MATTER-EATER LAD (Tenzil Kem)

Matter-Eater Lad- Most Problematic of Legionnaires:
-One of my online friends mighta said it best, last time we talked about the Legion:

Matter-Eater Lad…sigh. Together with some of the powers trotted out during “Legion try-outs”, he exemplifies the reasons most readers who might’ve started picking up the Legion titles…didn’t.

Not that I’m against silly characters…but even I have limits.

-Poor ol’ Matter-Eater Lad pretty much slam-dunks the title of Worst Superhero Name in History without even really trying, and as such, the fifteenth member to join the Legion has had a love/hate relationship with the team and DC comics for decades now. His name is basically the living embodiment of Silver Age goofy-ass storytelling and asspulls, which is either great or awful depending on which side of the fence you sit. I mean, I can understand the glee and joy of those bizarre stories, but as an adult, you cannot read comics with a guy featuring this name and power set and enjoy it on a natural level, especially when parts of the story are supposed to be taken seriously. I mean, he comes from a world where the people evolved the ability to eat stuff because all their food became poisonous somehow. IT’S SILLY. Sometimes that’s a glorious thing, and can make for some fun stories when they embrace it, but like my friend said… it’s hard to convince people to pick up Legion of Super-Heroes comics, when you have to drop names like “Matter-Eater Lad”. Another guy I know, a longtime comics fan, also refuses to even check out the book because of all the stupid names.

Silver Age Matter-Eater Lad:
-Matter-Eater Lad joined the Legion shortly after Bouncing Boy did, and has an unrequited crush on Shrinking Violet for the duration of his time on the book. He appears only rarely, as the writers clearly struggled with using his idiotic powers in regular situations. One method of writing him out was that his native Bismollians would constantly draft him into political office thanks to the fame being a Legionnaire brought him. Eventually, one of the writers just got sick of him entirely (He was TOO STUPID… For SILVER AGE COMICS), and he went insane after eating the supposedly-indestructible Miracle Machine. For years, he was considered one of Brainiac-5’s “White Whales”, as he just could not be cured of the insanity, no matter what.

-Eventually, Brainy managed to cure Tenzil, and he saved Bismoll from a hostile takeover, alongside the Legion of Substitute Heroes. Keith Giffen, no stranger to goofy comic books, decided to have fun with the character once he got sole running of the series, turning Tenzil into a rebellious multi-media celebrity, who is constantly re-elected despite wasting taxpayer money on extravagant vacations. “Trust me, I’m a senator” is a constant refrain. I dunno… whatever sense of humor Giffen has, it’s the opposite of what I got.

-Tenzil eventually rejoins the Legion in the “Five Years Later” era, helping free the team from the Dominators and their control of Earth. He even seduces and later marries the villainess Saturn Queen (!!). This continuity eventually dies, after Tenzil meets the Matter-Eater Lad of the “SW6” Clones.

Later Matter-Eater Lads:
-Tenzil reappears in the “Reboot” era, but only as “Support Staff”, generally under-powered and never on missions. Here, he is the team’s personal chef. Probably an ideal role for someone with such silly powers. Here, he could spit acid. In “Threeboot”, he appears as a minor Legionnaire, but does manage to bite the pointer finger off of Lightning Lord out of spite. In the Post-Infinite Crisis rendition, he appears a couple of times, acting undercover on Earth to help out Mon-El in Metropolis, as well as being part of R.J. Brande’s team sent to the 21st Century to save the future.

Jim Shooter, who had been prevented from introducing black characters into the Legion in the 1960s, objected to the characterization of Tyroc: “…I always wanted to have a character who was African-American, and years later, when they did that, they did it in the worst way possible….instead of just incidentally having a character who happens to be black…they made a big fuss about it. He’s a racial separatist….I just found it pathetic and appalling.”

According to Mike Grell, who co-created Tyroc with Cary Bates, the character of Tyroc was “sort of a sore spot with me.” He had previously tried to introduce black characters into the series, but had been prevented by then-editor Murray Boltinoff. “I kept getting stalled off…and finally comes Tyroc. They might as well have named him Tyrone. Their explanation for why there were no black people [in the Legion] was that all the black people had gone to live on an island. It’s possibly the most racist concept I’ve ever heard in my life…I mean, it’s a segregationist’s dream, right? So they named him Tyroc, and gave him the world’s stupidest super-power.”

