After all, he is/was even more dependent on his suit than, say, KQ1 was on his belt.

The rules go:

Preboot: §3.1 To qualify for active membership, a candidate must: ... (ii) have at least one genuine super-power not activated, assisted, or powered by extrinsic means

Postboot: §3.1 To qualify for active membership, a candidate must: (i) have at least one genuine super-power not activated, assisted, or powered by extrinsic means; [and] (ii) be able to fully control such power

He was certainly "assisted" by extrinsic means, and unable to fully control said power without it.

My feeeling is that the team either bent the rules or admitted him on the basis of powers/abilities that Wildfire possesses independent of the suit, not just those he gained from the suit. After all, in his early appearances, his exact powers varied depending on which suit he was wearing.

As a being of sentient energy, he had the ability to maintain or alter the cohesiveness of his energy form (especially after being coached by Quislet), propel himself and, I believe, detect energy concentrations -- all outside the suit. Sure, his more offensive powers --notably the energy bursts -- depended heavily on the suit, but he had powers of his own, too.


Mind you, the Legion didn't always strictly enfore these membership provisions. Witness the decision to allow Ayla to stay on the team alonside Garth after regaining her lightning powers, despite the rule that said that at least one of a members powers had to be unique:

"3.1 (ii) have at least one genuine super-power not activated, assisted, or powered by extrinsic means and not possessed by the contemporary Terran population; and further, such super-power must be distinct from the super-power(s) possessed by any active member other than Superboy"

For that matter, as much as I love Blok, I always wonder what unique ability he possessed that no other Legionnaire had. Sure, he was super-strong and virtually invulnerable to harm (ignoring the whole Roxxas incident), but then, Mon-El and Ultra Boy showed these same powers.

Blok was likely admitted on the strength of his stone body (pun intended) -- deriving his abilities from a different origin/source than any other Legionnaire.

That same interpretation also works for Wildfire. His powers come from his energy body -- and while the suit helps him focus them in certain offensive ways, he still possessed powers the suit didn't modify or enhance.

Just my view...

Blok had the rarely used and pretty lame ability to detect the presence of other silicon life forms, not that he ever found any. I guess we have to take his word for it that it was even really a power, since no other silicon life form ever spoke up to vouch for it.

Wildfire (preboot) had the ability to absorb energy, as demonstrated in his 2nd appearance when he used that ability to defeat Molecule Master. I don't think that the power was dependent on the suit, it was inherent in his energy form.

Yes, these may have been independent of the suit, but he could not function without the suit (or Quislet's help, which is still extrinsic).

We did see him meet Strata in a flashback. Admittedly, this was years after he was admitted to the team, but his power could have possibly been verified at that point.

Well, he was able to move around outside the suit (self-propulsion??), and perceive the world as patterns of energy, even when in "floating energy blob" mode. That last could be seen as somewhat useful in the right situation -- for example, he might have detected invisible things the others couldn't see.

And it was my understanding that Drake himself was shaping his energy into the more human-looking form; it wasn't Quislet doing the shaping, was it? If so, then how was he able to stay in that form when Quislet wan't around? That's not an extrinsic influence -- it's training. To me, Quislet's role here was simply to teach Drake a new way of using his own innate powers outside of the suit (in much the same way that Karate Kid helped train other Legionnaires in combat techniques, or Bouncing Boy and Duo Damsel helped the Legion Academy kids master their own powers)

Quislet was helping him out - his solid energy body actually did lose cohesion after Quislet left. It just didn't happen immediately.

And as for the original question of whether or not Wildfire was qualified, probably not but he was just so damned cool, they let him in anyway - Drake's just a rulebreaker that way!

Yes, and he was to inform the team of these things' existance how?

Quibble, quibble...

I like DrakeB3004's reasoning: the Legion admitted wildfire because of his innate ability to increase the "cool factor" of the team by a factor of six...

Anyone else got any bright ideas?

Wildfire's unique powers are mind control & analysing computer minds.

In SBoy 201 he feels he can control the minds of others by interfacing his energy with theirs. It doesn't work on the Legion due to the energy they use to power their rings. But it does work on non legionnaires - or at least it would if they weren't android infiltrators.

Wildfire then uses his powers to analyse the mind of the Android to determine it's goals. Perhaps this would also be telepathy if it works on other non legionnaires.

Shooting anti energy from your "face" is a unique ability that none of the other Legionnaires have.

Wildfire can also interface with machines - although it was the Miracle Machine, that may operate slightly differently.

Seemingly a minor difference, but just try telling that to Blok or Timberwolf.

Also very handy in SBoy 201 were Wildfire's immunity to gas(Molecule Master was poisoning everyone else) and energy absorption (although Sun Boy could probably do that).

Drake didn't have to wait too long before Lyle Norg died. Drake says that he's invisible in his energy form in 201. Condo Arlik died next, and Drake could have control over any element, assuming he could find the right containment suit.

Drake's final unique power is being a super-clod. Given the opportunity , he doesn't get the Miracle Machine to restore his body, despite getting it to do several other tricks.

Re Wildfire, probably they decided to admit him a) because he saved the lives of Legionnaires twice, and b) the main reason for the "intrinsic powers" rule was to keep Legionnaires from dying in the line of duty due to equipment malfunctions - because Wildfire was an energy being, he didn't risk dying from having his suit destroyed.

also c) he was so powerful with the suit that it was worth bending the rules a bit for him.