Sun Boy

Sun Boy is a fictional superhero in the 30th and 31st centuries of the DC Comics universe. Sun Boy (real name Dirk Morgna of the planet Earth) is a Legion of Super-Heroes member with the ability to unleash internal solar energy to whatever degree he wishes, from enough to light a single candle to enough to melt nearly any obstacle.[1]

Sun Boy
Sun Boy powers up. Art by Kevin Sharpe
Publication information
PublisherDC Comics
First appearanceAction Comics # 276 (May 1961)
Created byJerry Siegel
Jim Mooney
In-story information
Alter egoDirk Morgna
SpeciesMetahuman
Place of originEarth (31st century)
Team affiliationsLegion of Super-Heroes
Elements of Disaster
Notable aliasesInferno, Ph'yr
AbilitiesHeat and light generation
Immunity to heat and radiation

Sun Boy first appeared in 1961 during the Silver Age of Comic Books.

Publication history

Sun Boy first appeared in Adventure Comics #276 and was created by Jerry Siegel and Jim Mooney.[2]

Fictional character biography

Silver Age
the original version of Sun Boy

Dirk Morgna's father owns a nuclear power plant, where Dirk works as a helper. While he is delivering supplies to one of the plant's scientists, Dr. Zaxton Regulus, the machine the scientist is working on explodes resulting in the death of fellow worker Zarl Hendricks. Dr. Regulus blames the accident, and his subsequent dismissal, on the interruption. He tries to gain revenge on Dirk by throwing him in an atomic reactor; however, due to Dirk's "one-in-a-million genetic structure" instead of killing him, the radiation gives him the power to generate heat and light.

Dirk applies for the Legion, as Sun Boy, but is rejected as he has only demonstrated his ability to generate light. He is later accepted when he shows his heat-generation ability.

"Five Years Later"

During the "Five Year Gap" following the Magic Wars, Sun Boy becomes leader of the Legion amidst a series of defections which results in his resignation. Soon afterwards, Sun Boy is hired by Earthgov as a public relations liaison, using his good looks and popularity to spin public opinion. Earthgov is revealed to be under Dominator control and Dirk complies with their demands despite personal misgivings. When the truth is revealed, he is branded a traitor to the Legion and Earth. Dirk is later exposed to a fatal dose of radiation when a powersphere explodes next to him during the destruction of the Moon. He is killed by his sometime lover Circe,[3] in an act of euthanasia. His corpse is later animated for a short time by former teammate Wildfire.

Shortly before Dirk's death, the members of the Dominators' highly classified "Batch SW6" escaped captivity. Originally, Batch SW6 appeared to be a group of teeange Legionnaire clones, created from samples apparently taken just prior to Ferro Lad's death at the hands of the Sun-Eater. Later, they were revealed to be time-paradox duplicates, every bit as legitimate as their older counterparts. After Earth was destroyed in a disaster reminiscent of the destruction of Krypton over a millennium earlier,[4] a few dozen surviving cities and their inhabitants reconstituted their world as New Earth. The SW6 Legionnaires remained, and their version of Sun Boy assumed the code name Inferno.

Inferno made an appearance in Final Crisis: Legion of 3 Worlds #5, among many Legionnaires from throughout the Multiverse.

Post Zero Hour

In post-Zero Hour continuity, Dirk Morgna is a supporting character, who occasionally gains "Sun Boy" powers, but is not a member of the Legion.

Again blaming Dirk for his dismissal, Dr. Regulus attempts to kill Morgna by injecting him with radioactive gold. This instead causes him to glow white hot, blinding Regulus. He is unable to control this power and has to wear a special suit to protect others from it. While helping the Legion battle Regulus, he uses up all the energy and returns to normal.

Dirk returns in Legionnaires #71 (May 1999), in which he is possessed by an elemental spirit called Ph'yr, one of the four Elements of Disaster, and turns into a living humanoid fireball. The elementals wish to gain Mordru's power. Dirk manages to regain control, and helps the Legion and the stone elemental Brika/Roxx defeat the two who had given themselves over to the elemental spirits.

Threeboot

In the 2004 revised Legion continuity, unlike the rest of his Legion comrades, Dirk Morgna's parents openly support the galactic movement the Legion represents. Joining the Legion as Sun Boy, Cosmic Boy names him the group's field leader. Confused as to whether or not his Legion membership is his desire or that of his parents, Dirk ultimately opts to resign from the group. He then decides to help the myriad of exiled descendants living in "otherspace" in the wake of the defeat of their leader, Praetor Lemnos. Ruefully, the Legion accedes to his request, but hope that Dirk will eventually return to their ranks.

Dirk and his associates are kidnapped by the Dominators, who wish to steal their powers, but they are rescued by the Legion and the Wanderers.

Sun Boy returns to the Legion and reveals that he has had all remaining members of Terra Firma arrested. His return is put to a vote per his request.[5]

This version of Sun Boy was killed by Superboy-Prime in Legion of Three Worlds #3. His body is later revived as part of the Black Lantern Corps in Adventure Comics (vol.2) #4.

Post-Infinite Crisis

The events of the Infinite Crisis miniseries have restored a close analogue of the Pre-Crisis on Infinite Earths Legion to continuity, as seen in "The Lightning Saga" story arc in Justice League of America and Justice Society of America, and in the "Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes" story arc in Action Comics. In the latter storyline, Sun Boy had been captured by Earth Man and plugged into a machine, which used his powers to turn many of the suns in the galaxy red. Sun Boy is later rescued by his teammates.

