Fictional character biography

Bouncing Boy is a fictional character in the DC Comics Universe, a member of the Legion of Super-Heroes

Legion of Super-Heroes

The Legion of Super-Heroes is a fictional superhero team in the 30th and 31st centuries of the . The team first appears in Adventure Comics #247 , and was created by Otto Binder and Al Plastino....

 in the 30th century. He is Chuck Taine of Earth

Earth

Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...

, and he has the power to inflate like a ball and bounce. He received his powers when he accidentally drank a super plastic formula which he thought was soda pop. He first appeared in Action Comics

Action Comics

Action Comics is an American comic book series that introduced Superman, the first major superhero character as the term is popularly defined...

#276 (May 1961).

He married fellow Legionnaire Duo Damsel in Superboy

Superboy

Superboy is the name of several fictional characters that have been published by DC Comics, most of them youthful incarnations of Superman. These characters have also been the main characters of four ongoing Superboy comic book series published by DC....

#200 and then left active service as a Legionnaire to become a Legion reservist, appearing only sporadically thereafter until Zero Hour

Zero Hour (comics)

Zero Hour: Crisis in Time is a five-issue comic book limited series and crossover storyline published by DC Comics in 1994. In it, the former hero Hal Jordan, who had until then been a member of the intergalactic police force known as the Green Lantern Corps, mad with grief after the destruction of...

. During his period as reservist, he and Duo Damsel were also in charge of training recruits to the Legion's Academy.

In the post Zero Hour reboot continuity, he was Charles Foster Taine (Chuck for short) who was the Legion's resident architect

Architect

An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...

 and engineer

Engineering

Engineering is the discipline, art, skill and profession of acquiring and applying scientific, mathematical, economic, social, and practical knowledge, in order to design and build structures, machines, devices, systems, materials and processes that safely realize improvements to the lives of...

. He has not received bouncing powers in this continuity and was only an honorary member of the Legion. As a maintenance man, he once built a specialty vehicle called the "Bouncing Boy" which acted as a bouncing juggernaut

Juggernaut

A juggernaut in colloquial English usage is a literal or metaphorical force regarded as mercilessly destructive and unstoppable.Originating in ca...

, smashing anything in its way.

The name "Charles Foster Taine" is a reference to the classic 1941 feature film

Feature film

In the film industry, a feature film is a film production made for initial distribution in theaters and being the main attraction of the screening, rather than a short film screened before it; a full length movie...

, Citizen Kane

Citizen Kane

Citizen Kane is a 1941 American drama film, directed by and starring Orson Welles. Many critics consider it the greatest American film of all time, especially for its innovative cinematography, music and narrative structure. Citizen Kane was Welles' first feature film...

and its title character, Charles Foster Kane

Charles Foster Kane

Charles Foster Kane is a fictional character and the subject of Orson Welles' 1941 film Citizen Kane. Welles played Kane , with Buddy Swan playing Kane as a child...

, though in his initial appearance he is simply named "Chuck Taine".

He has yet to appear in the "Threeboot" version of the Legion, which began in 2004.

The Post-Infinite Crisis version of Bouncing Boy appeared in Final Crisis: Legion of 3 Worlds. Missing in action during most of the miniseries, he and his wife, now known as Duplicate Damsel, finally show up in the final issue to help end the battle against the antagonists and then rejoin the Legion.

In other media

Bouncing Boy appeared in the 2006 episode of Justice League Unlimited

Justice League Unlimited

Justice League Unlimited is an American animated television series that was produced by Warner Bros. Animation and aired on Cartoon Network. Featuring a wide array of superheroes from the DC Comics universe, and specifically based on the Justice League superhero team, it is a direct sequel to the...

"Far From Home," featuring the Legion of Super-Heroes. He was voiced by Googy Gress.

Bouncing Boy is part of the core team in the Legion of Super-Heroes animated series, appearing Saturday mornings on The CW; he is voiced by Michael Cornacchia

Michael Cornacchia

Michael Cornacchia is an American actor.-Education:Michael graduated from Conestoga High School in Berwyn, Pennsylvania, and the University of Southern California with a degree in theatre.-Career:...