Grell’s dislike of Tyroc was strong enough that he deliberately made him look ridiculous, saying, “I gave him a silly costume. It was somewhere between Elvis’ Las Vegas costume and something you would imagine a pimp on the street corner wearing.”

Grell notes that physically, Tyroc is based on the football player Fred Williamson. “I modeled him somewhat on Fred “The Hammer” Williamson, who was a movie star at the time…and gave him this “Elvis Presley goes to Las Vegas” kind of a costume, and that’s pretty much it. That was the extent of my contribution to Tyroc.”
-From Tyroc’s Wikipedia page

TYROC (Troy Stewart)

Tyrone’s- I mean, Tyroc’s- Origin:
-Tyroc is one of the biggest forgotten Legionnaires in history. That’ll happen when you’re created as a Token Black Guy in the START of that era (also where the black Peanuts kid & Chuck Clayton came from), and the next one DC made, Black Lightning, was so much better. Plus the character has a HORRIFYINGLY racist origin story- fans used to ask “Where are all the black people?” in DC’s all-white futuristic Earth. Writers had tried to create black characters, but then-editor Murray Boltinoff refused. Finally, he came up with an explanation: all the black people moved to an island, one that teleports out of our system every 200 years! Boltinoff apparently hated blacks SO MUCH that in his IDEAL FUTURE, they were all segregated from white people by a magic island! As Mike Grell states: “it’s about the most racist concept I’ve ever heard (…) so they named him Tyroc and gave him the world’s stupidest super-power.”

-Grell was upset that he DELIBERATELY gave Tyroc a stupid costume (a mix of pimp & Elvis, with little elf shoes, a ‘fro and a bare chest), and most of the writers basically disavowed the character. Criminy, PAUL LEVITZ, who wrote the Legion for FIFTEEN STRAIGHT YEARS, NEVER USED TYROC ONCE! It wasn’t until Threeboot came along that they stuck him back into the books, but mostly as a background gag. I think Keith Giffen is the only one to use him a lot, featuring him as the VP and then President of Earth in his “Five Years Later” run.

Here’s a list of his Sonic Scream Powers:

“ARRRHHHHH!” Blast
“EEYYAAAGH!” Pyrokinesis
“AHHRRRRRR!” Force Field
“OYYUUUUUU!” Teleport
“ZZZRRRUUGGH!” Telekinesis
“UIUUIEEEEE!” Transform Anything to Anything
“ARRREEEEG!” Weather
“RRRYYYY!” Air Control
“IRWWWWW!” Plant Control
“CCCIIIIRRRR!” Vertigo
“Generic Scream” Sonic Yell

Bronze Age Tyroc:
-Tyroc was very, very short-lived. He hails from the island of Marzal, which is where all of Earth’s black people hid in the future, because segregation is AWESOME, yo. He and his peopel were descended from African slaves who revolted during a ship’s “middle passage” in the 18th century. The people of Marzal did not realize that their island went out of phase with reality, Brigadoon-like, every few years, and so assumed that they’d been abandoned by the world. They developed a highly-advanced, isolationist society as a result. 

-Tyroc was your typical “1970s Black Superhero”- a pronounced chip in his shoulder, and an attitude towards the white heroes- he refused Legion help on Marzal, but soon came to respect them. He turned down membership at first, but later joined the team. He would quickly leave the team, however, going back to Marzal as it left Earth’s dimension once more. As mentioned, Paul Levitz’s 15-year run ignored him COMPLETELY, as Levitz felt that his sonic powers didn’t work in a silent medium like comics, and he because he was “just such a stupid character”, and that he did his best to dodge him.

Modern Tyroc:
-Levitz eventually left the Legion book, and Keith Giffen took over- he had the Dominion wipe out Marzal, but Tyroc returned as the President of Earth, taking over for Invisible Kid II. However, this continuity was soon erased, and Tyroc did not appear in the Reboot (1994-2004). “Threeboot” featured him only briefly, in a “campfire story” about the urban legends springing up around the Legion. He popped up only briefly post-Infinite Crisis. He actually appeared in the Legion Lost book by Levitz (the first time he wrote the character, in fact), but that book was short-lived.