Legion of Three Worlds

In the Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds storyline, which follows on from Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes, Sun Boy is shown to have been deeply weakened and traumatised by his imprisonment, to the point where he cannot use his powers anymore. To this end, Dirk hands in his Flight Ring, effectively resigning from the Legion. In the course of the adventure, the other two Legions are pulled in to battle the Legion of Super-Villains. During the fight, the "Threeboot" Sun Boy is frozen solid and crushed to pieces by Superboy-Prime, causing the elder Dirk pain. Soon after, Dirk decides to don his flight ring again, and joins the fight, just in time to save Polar Boy from death at the hands of Superboy-Prime.

Aftermath

In the new Legion of Super-Heroes ongoing series, Sun Boy is one of many Legionnaires appalled by the Earth Government forcing the Legion to take on Earth-Man as a member. Still incensed over the way he was used, Sun Boy is steadfastly disgusted by Earth-Man's place on the team, even after the former criminal saves him from a Xenophobe attack.[6] However, during an attack from the xenophobe group "Earthforce", Sun Boy saves Earth-Man from certain death, declaring that "The Legion takes care of its own."[7] Sun Boy perishes in a starcruiser crash on a strange planet; his body is later cooked and eaten by the planet's sentient inhabitants.[8]

In the "Watchmen" sequel "Doomsday Clock," Sun Boy is among the Legion of Super-Heroes members that appear in the present after Doctor Manhattan undid the experiment that erased the Legion of Super-Heroes and the Justice Society of America.[9]

Powers and abilities

Sun Boy can internally generate a seemingly limitless amount of electromagnetic radiation, both heat and visible light. He is also immune to virtually all forms of heat and radiation (except when he was killed off during the "Five-Year-Gap" era).

Weaknesses

Sun Boy's power to radiate light and heat can be reflected back on him by mirrors, jewels and creatures that are reflective. If he increases his radiating power to full strength he can crack mirrors in these situations. One limit to his power is that he cannot risk melting metal in proximity to any persons, since the intense heat required would be lethal.[10]

Though it rarely came up given his ability, Dirk was revealed to suffer from nyctophobia.

Equipment

As a member of the Legion of Super-Heroes he is provided a Legion Flight Ring. It allows him to fly and protects him from the vacuum of space and other dangerous environments. It has been modified by Brainiac 5 to be heat resistant.

In other media

Sun Boy appears in the Legion of Super Heroes animated series, in the two part episode "Sundown" and "Cry Wolf" in Season Two as well as multiple other episodes in Season Two (in addition to the Season Two titles). His overall appearance somewhat differs from his comic book counterpart. His hair is longer, his forearms and the back of his hair light up on fire when he flies or uses his powers, leaving a fiery trail when he flies, and his eyes are black with gold pupils; similar to Superman X. His costume however is similar to his original costume. In "Cry Wolf", when Timber Wolf provokes the patrons in the bar he had fallen into, after Superman X used his heat vision to make a hole in the floor were Timberwolf was standing, to attack the Legion in retaliation to the impending attack, Sun Boy melted all of the attackers' weapons with a wave of his arm; before this he melted the door to the bar and entered followed by Colossal Boy. He also appears in the Season Two finale and plays a somewhat major role. He along with Cosmic Boy and Lightning Lad form a single file and use their powers to create a huge gash in Brainiac 5's giant robot form. Despite this he is defeated when Lightning Lad's arm cannon is taken over by Brainiac 5. He was defeated with a single lightning blast to the chest as was Cosmic Boy. He is digitized along with Cosmic Boy and Lightning Lad. At the end of the episode however he is returned to normal like all of the other Legionnaires. Despite his regular appearances in the program, he has yet to utter a single word onscreen; the most he has uttered are grunts and cries of pain. He has been called by name in one episode; this was during the two part Season One finale when Bouncing Boy yells out: "Sun Boy now!" telling him to use his heat generation power to draw the Sun-Eater to him. During the same episode Bouncing Boy again states his name saying that the Sun-Eater is falling for their trap by being drawn to Sun Boy's heat powers. He also appears in the episode "In the Beginning", where he appears at the end reciting the Legion oath.

gollark: Also, it doesn't strictly filter code on *startup*, it filters *any code executed after bootup*.
gollark: [REDACTED], and [LEVEL Δ-7 CLEARANCE REQUIRED].
gollark: Fewer than 3 known to me.
gollark: It has very robust (fewer than 3 known sandbox escape exploits!) sandboxing, a convenient "entirely wipe system" keyboard shortcut, and filters code on startup to detect known virii and also programs I don't like.
gollark: Then they'll stop working.

References
  1. Fleisher, Michael L. (2007). The Original Encyclopedia of Comic Book Heroes, Volume Three: Superman. DC Comics. p. 306. ISBN 1-4012-1389-8.
  2. Cowsill, Alan; Irvine, Alex; Korte, Steve; Manning, Matt; Wiacek, Win; Wilson, Sven (2016). The DC Comics Encyclopedia: The Definitive Guide to the Characters of the DC Universe. DK Publishing. p. 355. ISBN 978-1-4654-5357-0.
  3. Circe is not to be confused with the sorceress Circe, who was a major adversary of Wonder Woman in the 20th and 21st centuries.
  4. Legion of Super-Heroes (Vol. 4) #38, Late December 1992.
  5. Legion of Super-Heroes #48 (January 2009)
  6. Legion of Super-Heroes #2 (June 2010)
  7. Legion of Super-Heroes #5 (September 2010)
  8. "Legion of Super-Heroes" #17 (February 2013)
  9. Doomsday Clock #12 (December 2019). DC Comics.
  10. Sun Boy of the Legion of Super-Heroes
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