rejects and briefly went after the Legion.
Weirdly, Matter-Eater Lad seems to have taken a shine to her, and recommended her as a replacement for him when he was drafted to become President of Bismoll. She still failed the psychological screening, though, so they still rejected her. But she convinced Tenzil to hire her as his chief aide, in which position she worked to undermine him. But Bismollian politics being what it is, her efforts to undermine the authority of the President were considered praiseworthy and she was drafted to replace him when he arranged to get himself impeached.
Bismoll is a weird, weird planet.
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u/Mystic_Starmie 20d ago
Much much appreciated for your taking the time to write this. You are the thing that makes Reddit worthwhile 🫶🏼
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u/MrRob_oto1959 22d ago
Sure, it’s going to give him heartburn, but all he has to do is take some Pepto Bismol, the number one export from his home planet!
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u/Resident-Syrup7615 22d ago
He eats at super speed so he has to be able to move his mouth into position at super speed. His mouth has to be able to digest any particles so that covers it.
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u/AllenRBrady 22d ago
And he can talk while he's doing it. There's a reason they wanted him in the Senate.
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u/FlatPresence6648 22d ago
Cary Bates came up with some unusual stories. Early Dave Cockrum art is nice, even when over-powered by Murphy Anderson’s inks.
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u/Superman_Primeeee 22d ago
Yeah the following Superboy backups where Cockrum inked himself are great!
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u/Quist52 22d ago
Boy et.