Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes Visionaries of Tomorrow Wildfire sans containment suit

Dave,
I was just wondering how you felt about the Baxter series turning Wildfire into a man of energy as opposed to energy in a containment suit? Granted it was reversed before that series ended, but it was a hell of a change for Wildfire.

Sorry, I didn't see that. But as far as I'm concerned, without his containment suit he's a being of formless energy.

Dave

Hi Dave,

Here's the clearest example I could find. Drake was taught to shape his energy form by the Legionnaire Quislet, featured here with him on this cover to LSH v3#44:

Hmm... it was kind of neat at the time having Drake learn to mold his energy into solid form, but, in retrospect, I much prefer the suit motiff.

Plus, I increasingly like Quislet the way Lightle intended him, not as an energy being.

Frankly, I've never been clear on who or what Quislet is...he/she/it just looks like a DC version of Herbie the Robot, to me...

Dave

Quislet was a being of sentient energy who came from another dimension and lived inside his ship. A lot of people confuse the ship with the character, but he looked like all those other beams of light on the cover. He couldn't exist in our dimension without his ship, and when it was destroyed, he had to go back home. So he and Wildfire had a lot in common, when you think about it.

His power was the ability to possess inanimate objects, which would then fall apart after he left them. He was the most light-hearted Legionnaire, and used to say things like "What fun!" a lot. Life was a merry-go-round for Quislet.

Quislet had TOO MUCH in common with Wildfire, in my opinion. I argued that making Quislet an energy life form made him redundant. Unfortunately, I was only doing covers for the Legion by that time, and had no real input in his official "origin" story.

My original concept for Quislet (and the one we went with while I was drawing the interiors) was that he was a tiny non-humanoid life form, unable to survive in our universe without life support. The life support came in the form of the "ship." When Quislet's spirit form inhabited and animated material objects, his inert physical form was sustained by the life support of his ship. When I originally designed the character of Quislet, he was so inhuman and grotesque that I decided that I'd best conceal him from the readers, who might not be able to relate to the little beastie. The design of the life support/ship was intended to be consistent with the technology that was in the book at that time.

I never intended for Quislet to encroach on Wildfore's territory. I liked Wildfire's uniqueness and intended Quislet to be equally singular. Oh well, what can you do ...

Steve Lightle

Steve, have you ever thought about using a Quislet knock-off character in Justin Zane? That way you could get to do Quislet the way that you always wanted to see him portrayed, and you'd own him!

Firstly, I didn't like either of Wildfire's energy forms -- I thought that his containment suit not only looked cool, but that the tragic element of his story was key to his character (the fact that he still couldn't touch Dawnstar just seemed a tacked on way to preserve some of that).

Secondly, regarding Quislet I didn't think he and Wildfire were *at all* similar. The fact that they were both energy beings meant as much to me as the fact that Cosmic Boy and Lightning Lad were white. They were totally different in terms of personality (I'm sure I don't need to point out how). Quislet was an energy being by nature, Wildfire was one by accident. Quislet may have needed the ship to survive in this environment, but it was never a source of angst for him unlike Drake and of course Quislet only lost the ship once while Wildfire kept losing containment suits -- it made his disability more apparent since it was a recurring theme in his chracter. Their powers were also totally different though they were both energy beings, so I never felt he was encrouching on Wildfire's space (postboot Lyle usurping preboot Cham's role of master of subterfuge and investigation is another matter).

FYI, there's an edit function in case you didn't know -- it's the little icon second to the right that looks like a little computer.