. In the series, Bouncing Boy is presented as an accepted member of the team, and the main pilot of the Legion Cruiser. In the episode "Timber Wolf," he and Brainiac Five quarrel over Bouncing Boy's piloting and engineering, but in the end, Bouncing Boy proves his abilities to his teammate.

In the episode "Lightning Storm", Bouncing Boy is seen working with potential Legion applicants, helping them prepare for the upcoming Legion auditions. In the same episode, his quick thinking helps him in the battle against the Lightspeed Vanguard

Legion of Super-Villains

The Legion of Super-Villains is a team of fictional supervillains that appear in comic books published by DC Comics. They are adversaries of the Legion of Super-Heroes in the future...

. This led into the following episode, "Substitutes", in which Bouncing Boy gave encouragement to the future Legion of Substitute Heroes

Legion of Substitute Heroes

The Legion of Substitute Heroes is a group of fictional characters in the future of the DC Comics universe. The "Subs", as they are often called, are a group of rejected applicants to the Legion of Super-Heroes who banded together, hoping to prove to the Legion that their powers were not as useless...

, where it was revealed that he himself tried out for the Legion four times before being accepted. In the end, he ends up coining the fledgeling group's name.

Ultimately, in the episode "Chain of Command", Bouncing Boy's quick thinking and observation allows him to form a plan that is crucial to the Legion's trying to save the inhabitants of the planet Winath. At the end of the episode, after Lightning Lad challenged Cosmic Boy

Cosmic Boy

Cosmic Boy is a fictional character, a comic book superhero in the 30th and 31st centuries of the DC Comics universe. He first appeared in Adventure Comics #247 . He is a founding member of the Legion of Super-Heroes, and was the original leader in all incarnations of the Legion...

 for leadership of the Legion and prompted an election, an upset occurred - with the Legion instead electing Bouncing Boy to the position. After being elected Bouncing Boy receives a kiss from Triplicate Girl

Triplicate Girl

Triplicate Girl is a fictional character, a superhero in the 30th and 31st centuries of the and a member of the Legion of Super-Heroes. She has also used the aliases Duo Damsel, Triad, Una and Duplicate Damsel....

, in the end they are seen holding hands. He is seen taking an active leadership role in the 2-part episode "Sundown".

In the second season, his new position as leader is for the most part ignored, as Lightning Lad and Cosmic Boy are still arguing about it. No canon explanation is given.

Parody

An episode of The Fairly OddParents

The Fairly OddParents

The Fairly OddParents is an American-Canadian animated television series created by Butch Hartman about the adventures of Timmy Turner, who is granted fairy godparents named Cosmo and Wanda. The series started out as cartoon segments that ran from September 4, 1998 to March 23, 2001 on Oh Yeah!...

in which kids were turned into superheroes featured "The Bouncing Boil", obviously derived from Bouncing Boy. His many failed attempts at stopping a Wolverine based supervillain (since she would just hold out her claws and deflate him) would commonly cause his team mates to state "Man, that's a dumb power."

Powers

Bouncing boy has the ability to expand his body to form that of a spherical ball of sorts. In his normal form, he is overweight to a medium degree, but when he "inflates", while his mass and height remain the same, his overall dimensions increase to resemble that of a human sized ball. Whether his body actually inflates, as in takes in air, or his individual cells expand, decreasing his overall density while increasing his overall dimensions is not known. Also, when he utilizes his power, his body's elasticity and resiliency becomes extremely rubbery allowing him to bounce with great force. Originally thought of as a useless power by his Legionnaire peers, he has adeptly demonstrated many times how he can use his body's shape and rubber-like consistency as an effective ballistic weapon. His "go-to" move is to use surrounding walls to ricochet back and forth and bowling over his opponents as he does. Normally, an inanimate rubber ball will slowly lose its kinetic force due to friction, gravity and bouncing off surrounding objects or walls, but Bouncing Boy can use his own muscles to his maintain velocity and power as he bounces about. His power also allows his a limited degree of invulnerability since bouncing off walls and nearby objects have yet to injure him as they would a normal human.